Howard Hawks: A Baker's Dozen

British film historian David Thomson once opined that if he could only save ten movies from a sinking ship, he'd take ten by Howard Hawks and leave the rest to the ocean deep.

Me, I'd reserve room for a DVD on boat building and another on edible plants, but I understand the sentiment. Hawks, more than any other director, covered the waterfront — Westerns, comedies, crime, war, action, sci-fi, musicals, straight-up drama, and even silent movies. And he didn't just make entertaining movies, he made genre-defining classics.

Hawks gave John Wayne his first great acting showcase, taught Katharine Hepburn how to play comedy and Lauren Bacall how to whistle, helped define 1930s gangster movies, 1940s film noir, and 1950s sci-fi spectacles, and put Marilyn Monroe in a slinky pink dress as she sang her signature song, "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend."

That he also directed two of the greatest Westerns in history, well, that's just showing off.

So what are my favorite Howard Hawks movies? Glad you asked.

In chronological order:

Scarface (1932) — Although Hawks had been directing since 1926 (including 1928's A Girl in Every Port, which put Louise Brooks on the map, and the first, best version of The Dawn Patrol in 1930), Scarface was the first indispensable movie of his career. I've written about Scarface at length (here, here and here) and I won't rehash any of that except to note that along with Little Caesar and The Public Enemy, this is one of the three great gangster pictures of its era. Brian De Palma remade it in 1983 with Al Pacino.

Bringing Up Baby (1938) — Some people, such as the aforementioned David Thomson, would include Hawks's 1934 comedy Twentieth Century here but although it made a star of Carole Lombard, to me it's more shrill than funny. Instead, I'll list Hawks's other screwball classic, Bringing Up Baby, in which a batty Katharine Hepburn and her pet leopard fall in love with a very goofy college professor played by Cary Grant. "Now it isn't that I don't like you, Susan, because, after all, in moments of quiet, I'm strangely drawn toward you, but, well, there haven't been any quiet moments." This was Hepburn's first comedy; it wouldn't be her last.

Only Angels Have Wings (1939) — Starring Cary Grant, Jean Arthur and a young Rita Hayworth, this one explores one of Hawks's favorite themes: men of action behaving according to a professional code, and the women who learn to love them. Grant plays a pilot trying to get a fledgling air mail service off the ground; Arthur is a showgirl stranded at his hotel. For fun, take a drink every time somebody says "Calling Barranca" — you'll be in the hospital by the end of the first act! A personal favorite.

His Girl Friday (1940) — A (superior) remake of the comedy The Front Page, this one stars Cary Grant as a hilariously ruthless newspaper editor, Rosalind Russell as his star reporter — and ex-wife — and Ralph Bellamy as the man she intends to marry. One look at Grant and Bellamy, and you know how this one's going to turn out but what a wild ride getting there with a very modern moral to boot: a woman's place is in the office, not the kitchen. Career best performances by all three leads. Holds the record for the fastest dialogue in movie history. Must see.

Ball of Fire (1941) — Another comedy. Typically, in Hawks's dramas, women must prove worthy of the men they love. In his comedies, the formula is reversed. Here, Barbara Stanwyck is a showgirl on the run from her gangster boyfriend. Gary Cooper is the virginal professor who gives her shelter. When the film's writer Billy Wilder (who would later win Oscars directing The Lost Weekend and The Apartment) confessed he didn't understand the plot, Hawks told him "It's a remake of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." Bingo!

To Have and Have Not (1944) — Set in French Martinique during World War II, Harry Morgan (Humphrey Bogart) has retreated from the messy political world into a cocoon of isolationism so complete he's willing to ignore the fascists in charge even as they are shooting his clients and pushing his friends around. Marie "Slim" Browning (Lauren Bacall in her first film role) teaches him how to whistle and forces him to realize that no matter how much he thinks he's successfully avoided sticking his neck out, his neck is out there. A loose adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's novel, the screenplay is by William Faulkner, to date the only time a Nobel Prize winner has written a screenplay based on the work of another Nobel Prize winner.

The Big Sleep (1946) — Bogart and Bacall again. This time, Bogart is Raymond Chandler's famous private detective, Philip Marlowe, while Bacall draws his eye as the beautiful, spoiled daughter of a rich client. The plot is incomprehensible (even Chandler didn't know whodunit) but the sparks fly and the dialogue sets some sort of record for sexual innuendo. Loads of fun.

Red River (1948) — One of the greatest Westerns ever made, John Wayne and his adopted son Montgomery Clift lead a cattle drive along the Chisholm Trail. Basically a retelling of Mutiny on the Bounty with Wayne as Captain Bligh. After seeing the movie, director John Ford (who had cast Wayne in the classic Stagecoach way back in 1939) exclaimed, "I didn't know the big son of a bitch could act!" Boy, could he.

The Thing from Another World (1951) — Based on John Campbell's classic novella "Who Goes There?" this is the story of soldiers and scientists in the Arctic Circle fighting an invader from outer space (and sometimes each other). Hawks is credited only as the film's producer but those who were there insisted he directed as well. Sure seems like it. Remade in 1982 by John Carpenter, this science fiction classic is full of danger and paranoia but also humor, camaraderie and a good-looking, no-nonsense Hawksian woman (Margaret Sheridan).

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) — Based on the novel by the immortal Anita Loos, gold digger Lorelei Lee (Marilyn Monroe) and her no nonsense pal Dorothy Shaw (Jane Russell in her best role) set sail for France with a boatload of handsome Olympians, a rich, eligible bachelor (aged seven) and a private eye determined to catch Lorelei in flagrante delicto. Features Marilyn Monroe's signature song "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend." One of the best musicals of the 1950s, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, as much as anything, proves Howard Hawks was the master of any genre.

Rio Bravo (1959) — Ostensibly the story of a border town sheriff (John Wayne) who squares off against a rich rancher and his army of hired goons, Rio Bravo is really a study of a professional doing his job and doing it well despite the imminent threat of death, an idealized code of conduct Hemingway called "grace under pressure." This is Hawks at his most compassionate, not an attribute I would always associate with his brusque heroes and no-nonsense women. But John Wayne watches over his ragged crew — a drunk, a cripple, and later a girl, a young gunslinger and even the manager of the local hotel — like a mother hen, with a love that is sometimes tough and sometimes tender, but always genuine. With Dean Martin, Walter Brennan and Angie Dickinson. The best Howard Hawks movie and my all-time favorite Western — and you know how much I love a good Western!

Man's Favorite Sport? (1964) — The least well-known of all the movies on this list, but a personal fave, this is a comedy about an expert fisherman (Rock Hudson) who confesses to the woman who's organized a tournament in his honor that he's never fished in his life — never even touched a fish! Paula Prentiss, in the best performance of her career, takes him in hand and teaches him everything he needs to know, some of it having to do with a rod and reel.

El Dorado (1966) — A loose comedic remake of Rio Bravo, with John Wayne again, Robert Mitchum as the drunk, and James Caan as a poetry-spouting gambler in a funny hat. Caan has the best line in the movie while wrasslin' the voluptuous Michele Carey in a hay barn. "Hey, you're a girl!" No kidding, Jimmy.

And if that's not enough, you might also try Sergeant York (1941) (which won Gary Cooper an Oscar), I Was a Male War Bride (1949) (with Ann Sheridan and Cary Grant in drag), Monkey Business (1952) (No, not the Marx Brothers — Cary Grant and Marilyn Monroe) and Hatari! (1962) (John Wayne basically playing a macho Marlin Perkins — and if you understand that reference, boy, are you old!).

In 1974, Hawks received an honorary Oscar as "a giant of the American cinema whose pictures, taken as a whole, represent one of the most consistent, vivid, and varied bodies of work in world cinema."

And that undersells him.

In 1996, Entertainment Weekly ranked Hawks fourth on the list of the 50 greatest directors of all time. In 2007, Total Film also ranked him fourth on its list of the 100 greatest directors of all-time.

And me? I have him on the Mount Rushmore of Hollywood film directors along with Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder and Steven Spielberg, a first among equals in my book. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

March Madness Preview #3: 1960s "The Girl Next Door"

My Favorite Performances By An Actress In The Sixties (A Baker's Dozen)

Monty of All Good Things is once again hosting his annual Favorite Classic Movie Actress Tournament this March. We here at the Monkey are proud to be handling the 1960s bracket.

To get into the mood, here's an idiosyncratic list of my favorite performances by an actress in the 1960s (in alphabetical order):

Julie Andrews (Mary Poppins). I could have also gone with The Americanization of Emily and The Sound of Music. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, indeed!

Doris Day (Lover Come Back). I prefer this pairing with Rock Hudson even over Pillow Talk.

Audrey Hepburn (Breakfast at Tiffany's). Charade is another personal favorite, but the scene where Holly Golightly crawls through the window into George Peppard's bed puts this over the top.

Sally Ann Howes (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang). A doll on a music box.

Carolyn Jones (Television's The Addams Family). Katie-Bar-The-Door and I have modeled our marriage on Carolyn Jones' Morticia and John Astin's Gomez. Without the seven-foot butler.

Shirley Jones (The Music Man). Serves me right for not being musical.

Angela Lansbury (The Manchurian Candidate). Boy, and you think you've got mother issues ...

Shirley MacLaine (The Apartment). Probably my favorite performance from the 1960s.

Misfit Dolly (voiced by Corinne Conley) (Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer). Who among is so hard-hearted not to be moved by the tears of a doll? Especially a red-headed doll?

Julie Newmar (recurring role on TV's Batman). Julie Newmar's stoner Catwoman and Frank Gorshin's speed-freak Riddler are two of the greatest comedy villains of all-time.

Paula Prentiss (Man's Favorite Sport?) I'd go fishing with Paula Prentiss any day.

Diana Rigg (On Her Majesty's Secret Service). You should also check her out in Theatre of Blood, a Vincent Price masterpiece.

Tippy Walker (The World Of Henry Orient) One of the most poignant performances of the decade. Read about this great lost talent in The New Yorker (here).

Favorites, Cinderellas—And A Tie

The second round of the 2013 Favorite Classic Movie Actress Tournament is complete—well, almost—and among the winners are a mixture of favorites and Cinderellas. Here at the Monkey, each quarter-final round in the 1960s bracket includes a #1 seed and either a #6 or a #7 seed. The other eras produced similar results, with favorites such as Carole Lombard and Audrey Hepburn and longshots such as Eleanor Powell advancing.

And the 1940s era produced the first tie in the three-year history of the tournament, with Lauren Bacall and Ida Lupino deadlocked after three full days of voting. Desiree is hosting a today-only tiebreaker to determine the winner: "Which performance with co-star Humphrey Bogart did you like more? Lauren Bacall in To Have and Have Not or Ida Lupino in They Drive By Night." Click here to get your vote on.

Meanwhile, the rest of the tournament continues with round three.

Here at the Monkey, you have four matches to vote on:

"Song and Dance"
#1 Natalie Wood versus #7 Shirley Jones

"All-American Girls"
#1 Anne Bancroft versus #6 Paula Prentiss

"The British Invasion"
#1 Julie Andrews versus #7 Diana Rigg

"A Foreign Affair"
#1 Catherine Deneuve versus #6 Romy Schneider

Monty of All Good Things is hosting the 1930s bracket (click here).
Kristen of Journeys in Classic Film is hosting the 1950s bracket (click here).

Round Two Continues (Results And More Voting)

More round two voting starts tonight and continues until Saturday evening. Let's get right to the match-ups:

"The British Invasion"
#1 Julie Andrews versus #4 Maggie Smith

#6 Angela Lansbury versus #7 Diana Rigg

"All-American Girls"
#1 Anne Bancroft versus #4 Patricia Neal

#6 Paula Prentiss versus #7 Tuesday Weld

And how about the results of the rest of round two here at the Monkey:
Natalie Wood beat Ann-Margret 31-17
Shirley Jones beat Liza Minneli 34-18
Catherine Deneuve beat Claudia Cardinale 27-20
Romy Schneider beat Liv Ullman 29-28

Monty of All Good Things is hosting the 1930s bracket (click here).
Desiree of Rosalind Russell: Dazzling Star is hosting the 1940s bracket (click here).
Kristen of Journey in Classic Film is hosting the 1950s bracket (click here).

Sneak Preview: 2013 Favorite Classic Movie Actress Tournament: The 1960s Bracket #6

Voting starts March 3rd.

Jane Fonda

Birth Name: Lady Jayne Seymour Fonda
Tourney Bracket and Seeding: "All-American Girls" #2
Birth Date: December 21, 1937
Birthplace: New York City, New York
Height: 5' 8"
Academy Awards: 7 nominations, 2 wins (actress, Klute; actress, Coming Home)
Signature Role: Bree Daniels (Klute)

versus

Tuesday Weld

Birth Name: Susan Ker Weld
Tourney Bracket and Seeding: "All-American Girls" #7
Birth Date: August 27, 1943
Birthplace: New York City, New York
Height: 5' 4"
Academy Awards: 1 nomination
Signature Role: Sue Ann Stepanek (Pretty Poison)

with the winner to take on the winner of

Faye Dunaway

Birth Name: Dorothy Faye Dunaway
Tourney Bracket and Seeding: "All-American Girls" #3
Birth Date: January 14, 1941
Birthplace: Bascom, Florida
Height: 5' 7"
Academy Awards: 3 nominations, 1 win (actress, Network)
Signature Role: Bonnie Parker (Bonnie and Clyde)

versus

Paula Prentiss

Birth Name: Paula Ragusa
Tourney Bracket and Seeding: "All-American Girls" #6
Birth Date: March 4, 1938
Birthplace: San Antonio, Texas
Height: 5' 10"
Academy Awards: none
Signature Role: Abigail Page (Man's Favorite Sport?)

Note: The pairings here are based on birthplace.