Howard Hawks: American Artist - Review

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), March, 1999 by Robert S. Rothenberg

Howard Hawks: American Artist Fox Lorber / 57 minutes / $19. 98

In a career that spanned more than a half-century, director Howard Hawks earned a reputation as an "efficient maker of hits." The French regarded him as a cinematic genius, with director Jean-Luc Godard labeling Hawks the greatest of American artists. For a filmmaker who treated his craft in an often cavalier manner--to the point where he would let others on the set, even crew members, suggest dialogue changes--Hawks nevertheless turned out a number of movies that pleased audiences and critics alike.

Born to a wealthy family that virtually owned most of Goshen, Ind., Hawks drifted to Hollywood, where he became friendly with Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford. She let him hang around her sets and eventually asked him to take over one of her silent films when the director failed to show up. Hawks became a journeyman director, finally coming up with his first critical success in 1932 with the original "Scarface," starring Paul Muni and funded by billionaire industrialist Howard Hughes.

Hawks was equally adept at screwball comedies ("Bringing Up Baby," "His Girl Friday"), drama ("Sergeant York," "A Star Is Born"), westerns ("Red River," "Rio Bravo"), and even musicals ("Gentlemen Prefer Blondes"). His movies were distinctive in the use of fast, overlapping dialogue, especially from the tough-talking, self-assured, sassy women--insolent as men--who invigorated his pictures. From Katharine Hepburn to Rosalind Russell, Lauren Bacall, Joanne Dru, and Angle Dickinson, his female characters held their own with a distinctly Hawksian flare.

Hawks was as colorful as the movies he turned out. He kept employing noted author William Faulkner even though the writer never produced dialogue that could be used on screen--Hawks simply liked to have him around as a drinking partner. Hawks once bet author Ernest Hemingway that he could make a movie out of Hemingway's worst book, though "To Have and Have Not" ultimately bore little resemblance to the novel. When the pairing of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in that picture proved so popular with audiences and the studio demanded more, Hawks threw out entire scenes from "The Big Sleep" to add interplay between the two stars. The problem is that much of the continuity and exposition went out the window as well, and the film is as puzzling today as it was when released in 1946.

Hawks ultimately stepped out of his depth with the turgid Egyptian costume drama, "Land of the Pharaohs" (1955), his first flop. Stunned, he quit filmmaking for a few years to travel around Europe. His subsequent efforts demonstrated a laziness, most evident in three John Wayne westerns--"Rio Bravo" (1959), "El Dorado" (1967), and "Rio Lobo" (1970). Basically, with minor changes, they are the same movie, the latter two versions poor imitations of the original. Despite this sad conclusion to his career, Howard Hawks left behind a cinematic legacy of some of the most enjoyable movies ever made.

ROBERT S. ROTHENBERG

Managing Editor, USA Today