Only Angels Have Wings (1939) in Color — Starring Cary Grant & Jean Arthur

Only Angels Have Wings (1939) — Buy This Classic in Color

Only Angels Have Wings (1939) is a thrilling adventure directed by Howard Hawks, starring Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, and Rita Hayworth. A group of daring mail pilots fly treacherous routes through the Andes mountains in South America, risking their lives daily while navigating love, loyalty, and the constant shadow of death. With Hawks’s masterful direction, Grant’s steely charisma, and a supporting cast that reads like a who’s-who of golden-age Hollywood talent, the film is a defining work of the aviation adventure genre and one of the most exciting movies of the 1930s. This professionally colorized version brings the dangerous mountain passes and romantic drama to vivid new life. Buy your colorized copy today for €15.00 and own this exhilarating classic movie in color.

Plot Summary

Geoff Carter (Cary Grant) runs a small, struggling airline in the fictional South American port town of Barranca, where his ragtag band of fearless pilots fly mail over the deadly Andes under impossible conditions — impenetrable fog, violent storms, and narrow mountain passes that claim lives with terrifying regularity. The pilots are a close-knit brotherhood bound by a strict unwritten code: never show fear, never mourn the dead too long, and always keep flying no matter what happens. When showgirl Bonnie Lee (Jean Arthur) arrives by banana boat for what she expects to be a brief stop, she witnesses a pilot’s fatal crash on her very first evening and is both horrified and irresistibly drawn to Geoff, whose stoic refusal to show emotion even when his friends die masks deep, carefully guarded feelings.

As Bonnie tries to understand and break through Geoff’s emotional armor, complications multiply dangerously. Bat MacPherson (Richard Barthelmess), a disgraced pilot who bailed out of a doomed plane years ago and let his mechanic die, arrives looking for a second chance — bringing with him his beautiful wife Judy (Rita Hayworth), who happens to be Geoff’s former flame. The other pilots distrust and resent Bat, creating tension that threatens the group’s cohesion at the worst possible time. A lucrative but near-suicidal contract requires the pilots to fly a treacherous mountain condor pass in conditions that even the bravest would hesitate to attempt. As dangerous missions pile up, friendships are tested, and the airline’s very survival hangs in the balance, Bonnie must decide if she can love a man who refuses to stop risking his life — and Bat must decide if he has the courage to redeem himself when it matters most. This classic movie is a masterwork of adventure storytelling, blending thrilling action sequences with deeply human drama in a way that only Howard Hawks could achieve.

Cast & Crew

Director: Howard Hawks

Stars: Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Richard Barthelmess, Rita Hayworth, Thomas Mitchell, Allyn Joslyn, Sig Ruman, Victor Kilian, John Carroll, Don ‘Red’ Barry

Why Buy This Classic in Color?

This colorized version of Only Angels Have Wings reveals the lush tropical port town of Barranca with its palm trees and corrugated-roof cantinas, the fog-shrouded mountain passes where pilots risk their lives, and the warm, smoky cantina interiors where the flyers gather to drink and joke between missions with breathtaking visual richness. The contrast between the warm, golden light of the cantina and the cold, grey danger of the mountain passes creates a powerful visual metaphor for the film’s central tension between life and death. The professionally colorized restoration brings the dangerous flights through swirling clouds, the tropical nights with their starlit skies, and the romantic encounters between Grant and Arthur to life with frame-by-frame precision. Rita Hayworth’s luminous beauty in her breakthrough role gains stunning new dimension in color. Watch this restored classic film in stunning, atmospheric color. Now also available in colour.

Buy Only Angels Have Wings in color today for just €15.00. Your DRM-free MP4 download is available for instant access.

Historical Significance

Only Angels Have Wings is considered one of Howard Hawks’s greatest films and a defining work of the adventure genre that established the template for countless subsequent films about professional men facing danger together. The film gave Rita Hayworth her first significant role and launched her trajectory to becoming one of Hollywood’s most iconic stars of the 1940s — her smoldering beauty and magnetic screen presence in a supporting role immediately signaled a major talent. Thomas Mitchell, in a superb performance as the aging pilot Kid Dabb who is going blind, won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor that same year for Stagecoach, but many critics consider his work here equally outstanding. Richard Barthelmess, a major star of the silent era returning to prominence, brings haunting authenticity to the disgraced pilot seeking redemption. The film’s themes of professionalism, courage under pressure, male camaraderie, and the difficulty of romantic commitment became defining hallmarks of Hawks’s subsequent work, from To Have and Have Not to Rio Bravo. Hawks drew on his real friendship with aviator Paul Mantz and his own experiences with daredevil pilots to create an authentic world of professional risk-takers. The aerial sequences, combining miniatures with real flight footage, remain impressive even today. The colorization adds magnificent visual scope to this aviation classic, bringing the exotic South American setting vividly to life.

Technical Details

• Format: MP4 digital download
• Resolution: HD restored
• Colorized: Professionally colorized from original black and white
• Audio: Original mono restored
• Runtime: Approximately 121 minutes
• DRM-free: Yes — watch on any device
• Instant download: Available immediately after purchase
• Price: €15.00

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Movie-Specific Questions

Q: Is this Rita Hayworth’s breakthrough film?
A: Yes, Only Angels Have Wings was one of the first major films to showcase Rita Hayworth’s extraordinary star quality. Her performance as Judy caught the attention of audiences and studio executives alike, launching her to superstardom.

Q: Who directed this film?
A: Howard Hawks directed Only Angels Have Wings. Hawks was one of Hollywood’s greatest directors, known for His Girl Friday, To Have and Have Not, The Big Sleep, and Rio Bravo, among many other classics.

Q: Is this the complete version?
A: Yes, this is the full 1939 theatrical release directed by Howard Hawks, presented in its colorized version.

Digital Download Questions

Q: What format is the download?
A: DRM-free MP4, compatible with virtually any device or media player.

Q: How much does it cost?
A: €15.00 for instant download. The colorization process ensures every scene looks stunning in color.

Q: Can I watch on multiple devices?
A: Absolutely. The file is DRM-free, so you can watch on your TV, tablet, phone, or computer.

Related Colorized Classics

• Golden Salamander (1950)
• Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid (1982)
• To Have and Have Not (1945)
• The Adventures of Marco Polo (1938)
• Dream Wife (1953)