Only Angels Have Wings written by Jules Furthman, Eleanore Griffin and Howard Hawks, directed by the latter is one of The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made – there are a few thousand notes on films from The NYT 1,000 and other lists on my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html

 

Only Angels Have Wings written by Jules Furthman, Eleanore Griffin and Howard Hawks, directed by the latter is one of The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made – there are a few thousand notes on films from The NYT 1,000 and other lists on my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html

 

                            

8 out of 10

 

I have seen Cary Grant recently in Suspicion https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2026/02/suspicion-written-by-samson-raphaelson.html another feature from The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made list, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, one in which Cary Grant plays the opposite, or almost, of Geoff Carter

 

If the personage from Suspicion was…well, dubious, he is the one the title refers to, albeit he might not be as nefarious as initially thought, Geoff Carter is close to the archetypal hero, even if I have some qualms about it, seeing that standards have changed and I wonder what the model is today, and there are differences

 

Make America Great Again and its variants, the local AUR or Alliance for the Unity of Romanians among them, would promote the macho type, ‘masculinity’ as represented by that Orange Baboon, with his aggressiveness, disdain for those who do not admire him, they want to return to some ‘glorious past’, maybe the Middle Ages?

Geoff Carter is running this air freight company in a remote port in South America, sometime near the start of the XX century, when airplanes were still rudimentary, they did not have the instruments, computers, safety features that we know of today, flying was a huge risk, especially in the conditions we see in the film

 

I am wondering if I should compare Blue Moon https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2026/02/suspicion-written-by-samson-raphaelson.html with Only Angels Have Wings, they could not be any more different, the former is filmed in a studio in Ireland and it is mostly conversations, while the latter is about flying and courage

Nonetheless, they are both wonderful, Blue Moon is the best motion picture of 2025 in my view, and it should get all the major Oscars, for Best Film, Director for Richard Linklater, Screenplay, Leading Actor for Ethan Hawke, Supporting Actor for Bobby Cannavalle, and Supporting Actress for Margaret Qualley, if not others too

 

There are two other superb thespians in Only Angels Have Wings: Rita Hayworth – seen recently in The Lady of Shanghai https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/the-lady-from-shanghai-written-and.html - married to the glorious Orson Welles and Jean Arthur- I just remembered an anecdote with Orson Welles, of Citizen Kane fame

Orson Welles was looking for financing – he had to struggle with that, albeit he made what was considered the best film ever for a long time, if you want to see another divine movie, and get the inside story, you should watch fantastic Mank – and then he happened to meet with Winston Churchill in Switzerland

 

Churchill was no longer prime minster, but still acclaimed as the man of the century, and Welles explained he appreciated the fact that Winston Churchill had recognized and saluted him, considering he tries to convince this investor, therefore, next time they met, Churchill stood up from his chair and bowed in front of Orson Welles

The pilots in Only Angels Have Wings have to fly in impossible situations: not just heavy rains, but they seem like outright hurricanes, they have no way to know where the small strip of land they use is, and thus quite a few die, when their small plane crushes and the drama is intense, this is a fabulous motion picture

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – I am on Goodreads as Realini Ionescu, at least for the moment, if I keep on expressing my views on Orange Woland aka TACO, it may be a short-lived presence

Also, maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the benefits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’