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New York City is smack-dab in the middle of a complete Howard Hawks retrospective that includes every existing work by the master director. Each film—including such hard-to-find movies as Fig Leaves (1927), A Girl in Every Port (1928), and Fazil (1928)—screens in either 35mm or 16mm, making this an extraspecial event. While Chicagoans aren’t exactly starved for Hawks films—his best-known stuff appears frequently in local repertory houses; most recently, the Logan screened his noir classic The Big Sleep—the chance to see his life’s work is enticing. With any luck, something similar will head our way. In the meantime, here are my five favorite Howard Hawks films.
- The Big Sky (1952) The visual antithesis of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, this deceptively casual western is growing in stature as Hawks’s most unsung work, a romantic envisioning of unspoiled American countryside that displays some of the director’s most poetic qualities. Russell Harlan’s inky cinematography, for which he received an Academy Award nomination, is the film’s most enduring aspect.
