Hawks’s follow-up to Rio Bravo pushes both the humor and the violence of
the first film to extremes. John Wayne and Robert Mitchum are old comrades once again allied with a youngster (James Caan) and a saloon girl to defeat the machinations of evil land-grabbers. The comedy ranges from the broad to the black, as in the superbly wry finale in which the two aging, dilapidated heroes are carted on a wheelbarrow to the scene of the
showdown. For all the film’s slapstick flamboyance, the title “point[s] by
contrast to the absence of any El Dorado in the characters’ lives—or their
hopes” (Robin Wood).
Written by Leigh Brackett, from the novel The Stars in Their Courses by Harry Brown. Photographed by Harold Rosson. With John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, James Caan, Charlene Holt. (126 mins, Color, 35mm, From UCLA Film and Television Archive, permission Paramount Pictures)
(In conjunction with) Howard Hawks: The Measure of Man
“What one loves most about Hawks, finally, is the aliveness of so many of
his people.”—Robin Wood
This series, which began in January and continues through mid-April,
celebrates the work of one of the most-loved directors of classical
Hollywood cinema, Howard Hawks (1896–1977). Our second installment of
films includes many of his best works from the forties, fifties, and
sixties, such as To Have and Have Not and The Big Sleep, both starring
Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, and three masterful Westerns: Red
River, often cited as one of the finest Westerns from the forties; Rio
Bravo, a favorite of many leading critics and filmmakers; and the
late-period El Dorado. We also present several restored and studio vault
prints of Hawks’s most liberating comedies, including Ball of Fire, with
an ensemble cast led by Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper; I Was a Male War Bride, featuring Cary Grant and Ann Sheridan; Monkey Business with Cary Grant and Ginger Rogers; plus the gaudy and glorious classic Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, starring Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell.
Hawks’s oeuvre has had and continues to have a broad influence on the
history of cinema, in large part because of the remarkable unity of his
style. We are grateful to the many studios and archives that have
generously loaned 35mm prints for this major retrospective.
Susan Oxtoby, Senior Film Curator
Howard Hawks: The Measure of Man is timed to coincide with a UC Berkeley undergraduate course on Hawks taught by Marilyn Fabe of the Department of Film and Media. We wish to thank the following individuals and institutions for their assistance with this major retrospective: Regina
Schlagnitweit, Austrian Film Museum; Rob Stone, Library of Congress; Anne Morra and Mary Keene, The Museum of Modern Art; Daniel Bish, George Eastman House; Todd Wiener and Steven Hill, UCLA Film and Television Archive; May Haduong, Academy Film Archive; Fleur Buckley, BFI/NFTVA;George Watson, BFI Distribution; Kristen MacDonald, Film Reference Library, TIFF Bell Lightbox; Grover Crisp, Sony Pictures; Paul Ginsburg, Universal; Caitlin Robertson, 20th Century Fox; Kent Youngblood, MGM; and Marilee Womack, Warner Bros. Archival and restored prints presented with support from the Packard Humanities Institute.
Theater Admission Prices
Single Feature
$5.50 BAM/PFA Members, UC Berkeley Students
$9.50 Adults (18-64)
$6.50 UC Berkeley faculty, staff, and retirees
Non-UC Berkeley students
Senior citizens (65 & over)
Disabled persons
Youth (17 & under
Additional Feature $4.00 All Patrons
PFA General:
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