Favorite Howard Hawks Film
by TheMovieSmith | created - 14 Jan 2019 | updated - 27 Jan 2019 | PublicAccomplished director Howard Hawks directed 47 films throughout his career and many of them (especially his westerns) are considered cinematic masterpieces. Which of his most popular films is your favorite?
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1. El Dorado (1967)
G | 126 min | Drama, Romance, Western
Cole Thornton, a gunfighter for hire, joins forces with an old friend, Sheriff J.P. Hara. Together with an old Indian fighter and a gambler, they help a rancher and his family fight a rival rancher that is trying to steal their water.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, James Caan, Charlene Holt
Votes: 23,414 | Gross: $12.97M
2. Hatari! (1962)
157 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
A group of men trap wild animals in Africa and sell them to zoos before the arrival of a female wildlife photographer threatens to change their ways.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: John Wayne, Elsa Martinelli, Hardy Krüger, Red Buttons
Votes: 11,411 | Gross: $14.00M
3. The Big Sleep (1946)
14A | 114 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery
Private detective Philip Marlowe's hired by a rich family. Before the complex case is over, he's seen murder, blackmail, and what might be love.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, John Ridgely, Martha Vickers
Votes: 77,123 | Gross: $6.54M
4. Rio Lobo (1970)
PG | 114 min | Adventure, Romance, War
After the Civil War, Cord McNally searches for the traitor whose treachery caused the defeat of McNally's unit and the loss of a close friend.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: John Wayne, Jorge Rivero, Jennifer O'Neill, Jack Elam
Votes: 10,253 | Gross: $9.27M
5. Red River (1948)
PG | 133 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
Dunson leads a cattle drive, the culmination of over 14 years of work, to its destination in Missouri. But his tyrannical behavior along the way causes a mutiny, led by his adopted son.
Directors: Howard Hawks, Arthur Rosson | Stars: John Wayne, Montgomery Clift, Joanne Dru, Walter Brennan
Votes: 27,167
6. Sergeant York (1941)
PG | 134 min | Biography, Drama, History
A marksman is drafted in World War I and ends up becoming one of the most celebrated war heroes.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Gary Cooper, Walter Brennan, Joan Leslie, George Tobias
Votes: 14,934 | Gross: $16.40M
*Nominated for Best Director Oscar
7. His Girl Friday (1940)
PG | 92 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A newspaper editor uses every trick in the book to keep his ace reporter ex-wife from remarrying.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell, Ralph Bellamy, Gene Lockhart
Votes: 51,787 | Gross: $0.30M
8. The Outlaw (1943)
PG | 116 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Western legends Pat Garrett, Doc Holliday and Billy the Kid are played against each other over the law and the attentions of vivacious country vixen Rio McDonald.
Directors: Howard Hughes, Howard Hawks | Stars: Jack Buetel, Thomas Mitchell, Jane Russell, Walter Huston
Votes: 3,883
9. Ball of Fire (1941)
111 min | Comedy, Romance
A group of professors working on a new encyclopedia encounter a mouthy nightclub singer who is wanted by the police to help bring down her mob boss lover.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, Oskar Homolka, Henry Travers
Votes: 10,301
10. Scarface: The Shame of the Nation (1932)
G | 93 min | Action, Crime, Drama
An ambitious and nearly insane violent gangster climbs the ladder of success in the mob, but his weaknesses prove to be his downfall.
Directors: Howard Hawks, Richard Rosson | Stars: Paul Muni, Ann Dvorak, Karen Morley, Osgood Perkins
Votes: 24,485
11. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)
PG | 91 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
Showgirls Lorelei Lee and Dorothy Shaw travel to Paris, pursued by a private detective hired by the suspicious father of Lorelei's fiancé, as well as a rich, enamored old man and many other doting admirers.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Jane Russell, Marilyn Monroe, Charles Coburn, Elliott Reid
Votes: 30,371 | Gross: $12.00M
12. Rio Bravo (1959)
PG | 141 min | Action, Drama, Western
A small-town sheriff in the American West enlists the help of a cripple, a drunk, and a young gunfighter in his efforts to hold in jail the brother of the local bad guy.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: John Wayne, Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson, Angie Dickinson
Votes: 54,277 | Gross: $12.54M
13. Monkey Business (1952)
G | 97 min | Comedy, Sci-Fi
A chemist finds his personal and professional life turned upside down when one of his chimpanzees finds the fountain of youth.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers, Marilyn Monroe, Charles Coburn
Votes: 12,552
14. To Have and Have Not (1944)
PG | 100 min | Adventure, Comedy, Film-Noir
During World War II, American expatriate Harry Morgan helps transport a French Resistance leader and his beautiful wife to Martinique while romancing a sensuous lounge singer.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Walter Brennan, Dolores Moran
Votes: 30,012
15. The Thing from Another World (1951)
PG | 87 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
Scientists and American Air Force officials fend off a bloodthirsty alien organism while at a remote arctic outpost.
Directors: Christian Nyby, Howard Hawks | Stars: Kenneth Tobey, Margaret Sheridan, James Arness, Robert Cornthwaite
Votes: 24,687
16. Bringing Up Baby (1938)
PG | 102 min | Comedy, Family, Romance
While trying to secure a $1 million donation for his museum, a befuddled paleontologist is pursued by a flighty and often irritating heiress and her pet leopard, Baby.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Charles Ruggles, Walter Catlett
Votes: 53,513
17. Man's Favorite Sport? (1964)
120 min | Comedy, Romance
The author of a best-selling fishing guide is actually incredibly inexperienced when it comes to the sport, which causes mayhem when he is entered into a competition.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Rock Hudson, Paula Prentiss, Maria Perschy, John McGiver
Votes: 4,618
18. Twentieth Century (1934)
91 min | Comedy, Romance
A flamboyant Broadway impresario who has fallen on hard times tries to get his former lover, now a Hollywood diva, to return and resurrect his failing career.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: John Barrymore, Carole Lombard, Walter Connolly, Roscoe Karns
Votes: 5,594
19. Only Angels Have Wings (1939)
PG | 121 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
At a remote South American trading port, the manager of an air freight company is forced to risk his pilots' lives in order to win an important contract.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Rita Hayworth, Richard Barthelmess
Votes: 12,035
20. I Was a Male War Bride (1949)
PG | 105 min | Comedy, Romance, War
After marrying an American lieutenant with whom he was assigned to work in post-war Germany, a French captain attempts to find a way to accompany her back to the States under the terms of the War Bride Act.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Cary Grant, Ann Sheridan, Marion Marshall, Randy Stuart
Votes: 7,432
21. The Big Sky (1952)
PG | 140 min | Drama, Western
The success of the journey focuses on keeping the Indian girl alive as well as themselves to complete trade with the Blackfeet.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Kirk Douglas, Dewey Martin, Elizabeth Threatt, Arthur Hunnicutt
Votes: 3,790
22. Land of the Pharaohs (1955)
106 min | Adventure, Drama, History
A captured architect designs an ingenious plan to ensure the impregnability of the tomb of a self-absorbed Pharaoh, obsessed with the security of his next life.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Jack Hawkins, Joan Collins, Dewey Martin, Alexis Minotis
Votes: 3,559 | Gross: $1.50M
23. O. Henry's Full House (1952)
117 min | Drama
John Steinbeck introduces a quintet of five of O. Henry's most celebrated stories from his New York Period (1902-1910) in this anthology film.
Directors: Henry Hathaway, Howard Hawks, Henry King, Henry Koster, Jean Negulesco | Stars: Fred Allen, Anne Baxter, Jeanne Crain, Farley Granger
Votes: 2,134
24. Air Force (1943)
124 min | Action, Drama, History
The crew of an Air Force bomber arrives in Pearl Harbor in the aftermath of the Japanese attack and is sent on to Manila to help with the defense of the Philippines.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: John Garfield, John Ridgely, Gig Young, Arthur Kennedy
Votes: 2,833
25. A Song Is Born (1948)
113 min | Comedy, Music, Musical
With her gangster boyfriend under investigation by the police, a nightclub singer hides out in a musical research institution staffed by bachelor professors - one of whom begins to fall for her.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Danny Kaye, Virginia Mayo, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey
Votes: 2,052
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