Watch: Howard Hawks’ “His Girl Friday” (1940)
ABOUT HOWARD HAWKS
Howard Winchester Hawks (May 30, 1896 – December 26, 1977) was a classic Hollywood film director, producer, and screenwriter. “The finest American director who is not a household name,” according to critic Leonard Maltin.
Hawks worked in a variety of genres, including comedies, dramas, gangster pictures, science fiction, film noir, war films, and westerns.
Scarface (1932), Bringing Up Baby (1938), Only Angels Have Wings (1939), His Girl Friday (1940), To Have and Have Not (1944), The Big Sleep (1946), Red River (1948), The Thing from Another World (1951), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), and Rio Bravo (1954) are among his most well-known films (1959).
The “Hawksian lady” came to be defined by his frequent representations of powerful, tough-talking female characters.
