Howard Hawks

The first major biography of one of Old Hollywood’s greatest directors. Sometime partner of the eccentric Howard Hughes, drinking buddy of William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway, an inveterate gambler and a notorious liar, Howard Hawks was the most modern of the great masters and one of the first directors to declare his independence from the major studios. He played Svengali to Lauren Bacall, Montgomery Clift, and others, but Hawks’s greatest creation may have been himself. As The Atlantic Monthly noted, “Todd McCarthy. . . . has gone further than anyone else in sorting out the truths and lies of the life, the skills and the insight and the self-deceptions of the work.” “A fluent biography of the great director, a frequently rotten guy but one whose artistic independence and standards of film morality never failed.” —The New York Times Book Review “Hawks’s life, until now rather an enigma, has been put into focus and made one with his art in Todd McCarthy’s wise and funny Howard Hawks.” —The Wall Street Journal “Excellent. . . . A respectful, exhaustive, and appropriately smartass look at Hollywood’s most versatile director.” —Newsweek

Interviews with the director of Scarface, Only Angels Have Wings, His Girl Friday, Sergeant York, Bringing Up Baby, The Big Sleep, Red River, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and Rio Bravo

A significant and contemporary study of director Howard Hawks by influential film critic Robin Wood, reprinted with a new introduction.

A portrait of the renowned film director based on seven years of interviews: “I am very happy that this book exists.” —François Truffaut Howard Hawks is often credited as the most versatile of the great American directors, having worked with equal ease in screwball comedies, westerns, gangster movies, musicals, and adventure films. He directed an impressive number of Hollywood’s greatest stars—including Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant, John Wayne, Lauren Bacall, Rosalind Russell, and Marilyn Monroe—and some of his most celebrated films include Scarface, Bringing Up Baby, The Big Sleep, Red River, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and Rio Bravo. Hawks on Hawks draws on interviews that author Joseph McBride conducted with the director over the course of seven years, giving rare insight into Hawks’s artistic philosophy, his relationships with the stars, and his position in an industry that was rapidly changing. In its new edition, this classic book is both an account of the film legend’s life and work and a guidebook on how to make movies. “There are going to be many biographies of Howard Hawks, but they will all lean heavily on this book; the pioneer so honestly reveals himself and the people with whom he worked.” —Los Angeles Times

Known for creating classic films including His Girl Friday, The Big Sleep, Bringing Up Baby, and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Howard Hawks is one of the best-known Hollywood ‘auteurs’, but the important role that music plays in his films has been generally neglected by film critics and scholars. In this concise study, Gregory Camp demonstrates how Hawks' use of music and musical treatment of dialogue articulate the group communication that is central to his films. In five chapters, Camp explores how the notion of 'music' in Hawks' films can be expanded beyond the film score, and the techniques by which Hawks and his collaborators (including actors, screenwriters, composers, and editors) achieve this heightened musicality.

Leading international scholars consider the films and legacy of Howard Hawks. Diverse contributions consider Hawks' work in relation to issues of gender, genre and relationships between the sexes, discuss key films including Rio Bravo, The Big Sleep and Red River, and address Hawks' visual style and the importance of musicality in his film-making.

This is an anthology of the best criticism produced about Hawks' films. Among the critics collected together in this book are Andrew Sarris and Robin Wood who go towards demonstrating the coherence and integrity of Hawks' work.

He is Cormac FitzGeoffrey, and he has no master. As a wandering warrior born and bred on battle, he's a renowned fighter, a ruthless adversary, and a man who is no stranger to the ways of violence and bloodshed. He counts his friends on one hand, so when Cormac learns that his most recent liege has been murdered, nothing will stop his quest for revenge. By oath, a path of vengeance will be marked with the blood of his enemies. Sword-swinging, berserker action in only the way Robert E. Howard could deliver!