60 Fun Facts About Howard Hawks

In which US state was Howard Hawks born in 1896?

His family's Goshen Milling Company made them one of the wealthiest families in the Midwest.

Which critic called Hawks "the greatest American director who is not a household name"?

Jean-Luc Godard went further and called him "the greatest of all American artists".

What did Hawks study at Cornell University?

A friend recalled he spent more time on craps and drink than study, and he took his degree in absentia in 1918.

At 18, Hawks won a national junior championship in which sport?

He was an average student who did not excel at sports as a boy, but took up coaster racing, an early form of soapbox racing.

During World War I Hawks served in the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps doing what?

He never saw active duty and was discharged as a second lieutenant.

Hawks got his first film job as a prop boy on a picture starring which silent star?

He met cinematographer Victor Fleming, allegedly by causing a crash while racing him on a dirt track.

Hawks first directed a scene, at age 21, on a Mary Pickford film when which director failed to turn up?

He and cinematographer Charles Rosher shot a double-exposure dream sequence for The Little Princess.

How did Hawks land his first important job in Hollywood, producing one-reel comedies?

Warner repaid the loan and hired him to oversee shorts starring Italian comedian Monty Banks.

Which studio gave Hawks his first chance to direct, in 1925?

Sol Wurtzel promised him a director's chair; he made his first eight films there before leaving on sour terms in 1929.

Which silent film is considered Hawks's most important early work, his first "love story between two men"?

After seeing Louise Brooks in it, G. W. Pabst cast her in Pandora's Box.

Which mogul tried to sabotage The Dawn Patrol (1930), fearing it would rival his aviation epic Hell's Angels?

He hired a spy, sued for copyright infringement, then dropped the suit and became Hawks's good friend.

Scarface (1932) was loosely based on the life of which gangster?

Ben Hecht wrote the script in 11 days, beginning a 20-year collaboration with Hawks.

Who played Tony Camonte in Hawks's Scarface?

The film was remade in 1983 with Al Pacino.

Hawks used the 1930 Indy 500 winner Billy Arnold in which car-racing film?

Racing was a childhood passion; he later built the car that won the 1936 Indy 500.

Twentieth Century (1934) is largely set aboard what?

With It Happened One Night, released the same year, it is considered a prototype of the screwball comedy.

Carole Lombard, star of Twentieth Century, was related to Hawks how?

The film propelled her into the front rank of screen comediennes.

Which producer fired Hawks midway through Come and Get It (1936), leaving William Wyler to finish it?

Hawks walked off several other pictures himself when studios interfered.

In Bringing Up Baby, what is Baby?

A tame animal named Nissa played the part, along with a second role.

What bone is Cary Grant's paleontologist missing from his Brontosaurus in Bringing Up Baby?

When it finally arrives, the dog George buries it.

What happened to Hawks after Bringing Up Baby flopped at the box office?

He then made 11 consecutive hits, and Hepburn was branded "box office poison".

Only Angels Have Wings (1939) follows pilots flying airmail through the Andes from which fictional port?

It gave Rita Hayworth her first major role.

His Girl Friday was adapted from which Hecht-MacArthur stage hit?

Hawks's big idea was to turn reporter Hildy Johnson into a woman and the editor's ex-wife.

Who played Hildy Johnson opposite Cary Grant in His Girl Friday?

Ralph Bellamy plays the wholesome insurance man she plans to marry in Albany.

Where does Hildy hide the escaped convict Earl Williams in His Girl Friday?

The mayor bribes a messenger to sit on the governor's reprieve until it is too late.

Who won Best Actor for the title role in Sergeant York (1941)?

It was the top-grossing film of 1941, and young men reportedly went from the cinema straight to enlistment offices.

Hawks made Sergeant York as a favour to which early mentor?

Lasky had made him a story editor at Famous Players in 1923.

Ball of Fire (1941), written by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett, is a playful take on which fairy tale?

A sheltered linguist and six fellow scholars hire Barbara Stanwyck to teach them slang.

Where did Hawks bet Hemingway he could film the author's 'worst book', To Have and Have Not?

Hemingway himself admitted it was his worst.

Which Nobel laureate besides Hemingway contributed to To Have and Have Not?

Faulkner wrote five screenplays for Hawks, from Today We Live to Land of the Pharaohs.

How did Hawks find Lauren Bacall for To Have and Have Not?

The characters' pet names, "Slim" and "Steve", were the ones Hawks and his wife Slim Keith used for each other.

Where is To Have and Have Not set, after an early Cuban setting was changed to avoid offending the Good Neighbor policy?

Bacall's line about how to whistle is number 34 on the AFI's list of great movie quotes.

The Big Sleep (1946) was adapted from a novel by which writer, pointedly not invited to help with the script?

Faulkner, Leigh Brackett and Jules Furthman wrote it; Hawks admitted he never worked out the plot.

Why did The Big Sleep sit on the shelf for more than a year after it was shot in 1944?

Reshoots in 1946 played up the Bogart-Bacall repartee after the couple married.

Which actress had her breakout role in The Big Sleep in a largely improvised bookshop scene?

Hawks said "we just did it because the girl was so damn good-looking".

Red River (1948) is a fictional account of the first cattle drive from Texas to Kansas along which route?

Hawks likened the story to Mutiny on the Bounty.

Which actor made his film debut as John Wayne's adopted son in Red River?

Hawks is credited with discovering him along with Lauren Bacall, Carole Lombard, Jane Russell and James Caan.

Hawks remade Ball of Fire in 1948 as A Song Is Born, this time centred on which kind of music?

Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong and Lionel Hampton play themselves.

In I Was a Male War Bride (1949), Cary Grant plays an officer of which nationality?

It was based on the real story of Henri Rochard, a Belgian who married an American nurse.

Who is officially credited as director of The Thing from Another World (1951)?

Carpenter called the male camaraderie "all pure Hawksian" and remade the story in 1982.

How much did Hawks pay for the rights to Who Goes There?, the novella behind The Thing?

Lederer and Hecht talked him into buying it in 1950.

Who played the Thing in The Thing from Another World?

The film's alien is plant-like and feeds on blood, unlike the shape-shifter of the novella.

Which two actresses co-starred with Cary Grant in Hawks's Monkey Business (1952)?

Grant plays a scientist whose formula restores youthful vitality.

Which choreographer is generally credited with staging the musical numbers in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes?

Hawks handled the non-musical scenes; many critics call it the only female buddy film of its era.

Land of the Pharaohs (1955), Hawks's last film with Faulkner, is a fictional account of the building of what?

Warners claimed 9,787 extras appeared in one scene.

Rio Bravo (1959) was made partly as a response to which earlier Western?

Hawks did not think a good sheriff would run around town "like a chicken with his head cut off asking for help".

Which singer played Dude, the drunk deputy, in Rio Bravo?

Ricky Nelson played the young gunslinger Colorado.

What tune do the villain's saloon musicians play repeatedly in Rio Bravo to signal no mercy?

It is also called "The Cutthroat Song".

Which 1976 John Carpenter film was inspired by the story and setting of Rio Bravo?

British critic Robin Wood rated Rio Bravo his favourite film of all time.

Hatari! (1962) was shot on location in which country?

Hawks built the camera-car hybrid used to film the animal chases himself.

Who starred alongside John Wayne in El Dorado (1966), their only screen pairing?

Screenwriter Leigh Brackett grew sick of the film turning into "Rio Bravo over again".

Hawks's last film, made in 1970 with John Wayne, was what?

An injury on its set badly damaged one of his legs.

How did Hawks famously define what makes a film work?

He also defined a good director as "someone who doesn't annoy you".

Orson Welles told Peter Bogdanovich that John Ford was "poetry"; what did he say Hawks was?

Hawks admitted he copied Ford every time he could.

Hawks's first wife, Athole, was the sister of which MGM star?

His second wife was fashion icon Slim Keith and his third the actress Dee Hartford.

Hawks named his youngest son after which cinematographer?

His son David worked as an assistant director on M*A*S*H.

Hawks died in December 1977 from complications after what accident at his Palm Springs home?

He kept riding motorcycles until he was 78 and was in the early stages of Parkinson's disease.

Hawks received his only Oscar in 1974; what kind was it?

Eleven of his films are in the National Film Registry, tying John Ford for the most.

Which 1953 Hawks film features Marilyn Monroe performing 'Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend'?

Monroe and Jane Russell play cabaret-performing best friends, and many critics see it as one of Hawks's few overt musicals.

With eleven films in the National Film Registry, Hawks is tied with which director for the most?

Hawks admitted copying Ford whenever he could early on, though Orson Welles thought their styles were prose versus poetry.

In which small town was Hawks born in 1896?

His father was a wealthy paper manufacturer, and the family fortune came from a Neenah, Wisconsin paper mill.