Howard Hawks

At 81 years old, Howard Hawks has this physical status:

Howard Winchester Hawks (May 30, 1896 – December 26, 1977) was an American film director, producer, and screenwriter of the golden Hollywood period.

Leonard Maltin, a critic, called him "the best American director who is not a household name." Hawks, a versatile film director, explored a variety of genres, including comedies, memoirs, gangster films, science fiction, film noir, and westerns.

Scarface (1932), Bringing Up Baby (1938), Only Angels Have Wings (1940), To Have and Have Not (1946), The Girl in Another World (1951), and Rio Bravo (1959).

His regular portrayals of vivacious, tough-talking female characters came to the "Hawksian woman." In 1942, Hawks was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director of Sergeant York.

He was named "a master American filmmaker whose artistic efforts earn him a prestigious place in world cinema" in 1974. Martin Scorsese, Robert Altman, Jean-Luc Godard, John Carpenter, and Quentin Tarantino's work has all inspired several well-known and respected directors, including Martin Scorsese, Robert Altman, Jean-Luc Godard, John Carpenter, and Quentin Tarantino.

Early life and background

Howard Winchester Hawks was born in Goshen, Indiana. He was the first-born child of Frank Winchester Hawks (1865-1950), a wealthy paper manufacturer, and his partner, Helen Brown (née Howard, 1872–1952), the daughter of a wealthy industrialist. The Hawks' family on his father's side, as well as his ancestor John Hawks, emigrated from England to Massachusetts in 1630. The family eventually settled in Goshen, and by the 1890s, was one of the Midwest's most wealthy families, owing to the highly profitable Goshen Milling Company.

C. W. Howard (1845-1916), the Hawks' maternal grandfather, was born in Neenah, Wisconsin, in 1862, at the age of 17. He had made his fortune in the town's paper mill and other industrial enterprises in 15 years. Frank Hawks and Helen Howard met in the early 1890s and married in 1895. Howard Hawks was the eldest of five children, and his birth was followed by Kenneth Hawks (January 29, 1901 – January 2, 1927) and Helen Bernice Hawks (1906 – May 4, 1911). Frank Hawks returned to Neenah, where they first began working for his father-in-law's Howard Paper Company in 1898.

The Hawks family began to spend more time in Pasadena, California, during the cold Wisconsin winters in order to strengthen Helen Hawks' ill health. They spent only their summers in Wisconsin before finally moving to Pasadena in 1910. In 1907, the family lived in a house across the street from Throop Polytechnic Institute and the Hawks children began attending the school's Polytechnic Elementary School. While Hawks were an average student and did not excel in sports, they did not excel in sports until 1910, when they first learned coaster racing, which was an early form of soapbox racing. Helen, the Hawks' youngest sibling, died of food poisoning in 1911. Hawks attended Pasadena High School from 1910 to 1912. The Hawks family migrated to Glendora, California, where Frank Hawks owned orange groves in 1912. Hawks completed his junior year of high school at Citrus Union High School in Glendora. He spent time as a barnstorming pilot.

He was then sent to Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire from 1913 to 1914, and his family's fortune may have influenced his acceptance to the elite private school. Despite being seventeen, he was classified as a lower middleclassman, or the equivalent of a sophomore. While in New England, Hawks frequented the theaters in nearby Boston. In 1914, Hawks returned to Glendora and graduated from Pasadena High School that year. Hawks defeated the United States Junior Tennis Championship by eighteen years old, being proficient in tennis. Hawks was accepted to Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, in that same year, where he studied mechanical engineering and was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon. Although Hawks was also known to be a voracious reader of popular American and English novels in college, his college buddy Ray S. Ashbury recalled him spending more of his time playing craps and drinking alcohol than reading.

Hawks made an unsuccessful attempt to transfer to Stanford University while filming in the summer of 1916. He returned to Cornell in September 1916 and joined the Army as the United States entered World War I in April 1917. He served as a lieutenant in the US Signal Corps's Aviation Section. He taught aviators how to fly during World War II, and he used this knowledge to influence future aviation films such as The Dawn Patrol (1930). He received a degree in absentia in 1918, as well as many college students who joined the military services during the war. He returned to Hollywood and by the end of April 1917, he was working on a Cecil B. DeMille film before Hawks was called to active service.

Personal life

Howard Hawks was married three times: from 1928 to 1940, to socialite and fashion icon Slim Keith from 1951 to 1959, and then to actor Dee Hartford from 1953 to 1959. Shearer, Barbara, and David had two children with the Hawks. David Hawks was an assistant director on M*A*S*H's second daughter, Kitty Hawks, was a result of his second marriage to "Slim" Keith. After cinematographer Gregg Toland, the Hawks had one son with his last wife, Dee Hartford, who was named Gregg.

Hawks also had a passion for cars and motorcycles, as well as his love of flying machines. He built the race car that won the 1936 Indianapolis 500, as well as riding motorcycles with Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper. Hawks and his son Gregg were supporters of Checkers Motorcycle Club. Hawks rode for many years until they reached the age of 78. His other interests included golf, tennis, sailing, horse racing, carpentry, and silversmithing.

Apart from being known for their close friendships with Ben Hecht, Ernest Hemingway, and William Faulkner, the Hawks were also known for retaining close relationships with several American writers, including Ben Hecht, Ernest Hemingway, and William Faulkner. The Algonquin Round Table was credited to the Hawks' discovery of William Faulkner and their introduction of the then-unknown writer. Hawks and Faulkner had common interests in flying and drinking, and Faulkner adored Hawks' films, demanding that he show him how to write screenplays. Faulkner wrote five screenplays for Hawks, the first of which being Today We Live and the last being Land of the Pharaohs. Hawks was also close to Ernest Hemingway, and was almost made the producer of the film version of For Whom the Bell Tolls by a mutual interest in fishing and skiing. Hemingway's suicide was difficult for the Hawks. He began to plan a film project about Hemingway and his friendship with Robert Capa after coming to terms with it in the 1970s. He never filmed the project.

In the 1944 United States presidential election, Hawks favored Thomas Dewey.

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Career

Howard Hawks' interest and passion for aviation led him to a variety of memorable experiences and friendships. Victor Fleming, a Hollywood cinematographer and early aviator, was the Hawks' first aviator in 1916. Hawks C.W. was racing and racing on a Mercer race car, much cheaper than his grandfather, C.W. Howard was in California during his 1916 summer holiday. Fleming was reportedly knocked out of the two guys who collided on a dirt track and resulted in an accident. Hawks' first film appearance as a prop boy on Douglas Fairbanks' film In Again, Out Again (on which Fleming was working as the cinematographer) for Famous Players-Lasky, which led to Hawks' first work in the film industry. According to Hawks, a new set needed to be built quickly because the studio's set designer was inactive, so Hawks offered to do the job herself, much to Fairbanks' pleasure. On an unspecified film directed by Cecil B. DeMille, he was next employed as a prop boy and general assistant. In later interviews, Hawks never identified the film, and DeMille only made five films in the time period). Hawks had been on Cecil B. DeMille's The Little American by the time of May 1917. Hawks appeared on Mary Pickford's film The Little Princess, directed by Marshall Neilan. Neilan did not turn up to work one day, so the savvy Hawks suggested a scene by itself, to which Pickford accepted.

Since he and cinematographer Charles Rosher shot a double exposure dream sequence with Mary Pickford, the Hawks began directing at the age 21. Before joining the United States Army Air Service, Hawks worked with Pickford and Neilan on Amarilly of Clothes-Line Alley. The only record of Hawks' military service was destroyed in the 1973 Military Archive Fire, so his only account of his military service is his own. He spent 15 weeks in basic training at the University of California in Berkeley, where he was trained to be a squadron commander in the air force, according to Hawks. When Pickford visited Hawks in basic training, they were so impressed by the celebrity that they elevated him to flight instructor and sent him to Texas to teach new recruits. During the first half of 1918, the Hawks attempted to obtain a transfer and were eventually sent to Fort Monroe, Virginia, but were frustrated by this effort. Hawks was discharged as a Second Lieutenant without having seen active service when the Armistice was signed in November of that year, and the Armistice was unveiled in November of that year.

Hawks were eager to return to Hollywood after the war. Kenneth Hawks, a brother who had also served in the Air Force, graduated from Yale University in 1919, and the two siblings moved to Hollywood together to continue their careers. They quickly made friends with Hollywood insider (and fellow Ivy Leaguer) Allan Dwan. When Hawks used his family's fortune to loan money to studio head Jack L. Warner, he began his first important position. Warner quickly repaid the loan and recruited Hawks as a producer to "oversee" the development of a new line of one-reel comedies starring Italian comedian Monty Banks. Hawks later stated that he personally controlled "three or four" of the shorts, but that no evidence exists to back up this assertion. While the films were lucrative, Hawks soon decided to form his own production company, leveraging his family's wealth and connections to gain financing. Associated Producers, a production company, was a joint venture between Hawks, Allan Dwan, Marshall Neilan, and director Allen Holubar, with First National as the sole distributor. The company made 14 films between 1920 and 1923, with 8 directed by Neilan, 3 by Dwan, and 3 by Holubar. The four guys fell apart and began to separate in 1923, by which time the Hawks had decided to direct rather than produce.

Hawks lived in rented houses in Hollywood beginning in the 1920s with the help of a group of friends. This rowdy group of mostly macho, risk-taking men included Kenneth Hawks, Victor Fleming, Jack Conway, Harold Rosson, Richard Rosson, Arthur Rosson, and Eddie Sutherland. During this period, the Hawks first met Irving Thalberg, the vice president in charge of production at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Hawks adored his intelligence and sense of story. At Rogers Airport in Los Angeles, Hawks became acquainted with barnstormers and pioneer aviators, as well as people like Moye Stephens.

Famous Players-Lasky president Jesse Lasky was searching for a new Production Editor in his story department, and Thalberg suggested Hawks. Hawks accepted and was immediately put in charge of over 40 productions, including several literary acquisitions of stories by Joseph Conrad, Jack London, and Zane Grey. Hawks worked on all of the films, but he had his first official screenplay appearance on Tiger Love in 1924. Hawks was the Story Editor at Famous Players (later Paramount Pictures) for almost two years, occasionally directing such films as Heritage of the Desert. In the fall of 1924, the Hawks signed a new one-year deal with Famous-Players. After receiving a promise from Thalberg to make him a director within a year, he ended his deal to become a story editor for MGM. Hawks broke their deal with MGM and left in 1925, when Thalberg struggled to keep his commitment.

Sol Wurtzel, William Fox's studio superintendent, welcomed Hawks to join his company in October 1925 with the promise of allowing Hawks to direct. Hawks directed his first eight films in the United States in the next three years (six silent, two "talkies"). Hawks reworked the scripts of the majority of the films directed without ever being given credit for his efforts. He also appeared in Honesty – The Best Policy in 1926 and Joseph von Sternberg's Underworld in 1927, which is also known for being one of the first gangster films. The Road to Glory, Hawks' first film, debuted in April 1926. Howard Hawks' screenplay was based on a 35-page composition. This was one of the few films on which Hawks had significant writing credit. It is one of Hawks' few lost films.

Hawks' first film, Fig Leaves, was his first (and, unfortunately, only) comedy after finishing The Road to Glory. It has received raves, particularly for the art direction and costume designs. It was published in July 1926 and was Hawks' first appearance as a director. In later interviews, Hawks praised this film, although he mainly dismissed his early work.

Paid to Love was one of Hawks' filmography because it was a highly stylized, experimental film. He tried to imitate German film director F. W. Murnau's style. Hawks' film features atypical tracking shot, expressive lighting, and stylistic film editing that was inspired by German Expressionist cinema. In a later interview, Hawks said, "It't my kind of stuff, but at least I got it over in a hurry." Now that the camera has someone's eyes, you get the idea. With Seton I. Miller, Hawks co-produced the script, and they'll continue to film on seven other films. George O'Brien plays introverted Crown Prince Michael, William Powell as his happy-go-lucky brother, and Virginia Valli as Michael's flapper love interest Dolores. Valli and O'Brien's characters were similar to those in Hawks' later films: a physically active showgirl, a young woman obsessed with sex, and a shy man disinterested in sex are among the roles played by Cary Grant and Gary Cooper. Paid to Love was completed by September 1926, but it wasn't announced until July 1927. It was financially ineffective. Russell G. Medcraft and Norma Mitchell's 1925 hit stage play Cradle Snatchers was based on a 1925 hit stage play. The film was shot in early 1927. The film was released in May 1927 and was a minor hit. It was considered a lost film for many years before film director Peter Bogdanovich discovered a print in 20th Century Fox's film vaults, but the print was missing on reel three and all of reel four. In March 1927, the Hawks signed a new one-year, three-picture deal with Fox and was sent to lead Fazil, based on Pierre Frondaie's play L'Insoumise. On the script, the Hawks worked with Seton Miller. Hawks were behind schedule and over budget on the film, which culminated in a gap between him and Sol Wurtzel that would eventually lead to Hawks leaving Fox. The film was finished in August 1927 but it was not released until June 1928.

Film scholars have named A Girl in Every Port as the most important film of Hawks' silent career. It is the first of his films to feature many of the Hawksian themes and characters that would characterize much of his later work. It was his first "love tale between two men," with two men bonding over their roles, skills, and careers, who find their friendships more important than their female relationships. Henri Langlois, a French writer, called Hawks "the Gropius of the cinema" and Swiss novelist and poet Blaise Cendrars said the film "definitely marked the first appearance of contemporary cinema." The Hawks went over budget with this film once more, but Sol Wurtzel's relationship with him deteriorated. Wurtzel told Hawks, "This is the worst picture Fox has produced in years" after an advance screening that earned rave reviews. The Air Circus was Hawks' first film centered on aviation, one of his early passions. Charles Lindbergh, the world's most popular person, was born in 1928, and Wings was one of the year's most popular films. Fox immediately bought Hawks' original story for The Air Circus, a version of the male friendship story A Girl in Every Port about two young pilots, in an attempt to cash in on the country's aviation boom. The film was shot from April to June 1928, but Fox ordered an additional 15 minutes of dialogue footage in order to ensure that the film could compete with the new "talkies" being released. Hawks loathed Hugh Herbert's latest dialogue, although he declined to participate in the re-shoots. The film was released in September 1928 and was a moderate success. It's one of two Hawks films that have been canceled.

Trent's Last Case is based on British author E. C. Bentley's 1913 book of the same name. Hawks considered the book to be "one of the finest detective stories of all time" and was eager to make it his first sound film. Raymond Griffith appeared in Phillip Trent's lead role. During World War I, Griffith's throat had been harmed by poison gas, and his voice was a screaming cry, prompting Hawks to comment, "I think he should be great at talking pictures because of his voice." However, Fox eventually pulled Hawks down and ordered him to make a silent film after shooting just a few scenes, both due to Griffith's voice and because they only had the rights to make a silent film. The film did have a musical score and synchronized sound effects, but there was no dialogue. It was never released in the United States and only briefly screened in England, where film critics feared it due to the failing success of silent films. The film was believed to have been out of date until the mid-1970s and was on display in the United States for the first time in the United States at a Hawks retrospective in 1974. Hawks were on hand at the screening and attempted to have the film's only print destroyed. In May 1929, Hawks' deal with Fox came to an end, but he never agreed to a long-term contract with a major studio. He continued to work as an independent producer-director for the remainder of his career.

Hollywood was upheaval over the arrival of "talkies" and the careers of several actors and directors were shattered by 1930. Stage actors and directors were being recruited by Hollywood studios to perform sound films, according to some. Hawks found himself struggling to prove himself as an asset to the studios after 14 years and producing several financially successful films. Exiting Fox on sour terms didn't help his name, but the Hawks never pulled out of studio fights. Hawks revived his interest in 1930 with his first sound film after months of unemployment.

The Dawn Patrol was Hawks' first all-sound film, based on an original story told by John Monk Saunders and (unofficially) Hawks. According to reports, Hawks paid Saunders to film the film in order to ensure that Hawks would direct it without causing fear of writing due to his lack of writing experience. Accounts differ on who came up with the film, but Hawks and Saunders developed the story together and sold it to several studios before First National agreed to produce it. Shooting began in late February 1930, about the time when Howard Hughes was finally finishing his epic World War I aviation epic Hell's Angels, which had not been available since September 1927. Hawks began to recruit many of Hughes' aviation specialists and cameramen, including Elmer Dyer, Harry Reynolds, and Ira Reed. When Hughes heard about the competing film, he did everything he could to destabilize The Dawn Patrol. He harmed Hawks and other studio workers and eventually sued First National for copyright violation. Hughes dropped the lawsuit in late 1930, finding that he and the Hawks had been good allies during the litigation. Filming was completed in late May 1930 and premiered in July, setting a first-week box office record at the Winter Garden Theatre in New York. The film became one of 1930's most popular hits. Hawks gained acclaim in the film industry thanks to his success, and he was able to work as an independent director without having to sign long-term contracts with specific studios.

Hal B. Wallis, the Warner Brothers' executive, was not able to be loaned out to other studios, which was not understandable by the Hawks. The Hawks had the opportunity to take a directing job from Harry Cohn of Columbia Pictures. The film opened in January 1931 and was a huge success. The film was banned in Chicago, but it was also the case of censorship, which would continue in his forthcoming film project. Howard Hughes hired Hawks to direct Scarface, a gangster film loosely based on the life of Chicago mobster Al Capone. The film was released in September 1931, but Hawks and Hughes' censorship barred it from being released as Hawks and Hughes had intended. The two guys battled, bargained, and reached compromises with the Hays Office for more than a year before the film was released in 1932, after such other classic early gangster films as The Public Enemy and Little Caesar. Scarface was the first film in which Hawks collaborated with screenwriter Ben Hecht, who became a close friend and collaborator for 20 years. After finishing filming on Scarface, the Hawks left Hughes to face the court dramas and return to First National to fulfill his contract, this time with producer Darryl F. Zanuck. Hawks wanted to make a film about his childhood passion, car racing, for his next film. For their eighth and final collaboration, the Hawks developed the script for The Crowd Roars with Seton Miller. In the film, the Hawks used real racers, including 1930 Indianapolis 500 winner Billy Arnold. The film was released in March and became a hit.

Edward G. Robinson, a tuna fisherman, appeared in Tiger Shark in 1932. Hawks established the prototypical "Hawksian Man" in these early films, which film critic Andrew Sarris characterized as "upheld by an instinctive professionalism." The ability of Hawks to weave humor into dramatic, tense, and even tragic story lines was demonstrated by Tiger Shark. Hawks joined Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios in 1933, the first of which was Today We Live in 1933. This World War I film was based on a short story by author William Faulkner. The boxing drama The Prizefighter and the Lady, as well as the biographical Viva Villa were Hawks' next two films at MGM. Hawks walked out on his MGM deal after being unable to complete either film by himself, owing to studio interference on both films.

In 1934, the Hawks made his first screwball comedy, Twentieth Century, starring John Barrymore and Hawks' distant cousin Carole Lombard. It was based on a stage play by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur's book The It Happened One Night (released the same year) is considered to be the definitive film of the screwball comedy genre. Hawks named Edward G. Robinson and Miriam Hopkins in 1935, 1935. On the Barbary Coast, the Hawks reportedly persuaded them to film by promising to teach them a marble game. They'll switch between working on the script and playing with marbles at work days. 94 He made the aviation epic Ceiling Zero with James Cagney and Pat O'Brien in 1936. Edward Arnold, Joel McCrea, Frances Farmer, and Walter Brennan appeared in Come and Get It, a 1936 film. But he was shot by Samuel Goldwyn in the middle of the shooting, and William Wyler's film was completed.

For RKO Pictures, the Hawks produced the screwball comedy Bringing Up Baby in 1938. It starred Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn, was directed by Dudley Nichols and Hagar Wilde, and film critic Andrew Sarris referred to it as "the screwball comedies." Grant plays a nearsighted paleontologist who suffers one humiliation after another due to Hepburn's lovetruck socialite. The creative direction for Bringing Up Baby revolved around Grant and Hepburn's raw natural chemistry. The roles, along with Grant's portrayal of the paleontologist and Hepburn as an heiress, only contribute to the film's goal of blurring the boundary between the real and the imaginary. When first launched, Bringing Up Baby was a box office flop, and RKO fired Hawks due to severe losses; however, the film has since been regarded as one of Hawks' greatest masterpieces. The Hawks continued their success from 1951, beginning with the aviation drama Only Angels Have Wings, starring Cary Grant and which was released in 1939 by Columbia Pictures. It also stars Jean Arthur, Thomas Mitchell, Rita Hayworth, and Richard Barthelmess.

With His Girl Friday, starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell, the Hawks returned to the screwball comedy style in 1940. The film was an adaptation of Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur's hit Broadway play The Front Page, which had already been turned into a film in 1931. Not forgetting the influence Jesse Lasky had on his early career, the Hawks made Sergeant York, starring Gary Cooper as a pacifist farmer who later became a decorated World War I soldier. As a specific request to Lasky, Hawks directed the film and cast Cooper as a special favor. This was the highest-grossing film of 1941 and gained two Academy Awards (Best Actor and Best Editing), as well as winning Hawks his first nomination for Best Director. Later that year, the Hawks appeared in Ball of Fire, which also starred Barbara Stanwyck. Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett wrote the film, which is a light play on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Cooper employs street-wise Stanwyck to assist them with modern slang terms, and a sheltered, academic linguist who is writing an encyclopedia with six other scientists. Hawks began work on Howard Hughes-produced (and later directed) film The Outlaw, based on Billy the Kid's life and starring Jane Russell, in 1941. Hawks completed the initial shooting of the film in early 1941, but Hughes continued to re-shoot and re-edit the film until 1943, when the Hawks were officially released without him as director.

Hawks appeared in two films with real-life lovers Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall after making the World War II film Air Force in 1943 starring John Garfield and written by Nichols. Bogart, Bacall, Walter Brennan, and To Have and Have Not, which was released in 1944, is based on Ernest Hemingway's book "To Have and Have Not." Hawks was a close friend of Hemingway and bet with the author that he'd make a good film out of Hemingway's "poor book." After the Fall of France in 1940, Hawks, William Faulkner, and Jules Furthman collaborated on a script about an American fishing boat captain working out of French Martinique in the Caribbean and other areas of espionage. On the set of the film, Bogart and Bacall met and married soon afterwards. To have and have not been criticized as having a "rambling, slapped-together feeling" that contributes to a clumsy and dull film. The film, on the other hand, has been praised for its romantic plot and has been compared to Casablanca in terms of its feel. The movie's greatest strength has been reported to come from its setting and use of humor, which plays on Bacall's strengths and helps the film solidify the theme of beauty in a constant fight. With The Big Sleep, based on Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe detective book, Hawks reteamed with Bogart and Bacall in 1945 and 1946. An early 1945 version was substantially reduced to include the final United States release in 1946, with additional scenes emphasizing Bogart and Bacall's unique repartee chemistry. In comparison to Leigh Brackett, the film's screenplay also reunited Faulkner and Furthman. Curiously Raymond Chandler, who had been nominated for an Oscar for the 1944 "Double Indemnity" screenplay, was not allowed to help with the adaptation of his own best selling book. The Hawks made Red River, an epic western reminiscent of Mutiny on the Bounty starring John Wayne and Montgomery Clift in his first film. Later this year, Hawks revived his older film Ball of Fire as A Song Is Born, this time starring Danny Kaye and Virginia Mayo. This version follows the same plot but pays more attention to popular jazz music and features jazz legends like Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong, Lionel Hampton, and Benny Carter. In 1949, the Hawks reteamed with Cary Grant in the screwball comedy I Was a Male War Bride, also starring Ann Sheridan.

Hawks produced, and according to some, directed, A Science-fiction film called The Thing from Another World in 1951. "And let's get the record straight," director John Carpenter said. Howard Hawks directed the film. Howard Hawks' verifiably directed Howard Hawks. Christian Nyby, his editor, was given credit. The camaraderie, the group of men that must fight the evil, is also purely Hawksian, with the male characters having the same feeling: the camaraderie. He followed this with the 1952 western film The Big Sky, starring Kirk Douglas. Hawks appeared in the screwball comedy Monkey Business, which also starred Marilyn Monroe and Ginger Rogers in 1952. Grant, a scientist (reference to his appearance in Bringing Up Baby), creates a formula that increases his vigor. "Most organic comedy" was the film, according to film critic John Belton. Hawks' third film of 1952 was a contribution to the omnibus film O. Henry's Full House, which also included short stories by writer O. Henry made by various writers. Fred Allen, Oscar Levant, and Jeanne Crain appeared in Fred Allen's short film The Ransom of Red Chief.

In 1953, the Hawks released Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, which featured Marilyn Monroe's famously singing "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend." Monroe and Jane Russell appeared as two of the best friends of cabaret; many commentators claim that this film is the only female interpretation of the celebrated "buddy film" genre. Choreographer Jack Cole is usually responsible for staging the musical numbers, while Hawks is credited with directing the non-musical scenes. Hawks shot a film atypical within the context of his other film, Land of the Pharaohs, which is a sword-and-sandal epic about ancient Egypt starring Jack Hawkins and Joan Collins. The film was Hawks' last film collaboration with longtime friend William Faulkner before the author's death. In 1959, Hawks co-starred Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson, and Walter Brennan as four lawmen "defending the fort" of their local jail, in which a local criminal is facing a trial while his family attempts to catch him out. Furthman and Leigh Brackett, who had worked with Hawks before on The Big Sleep, contributed to the screenplay. Robin Wood, a film critic, has said that if he "were asked to choose a film that will justify the existence of Hollywood," it would be Rio Bravo."

In 1962, Hawks made Hatari, working with John Wayne, who plays a wild animals catcher in Africa. Leigh Brackett had also written it. Hawks' love of mechanics led him to design the camera-car hybrid that allowed him to film the hunting scenes in the film. Hawks performed his final comedy, Man's Favorite Sport, starring Rock Hudson (since Cary Grant felt he was too old for the role) and Paula Prentiss in 1964. With Red Line 7000, the Hawks returned to his childhood passion for auto racing, starring a young James Caan in his first leading role. Both of Hawks' last two films were Western remakes of Rio Bravo starring John Wayne and Leigh Brackett, and they were both written by Leigh Brackett. Wayne, Robert Mitchum, and Caan appeared in El Dorado, which was released the following year. In 1970, he founded Rio Lobo, with Wayne. The Hawks planned a project relating to Ernest Hemingway and "Now, Mr. Gus," a comedy about two male friends fighting for oil and money after Rio Lobo. He died in December 1977, before any of these programs were completed.

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