Knowra Howard Hawks Howard Hawks Howard Hawks (1896–1977) was an American film director, producer, and screenwriter whose films ranged from screwball comedy and film noir to westerns and war dramas.
Bringing Up Baby : A 1938 screwball comedy directed by Howard Hawks, starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant. Its escalating mishaps and fast overlapping dialogue exemplify Hawks’s comedy.
Hawksian dialogue : A style of rapid, overlapping dialogue associated with Howard Hawks’s films. It gives comedies such as His Girl Friday their famously compressed pace.
John Wayne : An American actor whose screen career included many westerns and action films. Wayne starred in several Hawks films, including Red River and Rio Bravo.
Silent film : A motion picture made without synchronized recorded dialogue, dominant before sound films became standard. Hawks began directing during the silent era, before dialogue became a defining feature of his films.
Auteur theory : A critical approach that treats a film director as a major creative author of films. Critics used Hawks’s recurring themes and style to argue for directorial authorship.
His Girl Friday : A 1940 screwball comedy directed by Howard Hawks, starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell. Rapid, overlapping dialogue turns a newsroom love story into a defining Hawks comedy.
Hawksian woman : A self-possessed, witty female character who engages as an equal in a Hawks film. The archetype names the assertive women who challenge or match male protagonists.
Cary Grant : A British-American actor known for his work in screwball comedies and romantic films. Grant’s comic performances anchor Bringing Up Baby and His Girl Friday.
Hollywood studio system : The vertically integrated system through which major Hollywood studios produced, distributed, and exhibited films. Hawks built much of his career within the studios’ production system.
French New Wave : A French film movement of the late 1950s and 1960s that challenged established filmmaking conventions. French New Wave critics helped elevate Hawks as a major American auteur.
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