Howard Hawks: American Artist.

• Author: ROTHENBERG, ROBERT S.
• Position: Review

Howard Hawks: American Artist Fox Lorber / 57 minutes / $19. 98

In a career that spanned more than a half-century, director Howard Hawks earned a reputation as an "efficient maker of hits." The French regarded him as a cinematic genius, with director Jean-Luc Godard labeling Hawks the greatest of American artists. For a filmmaker who treated his craft in an often cavalier manner--to the point where he would let others on the set, even crew members, suggest dialogue changes--Hawks nevertheless turned out a number of movies that pleased audiences and critics alike.

Born to a wealthy family that virtually owned most of Goshen, Ind., Hawks drifted to Hollywood, where he became friendly with Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford. She let him hang around her sets and eventually asked him to take over one of her silent films when the director failed to show up. Hawks became a journeyman director, finally coming up with his first critical success in 1932 with the original "Scarface," starring Paul Muni and funded by billionaire industrialist Howard Hughes.

Hawks was equally adept at screwball comedies ("Bringing Up Baby," "His Girl Friday"), drama ("Sergeant York," "A Star Is Born"), westerns ("Red River," "Rio Bravo"), and even musicals ("Gentlemen Prefer Blondes"). His movies were distinctive in the use of fast, overlapping dialogue, especially from the tough-talking, self-assured, sassy women--insolent as men--who invigorated his pictures. From Katharine Hepburn to Rosalind Russell, Lauren Bacall, Joanne Dru, and Angle Dickinson, his female characters held their own with a distinctly Hawksian flare.

Hawks was as colorful as the movies he turned out. He kept...