“What are Howard Hawks’s Best Movies?” We looked at all of Hawks’s directed filmography and ranked them against one another to answer that very question!

We took all of the movies directed by Howard Hawks and looked at their Rotten Tomato Critic, Rotten Tomato User, IMDB, and Letterboxd scores, ranking them against one another to see which movies came out on top. The movies are ranked in our list below based on which movies have the highest overall score between all 6 review sites in comparison with all of the other movies by the same director. The process is all very scientific with no flaws at all.

The full ranking chart is also included below the countdown on the bottom of the page.

Happy Viewing!

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The Top Film’s Of Howard Hawks

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43 ) Fazil

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 27
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 34
• IMDB User Review Score: 40
• Letterboxd User Score: 38

An Arab prince born and raised in the desert and a beautiful Frenchwoman from Paris fall in love and marry, but the tremendous differences in their backgrounds and the cultural differences between their two different societies put strains on their marriage that may well prove irreparable.

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42 ) Today We Live

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 27
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 32
• IMDB User Review Score: 42
• Letterboxd User Score: 36

The two lovers are living together and are not married as they hesitantly explain to her brother. They had made a promise as children to get married when they grew up, but they “didn’t wait.” It’s an important plot point as it drives Cooper’s actions when he discovers that Crawford and Young are living in sin.

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41 ) The Cradle Snatchers

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 27
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 34
• IMDB User Review Score: 35
• Letterboxd User Score: 38

To cure their flirtatious husbands of consorting with flappers, three wives -Susan Martin, Ethel Drake, and Kitty Ladd- arrange with three college boys -Henry Winton, Oscar, and Joe Valley- to flirt with them at a house party. Joe Valley, who poses as a hot-blooded Spaniard, is vamped by Ginsberg in female attire, and Oscar, a bashful Swede, uses caveman methods when aroused. During a rehearsal of the party, the three husbands arrive, followed by their flapper friends, leading to comic complications that are resolved

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39 ) The Prizefighter and the Lady

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 27
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 34
• IMDB User Review Score: 38
• Letterboxd User Score: 30

An ex-sailor turned boxer finds romance and gets a shot at the heavyweight title.

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39 ) Viva Villa!

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 27
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 34
• IMDB User Review Score: 35
• Letterboxd User Score: 33

In this fictionalized biography, young Pancho Villa takes to the hills after killing an overseer in revenge for his father’s death.

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38 ) Paid to Love

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 27
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 34
• IMDB User Review Score: 29
• Letterboxd User Score: 38

An American banker goes to a small Balkan country looking to invest his bank’s money and shore up the country’s weak economy in order to maximize the return on their investment. Towards that end he befriends the country’s king and they come up with a scheme to get the Crown Prince married, a prospect not particularly appealing to the Crown Prince–until he sees the beautiful cabaret dancer the pair has picked for him to marry. Written by frankfob2@yahoo.com

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35 ) Fig Leaves

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 27
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 34
• IMDB User Review Score: 34
• Letterboxd User Score: 30

In the modern day (1920s) story, Adam, a plumber, is happily married to Eve, a wardrobe-obsessed housewife, until she accidentally meets a supercilious fashion designer. At the prompting of her neighbour, who has secret designs on Adam, Eve secretly becomes a fashion model by day, knowing that her husband would disapprove. This tale is book-ended by a sequence of the two principals in the Garden of Eden, having the same preoccupations amid the dinosaurs and boulders.

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35 ) Tiger Shark

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 27
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 33
• IMDB User Review Score: 35
• Letterboxd User Score: 30

A Portuguese tuna fisherman (Edward G. Robinson) catches his bride (Zita Johann) with his first mate (Richard Arlen).

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35 ) The Outlaw

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 15
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 30
• IMDB User Review Score: 43
• Letterboxd User Score: 37

Newly appointed sheriff Pat Garrett is pleased when his old friend Doc Holliday arrives in Lincoln, New Mexico on the stage. Doc is trailing his stolen horse, and it is discovered in the possession of Billy the Kid. In a surprising turnaround, Billy and Doc become friends. This causes the friendship between Doc and Pat to cool. The odd relationship between Doc and Billy grows stranger when Doc hides Billy at his girl, Rio’s, place after Billy is shot.

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34 ) Trent’s Last Case

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 27
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 34
• IMDB User Review Score: 25
• Letterboxd User Score: 38

Trent’s Last Case (1929) is an American detective film directed by Howard Hawks, starring Raymond Griffith, Marceline Day, Raymond Hatton, and Donald Crisp, and released by Fox Film Corporation. The film was released in a silent version and a sound version, with the sound version having talking sequences, a synchronized music score, and sound effects.[1] The film is based on the novel Trent’s Last Case by British writer E. C. Bentley. A previous version starring Clive Brook was filmed in the UK in 1920 and released by Stoll Film Company.

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33 ) Land of the Pharaohs

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 21
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 29
• IMDB User Review Score: 33
• Letterboxd User Score: 33

In ancient Egypt the Pharaoh Khufu is obsessed with acquiring gold and plans to take it all with him into the “second life.” To this end he enlists the aid of Vashtar, an architect whose people are enslaved in Egypt. The deal: build a robbery-proof tomb and the enslaved people will be freed. During the years that the pyramid is being built a Cyprian princess becomes the pharaoh’s second wife, and she plots to prevent Khufu from taking his treasure with him when he dies .. as well as helping him make the journey early.

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31 ) Red Line 7000

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 25
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 31
• IMDB User Review Score: 41
• Letterboxd User Score: 18

The story of three racing drivers and three women, who constantly have to worry for the lives of their boyfriends. Jim Loomis and Mike Marsh drive for Pat Cassarian. Jim expects his fiancée Holly, but before she arrives, he dies in a race. Since she hasn’t got the money to travel back, she stays. The young and very ambitious talent Ned Arp joins the team and immediately starts wooing Pat’s sister Julie. Third in the team is womanizer Dan McCall, who brings with him his current girlfriend Gabrielle from Paris. So the basic theme of this soap is “Who with whom?” Written by Tom Zoerner

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31 ) The Crowd Roars

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 27
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 26
• IMDB User Review Score: 38
• Letterboxd User Score: 24

Famous motor-racing champion Joe Greer returns to his hometown to compete in a local race. He discovers his younger brother has aspirations to become a racing champion, and during the race Joe loses his nerve when another driver is killed, leaving his brother to win. Joe’s luck takes a plunge whilst his brother rises to height of fame.

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30 ) A Girl in Every Port

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 27
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 34
• IMDB User Review Score: 29
• Letterboxd User Score: 18

Two sailors with a rivalry over chasing women become friends. But when one decides to finally settle down, will this mysterious young women come between them?

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29 ) Rio Lobo

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 22
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 19
• IMDB User Review Score: 29
• Letterboxd User Score: 33

After the Civil War, Cord McNally searches for the traitor whose perfidy caused the defeat of McNally’s unit and the loss of a close friend.

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27 ) O. Henry’s Full House

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 27
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 34
• IMDB User Review Score: 15
• Letterboxd User Score: 24

Five O. Henry stories, each separate. The primary one from the critic’s acclaim was “The Cop and the Anthem”. Soapy tells fellow bum Horace that he is going to get arrested so he can spend the winter in a nice jail cell. He fails. He can’t even accost a woman; she turns out to be a streetwalker. The other stories are “The Clarion Call”, “The Last Leaf”, “The Ransom of Red Chief”, and “The Gift of the Magi”.

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27 ) The Air Circus

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 27
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 34
• IMDB User Review Score: 1
• Letterboxd User Score: 38

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26 ) Ceiling Zero

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 27
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 25
• IMDB User Review Score: 28
• Letterboxd User Score: 15

War veteran pilots Dizzy Davis, Texas Clark and Jake Lee are working in an airline. Dizzy is fooling with one of the younger pilot’s girl-friend and due to this he changes flights with Texas.

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25 ) The Criminal Code

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 27
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 28
• IMDB User Review Score: 20
• Letterboxd User Score: 18

A wily D.A.(Brady) gets a 10 year conviction of a young 20 year old (Robert Graham)who he knows killed a man in self defense. Years later Brady becomes warden of the prison holding Graham. When Brady realizes that 6 years of working in the prison jute mill has pushed Graham to the breaking point, he gives him a chance- a new job as his valet. Graham responds well and earns the respect of both the warden and his beautiful daughter. Graham’s mettle is put to the test when he stumbles onto a prison murder committed by his cell-mate. He must choose between the criminal code of silence and the warden’s strong persuasion to reveal the killer.

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24 ) Monkey Business

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 16
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 23
• IMDB User Review Score: 25
• Letterboxd User Score: 24

Barnaby Fulton is a research chemist working on a fountain of youth pill for a chemical company. One of the labs chimps, Esther, gets loose in the laboratory and, having watched Dr Fulton do something similar, mixes a beaker of chemicals, but then pours the mix into the water cooler. Later, when trying one of his own samples sample, washed down with water from the cooler, Fulton begins to act just like a 20-year-old and believes his potion is working. Soon his wife and boss are also behaving like children.

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22 ) Come and Get It

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 14
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 24
• IMDB User Review Score: 25
• Letterboxd User Score: 24

An ambitious lumberjack abandons his saloon girl lover so that he can marry into wealth, but years later becomes infatuated with the woman’s daughter.

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22 ) The Road to Glory

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 27
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 7
• IMDB User Review Score: 15
• Letterboxd User Score: 38

May McAvoy is a woman who is blinded in an auto accident and relies on prayer to regain her sight.

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21 ) A Song Is Born

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 26
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 14
• IMDB User Review Score: 20
• Letterboxd User Score: 24

The story of seven scholars (including Danny Kaye and Benny Goodman) in search of an expert to teach them about swing music. They seem to have found the perfect candidate in winsome nightclub singer Honey Swanson (Virginia Mayo). But Honey’s gangster boyfriend doesn’t want to give her up.

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20 ) Barbary Coast

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 1
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 27
• IMDB User Review Score: 29
• Letterboxd User Score: 24

Mary Rutledge arrives from the east, finds her fiance dead, and goes to work at the roulette wheel of Louis Charnalis’ Bella Donna, a rowdy gambling house in San Francisco in the 1850s. She falls in love with miner Carmichael and takes his gold dust at the wheel. She goes after him, Louis goes after her with intent to harm Carmichael.

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19 ) I Was a Male War Bride

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 20
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 20
• IMDB User Review Score: 20
• Letterboxd User Score: 18

Captain Henri Rochard is a French officer assigned to work with Lieut. Catherine Gates. Through a wacky series of misadventures, they fall in love and marry. When the war ends, Capt. Rochard tries to return to America with the other female war brides. Zany gender-confusing antics follow.

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18 ) Air Force

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 16
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 20
• IMDB User Review Score: 20
• Letterboxd User Score: 18

The crew of an Air Force bomber arrives in Pearl Harbor in the aftermath of the Japanese attack and is sent on to Manila to help with the defense of the Philippines.

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17 ) Man’s Favorite Sport?

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 24
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 17
• IMDB User Review Score: 17
• Letterboxd User Score: 11

Rock Hudson is Roger Willoughby, a renowned fishing expert, who, unbeknownst to his friends, co-workers, or boss, has never cast a line in his life. One day, he crosses paths with Abigail Paige (Paula Prentiss), a sweetly annoying girl who has just badgered his boss into signing Roger up for an annual fishing tournament.

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16 ) The Dawn Patrol

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 27
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 17
• IMDB User Review Score: 7
• Letterboxd User Score: 15

World War I ace Dick Courtney derides the leadership of his superior officer, but Courtney is soon promoted to squadron commander and learns harsh lessons about sending subordinates to their deaths.

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15 ) Hatari!

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 23
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 14
• IMDB User Review Score: 17
• Letterboxd User Score: 11

A group of men trap wild animals in Africa and sell them to zoos. Will the arrival of a female wildlife photographer change their ways?

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14 ) The Big Sky

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 1
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 22
• IMDB User Review Score: 20
• Letterboxd User Score: 18

Kirk Douglas stars as the determined leader of a band of Tennessee fur trappers who set out to explore the uncharted Missouri river in 1830 and find them selves battling American Indians.

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13 ) Twentieth Century

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 16
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 16
• IMDB User Review Score: 7
• Letterboxd User Score: 11

Oscar Jaffe is a successful Broadway director, Lily Garland his biggest star. When she leaves his direction, his success goes with her. When he recognizes her aboard the Twentieth Century Limited, the train that both of them are riding, he tries to get her back for a new show. But accomplishing that feat isn’t as simple as he had thought.

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11 ) Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 9
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 12
• IMDB User Review Score: 17
• Letterboxd User Score: 11

Lorelei Lee is a beautiful showgirl engaged to be married to the wealthy Gus Esmond, much to the disapproval of Gus’ rich father, Esmond Sr., who thinks that Lorelei is just after his money. When Lorelei goes on a cruise accompanied only by her best friend, Dorothy Shaw, Esmond Sr. hires Ernie Malone, a private detective, to follow her and report any questionable behavior that would disqualify her from the marriage.

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11 ) Sergeant York

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 19
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 8
• IMDB User Review Score: 7
• Letterboxd User Score: 15

Alvin York a hillbilly sharpshooter transforms himself from ruffian to religious pacifist. He is then called to serve his country and despite deep religious and moral objections to fighting becomes one of the most celebrated American heroes of WWI.

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10 ) El Dorado

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 1
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 8
• IMDB User Review Score: 14
• Letterboxd User Score: 10

Cole Thornton, a gunfighter for hire, joins forces with an old friend, Sheriff J.P. Hara. Together with an old indian fighter and a gambler, they help a rancher and his family fight a rival rancher that is trying to steal their water.

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9 ) Only Angels Have Wings

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 1
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 13
• IMDB User Review Score: 13
• Letterboxd User Score: 3

Geoff Carter is the head of a crumbling air freight service in desperate need of a replacement pilot. He is forced to hire a descredited aviator who arrives with his wife, Carter’s ex-lover. Meanwhile, traveler Bonnie Lee tries to get close to the emotionally closed-off Carter.

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8 ) Scarface

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 1
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 11
• IMDB User Review Score: 7
• Letterboxd User Score: 9

Big Louis Costillo, last of the old-style gang leaders is slain, and his former bodyguard Tony Camonte is taken into custody. Since Costillo’s body has never been found, the police have to release him, though they strongly suspect Johnny Lovo paid Tony to remove Big Louis. Tony begins taking over the rackets in town with violent enforcement, and he becomes a threat to Johnny and the other bosses unless they work for Tony. Meanwhile, Tony’s sister wants to be more independent, but finds it difficult to escape from her brother’s overprotective grasp. The dissatisfaction of the other bosses and the relentless pursuit of the police push Tony towards a major confrontation.

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7 ) Bringing Up Baby

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 13
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 3
• IMDB User Review Score: 2
• Letterboxd User Score: 5

David Huxley is waiting to get a bone he needs for his museum collection. Through a series of strange circumstances, he meets Susan Vance, and the duo have a series of misadventures which include a leopard called Baby.

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5 ) To Have and Have Not

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 11
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 3
• IMDB User Review Score: 2
• Letterboxd User Score: 5

A Martinique charter boat skipper gets mixed up with the underground French resistance operatives during WWII.

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5 ) Red River

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 1
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 8
• IMDB User Review Score: 7
• Letterboxd User Score: 5

Dunson is driving his cattle to Red River when his adopted son, Matthew, turns against him.

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4 ) The Big Sleep

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 12
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 1
• IMDB User Review Score: 2
• Letterboxd User Score: 3

Private Investigator Philip Marlowe is hired by wealthy General Sternwood regarding a matter involving his youngest daughter Carmen. Before the complex case is over, Marlowe sees murder, blackmail, deception, and what might be love.

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3 ) Ball of Fire

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 1
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 3
• IMDB User Review Score: 7
• Letterboxd User Score: 5

A group of academics have spent years shut up in a house working on the definitive encyclopedia. When one of them discovers that his entry on slang is hopelessly outdated, he ventures into the wide world to learn about the evolving language. Here he meets Sugarpuss O’Shea, a nightclub singer, who’s on top of all the slang and, it just so happens, needs a place to stay.

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2 ) His Girl Friday

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 9
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 3
• IMDB User Review Score: 2
• Letterboxd User Score: 1

Hildy, the journalist former wife of newspaper editor Walter Burns, visits his office to inform him that she’s engaged and will be getting remarried the next day. Walter can’t let that happen and frames the fiancé, Bruce Baldwin, for one thing after another, to keep him temporarily held in prison, while trying to steer Hildy into returning to her old job as his employee.

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1 ) Rio Bravo

Review Website Ranks:

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 1
• Rotten Tomatoes Users: 1
• IMDB User Review Score: 2
• Letterboxd User Score: 1

The sheriff of a small town in southwest Texas must keep custody of a murderer whose brother, a powerful rancher, is trying to help him escape. After a friend is killed trying to muster support for him, he and his deputies – a disgraced drunk and a cantankerous old cripple – must find a way to hold out against the rancher’s hired guns until the marshal arrives. In the meantime, matters are complicated by the presence of a young gunslinger – and a mysterious beauty who just came in on the last stagecoach.

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Howard Hawks’s Best Movies

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Howard Hawks Review Website Filmography Rankings

Film	RT Critic	RT User	IMDB	Letterboxd	Overal Rank
Rio Bravo	1	1	2	1	1
His Girl Friday	9	3	2	1	2
Ball of Fire	1	3	7	5	3
The Big Sleep	12	1	2	3	4
To Have and Have Not	11	3	2	5	5
Red River	1	8	7	5	5
Bringing Up Baby	13	3	2	5	7
Scarface	1	11	7	9	8
Only Angels Have Wings	1	13	13	3	9
El Dorado	1	8	14	10	10
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes	9	12	17	11	11
Sergeant York	19	8	7	15	11
Twentieth Century	16	16	7	11	13
The Big Sky	1	22	20	18	14
Hatari!	23	14	17	11	15
The Dawn Patrol	27	17	7	15	16
Man’s Favorite Sport?	24	17	17	11	17
Air Force	16	20	20	18	18
I Was a Male War Bride	20	20	20	18	19
Barbary Coast	1	27	29	24	20
A Song Is Born	26	14	20	24	21
Come and Get It	14	24	25	24	22
The Road to Glory	27	7	15	38	22
Monkey Business	16	23	25	24	24
The Criminal Code	27	28	20	18	25
Ceiling Zero	27	25	28	15	26
O. Henry’s Full House	27	34	15	24	27
The Air Circus	27	34	1	38	27
Rio Lobo	22	19	29	33	29
A Girl in Every Port	27	34	29	18	30
Red Line 7000	25	31	41	18	31
The Crowd Roars	27	26	38	24	31
Land of the Pharaohs	21	29	33	33	33
Trent’s Last Case	27	34	25	38	34
Fig Leaves	27	34	34	30	35
Tiger Shark	27	33	35	30	35
The Outlaw	15	30	43	37	35
Paid to Love	27	34	29	38	38
The Prizefighter and the Lady	27	34	38	30	39
Viva Villa!	27	34	35	33	39
The Cradle Snatchers	27	34	35	38	41
Today We Live	27	32	42	36	42
Fazil	27	34	40	38	43