Hell's Angels (film)
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Hell's Angels was a 1930 film directed by Howard Hughes.
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[edit] Production
In 1929, aviation mogul Howard Hughes, fresh off the Oscar nomination for his film The Racket, decided to make his next film about the dogfighters of World War I and their "magnificent airplanes" as Hughes called them. Hughes poured money into the production, which he named Hell's Angels, filling it with death-defying airplane stunts, international locations, and scenes in Multicolor (print by Technicolor and the Handschiegl Color Process) all of which worked to eventually make the production cost $3.8 million.
Originally, the film was to star James Hall and Ben Lyon as Roy and Monte Rutledge, and Norwegian silent film star Greta Nissen as Helen, the female lead, and was to be directed by Marshall Neilan. Before the picture even began filming, Hughes' overbearing production techniques forced Neilan to quit. Hughes took over the directing reins, assisted by Luther Reed. Midway through production, the advent of the sound motion picture came with the arrival of The Jazz Singer. Hughes incorporated the new technology into the half finished film, but the first casualty of the sound age became Greta Nissen and her Norwegian accent. He paid her for her work and cooperation and fired her, because her accent would make her role as a British aristrocrat ludicrous. The role was soon filled with a teenage up-and-coming star found by Hughes himself, Jean Harlow. The two color scenes provide the only color glimpse of Harlow on film. During the shoot, Hughes designed many aerial stunts for the dogfighting scenes. He hired actual WWI aces to fly the stunt planes, but after three of them died in the extreme sequences, the rest refused to fly for the final scene, saying that they were sure to crash. The aviator in Hughes came out and he flew the scene, getting the shot. As the pilots predicted, however, he crashed the plane, escaping with only minor injuries.
Hell's Angels premiered at the Grauman's Chinese Theater on May 24, 1930 with the stars and makers of the film attending plus Charles Chaplin (accompanied by girlfriend Georgia Hale), Buster Keaton, Dolores del Rio, Norma Talmadge, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks. While Harlow, Lyon, and Hall received mixed reviews for their acting, Hughes was praised for his hard work on the filming and aircraft sequences. It did quite well at the box office and earned nearly $8 million, about double the production and marketing costs. This is equivalent to around $90 million in today's (2006) money.
[edit] Plot
Roy and Monte Rutledge are very different brothers studying at Oxford together at the outset of WWI. Mild-mannered Roy is in love with and idealizes the wayward Helen. Monte, on the other hand, is a free-wheeling womanizer who can't refuse Helen's advances. After the outbreak of WWI the two enlist--Roy enthusiastically and Monte reluctantly--in the Royal Flying Corps. It is here that Roy learns of Helen's duplicitous nature. The two brothers volunteer for a dangerous bombing mission. After the successful raid on a German munitions dump an aerial dogfight ensues, the brothers are shot down and captured. Given the option of firing squad or treason, Monte relents. However Roy shoots him before he can reveal anything and is subsequently executed himself for refusing to give up strategic information.
[edit] Quotes
"Would you be shocked if I put on something more comfortable?" ― Jean Harlow as Helen
[edit] The Aviator
The production of Hell's Angels is depicted in Martin Scorsese's 2004 film, The Aviator, a biopic of Howard Hughes (who is played by Leonardo DiCaprio). The sequence emphasises the problems caused by Hughes' extravagant insistence on a convincing on-screen depiction of the action.
