HELL'S ANGELS Movie Review
1930 Howard Hughes
Millionaire Howard Hughes's directorial debut is a glorious mess. Despite an extended shooting schedule that encompassed monumental technical obstacles, it is still absurdly entertaining. When production began in 1927, the film was intended to be a silent picture. Then sound was introduced and the producers made adjustments, including the replacement of Norwegian female lead Greta Nissen with Jean Harlow. Whatever the case, Hughes wound up making a film about his two favorite subjects—fast airplanes and hot blondes.
Seen as a depiction of World War I, Hell's Angels doesn't compare well to the three most famous contemporaneous films. It lacks even the romanticized “realism” that Wings and Dawn Patrol brought to the air war, and it doesn't even attempt the gritty naturalism of All Quiet on the Western Front. Instead, it's more enjoyable today seen strictly as a “guy flick,” with one incredibly sexy heroine and lots of explosions and vivid flying sequences.
The main characters are the Rutledge brothers, both students at Oxford. Roy (James Hall) is the older and steadier of the two. Monte (Ben Lyon) is a party-hearty frat boy. Roy enlists as soon as war is declared. Monte has to be persuaded, and their friend Karl (John Darrow) so prefers England to his native Germany that he doesn't want to leave when he's called home. While they're sorting things out, lusty socialite Helen (Harlow), is making her own plans to support the troops. Roy loves and wants to marry her, but Monte realizes that she has no intention of settling down. The famous scene where she invites Monte up to her apartment—and says “Would you be shocked if I put on something more comfortable"—establishes a level of sexual frankness that wouldn't be equalled for decades. It also contributed to the establishment of the Hollywood Production Code Administration of the Hays Office, under whose strict guidelines even the film's title would not have been permitted. The platinum blonde herself literally glows on screen. Her minimalist diaphanous gowns leave little to the imagination and her character's unashamed sensuality is still bracing.
When director Hughes is able to tear his cameras away from her, the aerial action is remarkable. An extended zeppelin attack on London employs such imaginative special effects that it becomes virtual science fiction with tinges of David Lynch weirdness and odd sexual imagery. The dogfights and bombing raids in the second half are more conventional WWI fare, and they're filmed with dozens of real biplanes in the sky. Today, it would be almost impossible to re-create that first-rate stunt work with real aircraft and pilots.
The romantic element and the flying element have virtually nothing to do with each other, and so the plot is loose and mostly unfocused. Because of that, the film is also totally unpredictable. It veers wildly and without transition from one extraordinary event to the next, and the conclusion is the most astonishing part of all. In the end, Hell's Angels may not have much to say about World War I, but it's one of the sound era's first great guilty pleasures.
Cast: Jean Harlow (Helen), Ben Lyon (Monte Rutledge), James Hall (Roy Rutledge), John Darrow (Karl Armstedt), Lucien Prival (Baron Von Kranz), Frank Clarke (Lt. Von Buren), Roy “Baldy” Wilson (Baldy Maloney), Douglas Gilmore (Capt. Redfield), Jane Winton (Baroness Von Kranz), Evelyn Hall (Lady Randolph); Written by: Harry Behn, Howard Estabrook, Joseph Moncure March; Cinematography by: Elmer Dyer, Harry Perry, E. Burton Steene, Dewey Wrigley, Gaetano Antonio “Tony” Gaudio; Music by: Hugo Riesenfeld. Producer: Howard Hughes. Awards: Nominations: Academy Awards ‘30: Best Cinematography. Budget: 3.95M. Running Time: 135 minutes. Format: VHS.