Hell's Angels is a 1930 American epic war film, directed by Howard Hughes and starring Jean Harlow, Ben Lyon, and James Hall. The film, which was produced by Hughes and was written by Harry Behn and Howard Estabrook, centers on the combat pilots of World War I. It was released by United Artists.[1][2]
Plot
Roy and Monte Rutledge are very different British brothers studying at Oxford together at the outset of World War I. Mild-mannered Roy is in love with and idealizes the wayward Helen, played by Jean Harlow. Monte, on the other hand, is a free-wheeling womanizer who can't refuse any woman's advances. A German student by the name of Karl is best friends to both. After the outbreak of World War I, Karl is recruited into the German Air Force and the two British brothers enlist in the Royal Flying Corps (RFC); Roy enthusiastically as a sense of duty and Monte doing so only to get a kiss from a girl at the recruiting station. After their training, Roy finally introduces Monte to Helen, who seduces Monte.
Meanwhile, Karl is serving aboard a zeppelin that is flying over London for an attack from high above the clouds. Karl is the bombardier as he is lowered below the cloud-line in a pod, but because of his love for England he directs the zeppelin over a pond on a farm and bombs that instead. Before his superiors find out, RFC fighters are summoned, including Roy and Monte, to shoot down the zeppelin. Unbeknownst to them, the airship commander decides to sacrifice Karl by cutting the cable that secures his pod in order to obtain more altitude and speed to escape the English fliers. The sacrifice is in vain, as is the suicide of several German personnel who jump ship "for Kaiser and fatherland" in a harrowing sequence. German machine gunners manage to shoot down Roy and Monte's plane, which has a deeply unsettling effect on the latter. After his machine guns jammed on him, the last English pilot aloft steers his fighter into the dirigible, killing all aboard in a blazing fireball.
Word gets around that Monte is developing a "yellow streak" and Roy is determined that his brother restore his reputation. In a fit of anger and under enormous pressure from Roy, the brothers both volunteer for a dangerous bombing mission over Germany.
In the night before the raid, Roy discovers Helen in the arms of another officer in a pub. When he tries to take her home, she causes a scene and publicly splits up with him, leaving him devastated.
After the successful raid on a German munitions dump an aerial dogfight ensues, the brothers are shot down and captured. Given the option of a firing squad or treason, Monte's yellow streak fires up again and he plans on giving the enemy any information they want when the Germans promise that his life will be spared. Roy is forced to act so as to protect the thousands of British troops that would be harmed should they squeal, so he kills Monte and then refuses to divulge any information to his captors and is killed by the firing squad.
The film ends with footage of British soldiers successfully attacking the German front lines.
Quotes
- "Would you be shocked if I put on something more comfortable?" — Jean Harlow as Helen
Cast
(in order of film credits)
| Actor |
Role |
| Ben Lyon |
Monte Rutledge |
| James Hall |
Roy Rutledge |
| Jean Harlow |
Helen |
| John Darrow |
Karl Armstedt |
| Lucien Prival |
Baron Von Kranz |
| Frank Clarke |
Lt. von Bruen |
| Roy Wilson |
Baldy Maloney |
| Douglas Gilmore |
Capt. Redfield |
| Jane Winton |
Baroness Von Kranz |
| Evelyn Hall |
Lady Randolph |
| William B. Davidson |
Staff Major |
| Wyndham Standing |
RFC squadron commander |
| Lena Melana |
Gretchen, waitress |
| Marian Marsh |
Girl selling kisses |
| Carl von Haartman |
Zeppelin commander |
| Ferdinand Schumann-Heink |
First Officer of zeppelin |
| Stephen Carr |
Elliott |
| Thomas Carr |
Pilot |
| Rupert Syme Macalister |
Pilot |
| J. Granville-Davis |
Pilot |
| Hans Joby |
Von Schlieben |
| Pat Somerset |
Marryat |
| Wilhelm von Brincken |
Von Richthofen |
Production
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 due to her pronounced Norwegian accent. He paid her for her work and cooperation and replaced her, because her accent would make her role as a British aristocrat ludicrous. The role was soon filled with a teenage up-and-coming star found by Hughes himself, Jean Harlow.
When Hughes made the decision to turn Hell's Angels into a talkie, he hired James Whale, who had just arrived in Hollywood following a successful turn directing the play Journey's End in London and on Broadway, to direct the talking sequences. This was Whale's first time directing a film. Unhappy with the script, Whale had Hughes bring in Joseph Moncure March to re-write it.[3]
The two scenes filmed in Technicolor provide the only color film footage of Harlow. During the shoot, Hughes designed many aerial stunts for the dogfighting scenes. Pioneering aerial Cinematographer, Elmer Dyer, captured many of the actual aerial scenes. Hughes hired actual World War I aces to fly the stunt planes, but they reportedly refused to fly for the final scene. The aviator in Hughes came out and he flew the scene, getting the shot. As the pilots predicted, however, he crashed the aircraft, escaping with only minor injuries.
Though Hughes escaped his crash with minor injuries, three other aviators and a mechanic were not as lucky. Aviator Al Johnson crashed after hitting wires while landing at Caddo Field, near Van Nuys, California. C. K. Phillips crashed while delivering an S.E.5 fighter to the Oakland shooting location. Rupert Syme Macalister, an Australian pilot, was also lost. Mechanic Phil Jones died during production after he failed to bail out before the crash of a German Gotha bomber.
There are many traits of pre-code Hollywood in this movie. In addition to some fairly frank sexuality, there is a surprising amount of adult language (for the time) during the final dogfight sequence, i.e. "son of a bitch", "goddamn it", and "for Christ's sake".
Reception
Hell's Angels received its premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood on May 24, 1930. All the stars and makers of the film attended, as well as Buster Keaton, Dolores del Río, Norma Talmadge, Mary Pickford, Billie Dove, Douglas Fairbanks, and Charlie Chaplin with his girlfriend Georgia Hale. A program with leather cover was designed for the premiere by famed aviation illustrator, Clayton Knight.
While Harlow, Lyon, and Hall received mixed reviews for their acting, Hughes was praised for his hard work on the filming and aircraft sequences. The film went into general release on November 15, 1930 in the United States and did quite well at the box office, earning nearly $8 million, about double the production and advertising costs. After inflation, this is roughly equivalent to $102 million as of 24 November 2009
Like many other classic films, Hell's Angels has been re-released on VHS and DVD formats by Universal Studios, which in later years acquired the rights to the film.
In its original British release, the censor cut more than 30 minutes from the film.[4]
In 1962 Stanley Kubrick cited Hell's Angels as one of his 10 favorite movies.
Martin Scorsese's The Aviator, a 2004 biopic on Hughes, deals in large part with the making of Hell's Angels and its premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theatre.
See also
References
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Curtis, James. James Whale: A New World of Gods and Monsters. Boston: Faber and Faber,1998. ISBN 0-57119-285-8.
- Dolan Edward F. Jr. Hollywood Goes to War. London: Bison Books, 1985. ISBN 0-86124-229-7.
- Hardwick, Jack and Ed Schnepf. "A Viewer's Guide to Aviation Movies". The Making of the Great Aviation Films, General Aviation Series, Volume 2, 1989.
- Orriss, Bruce. When Hollywood Ruled the Skies: The Aviation Film Classics of World War II. Hawthorne, California: Aero Associates Inc., 1984. ISBN 0-9613088-0-X.
- "Production of 'Hell's Angels' Cost the Lives of Three Aviators." Syracuse Herald, December 28, 1930, p. 59.
- Robertson, Patrick. Film Facts. New York: Billboard Books, 2001. ISBN 0-82307-943-0.
External links
