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Hell's Angels (film)
Encyclopedia
Hell's Angels is a 1930 American war film
, directed by Howard Hughes
and starring Jean Harlow
, Ben Lyon
, and James Hall
. The film, which was produced by Hughes and written by Harry Behn
and Howard Estabrook, centers on the combat pilots of World War I. It was released by United Artists
.
together at the onset of World War I. Mild-mannered Roy is in love with and idealizes the apparently demure, but 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-observer 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 are the suicides of fellow German crewman who lighten the ship by obediently leaping to their deaths "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.
Later, in France, word gets around that Monte—who has found excuses not to take his turn on a dangerous night mission—is developing a "yellow streak". Under pressure to prove that he is not yellow, Monte volunteers for an even more dangerous mission, to act as a bombardier-machine gunner on a captured German bomber which will attempt to destroy a vital enemy weapons depot. If shot down and captured, rather than being killed outright, it is likely that Monte will face a German firing squad as a spy. Roy quickly volunteers to go on the raid as pilot for his brother.
The night just before the raid, Roy discovers Helen in the arms of another officer in a night club. When he tries to take her home, she turns aggressively on him and reveals that she never loved him, that she is, in fact, not the young innocent he believed her to be. Roy is emotionally devastated, but he almost drags the half-drunk Monte away from a pair of wild girls to get him back to the airfield.
The raid on the German munitions dump is successful. However, they've been spotted by a German fighter squadron (Manfred von Richthofen
and his Flying Circus). Roy defends the bomber with a machine gun until British fighters arrive to take part in the fray. 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. He's ready to give the enemy any information they want, on the German general's promise that his life will be spared. The general is the same man that Roy had a duel with in Germany at the beginning of the film (although he was pretending to be his brother). Roy is forced to act in order to protect thousands of British troops who would be harmed in an impending attack should they tell the Germans what they know. Roy tricks the German into giving him a gun to kill the other English officer he has convinced the German is his rival in a love triangle. For use of the gun, he tells the general, he will give him the information he desires. The canny general gives Roy the gun with just one bullet and has him escorted back to his cell. There, Monte breaks down. He'll tell the Germans everything he knows. Roy shoots him, then cradles his dying brother. In a touching emotional scene, Monte tells Roy that he did the right thing. British soldiers' lives will be saved. The German general arrives in time to witness the tender relationship of the two brothers, and Monte dies. Roy says that he'll tell the Germans nothing. Realizing that he has been tricked, the German has Roy executed by firing squad.
On returning to his war room, the German hears the sounds of a massive bombardment. A British attack on the German front lines has successfully begun.
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
; a few weeks into production, however, Hughes' overbearing production techniques forced Neilan to quit. Hughes then hired a more pliable director, Edmund Goulding
, but took over the directing reins when it came to the frenetic aerial battle scenes. 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 a then-unknown 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; it was Whale's film debut, and arguably prepared him for the later success he would have with the feature version of Journey's End
, Waterloo Bridge
, and, most famously, the 1931
version of Frankenstein
. Unhappy with the script, Whale brought in Joseph Moncure March
to re-write it. Hughes later gave March the Luger pistol used in the famous execution scene of the film's ending.
The two talking scenes filmed in Multicolor
but printed by Technicolor
, provide the only color film footage of Jean Harlow. (Multicolor was not prepared to print the number of inserts needed for the wide release Hughes wanted.) The inexperienced actress, just 18 years old at the time she was cast, required a great deal of attention from Whale, who shut down production for three days while he worked Harlow through her scenes.
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 pilots 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. 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 killed. Mechanic Phil Jones died during production after he failed to bail out before the crash of a German Gotha bomber, piloted by Al Wilson
, which had been doubled by Igor Sikorsky
's Sikorsky S-29-A
, his first biplane built after his arrival in the United States.
Due to the delay while Hughes tinkered with the flying scenes, Whale managed to entirely shoot his film adaptation of Journey's End and have it come out a month before Hell's Angels was released; the gap between completion of the dialogue scenes and completion of the aerial combat stunts allowed Whale to be paid, sail back to England, and begin work on the subsequent project, making Whale's actual (albeit uncredited) cinema debut, his second film to be released.
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".
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 $ million as of 1 January 2010.
The film received an Academy Award nomination for the Best Cinematography
(Tony Gaudio
and Harry Perry).
, 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.
In 1962, film director Stanley Kubrick
cited Hell's Angels as one of his 10 favorite movies that influenced his later career. The 1977 TV film The Amazing Howard Hughes
has one passage where Hughes (Tommy Lee Jones
) directs the Zeppelin
segment over and over in non-stop takes. Martin Scorsese
's The Aviator, a 2004 biopic of Hughes, deals in part with the making of Hell's Angels and its premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theatre
.
The involvement of Howard Hughes in this film has spawned a fascinating niche within entertainment, aviation and militaria collectible enthusiasts. Aviation enthusiasts regularly reference the quality and authenticity of World War I aviation in the film. The Luger pistol used in the final scene has generated some recent publicity due to its public auction scheduled in the fall of 2011.
War film
War films are a film genre concerned with warfare, usually about naval, air or land battles, sometimes focusing instead on prisoners of war, covert operations, military training or other related subjects. At times war films focus on daily military or civilian life in wartime without depicting battles...
, directed by Howard Hughes
Howard Hughes
Howard Robard Hughes, Jr. was an American business magnate, investor, aviator, engineer, film producer, director, and philanthropist. He was one of the wealthiest people in the world...
and starring Jean Harlow
Jean Harlow
Jean Harlow was an American film actress and sex symbol of the 1930s. Known as the "Blonde Bombshell" and the "Platinum Blonde" , Harlow was ranked as one of the greatest movie stars of all time by the American Film Institute...
, Ben Lyon
Ben Lyon
Ben Lyon was an American film actor and a 20th Century Fox studio executive.-Life:Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Lyon entered films in 1918 after a successful appearance on Broadway opposite Jeanne Eagels. He attracted attention in the highly successful film Flaming Youth , and steadily developed into...
, and James Hall
James Hall (actor)
James Hall was an American film actor. Born James E. Brown in Dallas, Texas, Hall began his film career during the silent film era. He made his sound film debut in the 1929 film The Canary Murder Case, opposite William Powell and Louise Brooks. In 1930, Hall co-starred in Howard Hughes' epic film...
. The film, which was produced by Hughes and written by Harry Behn
Harry Behn
Harry Behn, also known as Giles Behn, was an American screenwriter and children's author.-Early life:Harry Behn was born in 1898 in McCabe, Arizona, which is now a ghost town, in Yavapai County in what was then the Arizona Territory. He was the son of Henry K...
and Howard Estabrook, centers on the combat pilots of World War I. It was released by United Artists
United Artists
United Artists Corporation is an American film studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks....
.
Plot
Roy and Monte Rutledge are very different British brothers studying at OxfordUniversity of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
together at the onset of World War I. Mild-mannered Roy is in love with and idealizes the apparently demure, but 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
Royal Flying Corps
The Royal Flying Corps was the over-land air arm of the British military during most of the First World War. During the early part of the war, the RFC's responsibilities were centred on support of the British Army, via artillery co-operation and photographic reconnaissance...
(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
Zeppelin
A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship pioneered by the German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin in the early 20th century. It was based on designs he had outlined in 1874 and detailed in 1893. His plans were reviewed by committee in 1894 and patented in the United States on 14 March 1899...
that is flying over London for an attack from high above the clouds. Karl is the bombardier-observer 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 are the suicides of fellow German crewman who lighten the ship by obediently leaping to their deaths "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.
Later, in France, word gets around that Monte—who has found excuses not to take his turn on a dangerous night mission—is developing a "yellow streak". Under pressure to prove that he is not yellow, Monte volunteers for an even more dangerous mission, to act as a bombardier-machine gunner on a captured German bomber which will attempt to destroy a vital enemy weapons depot. If shot down and captured, rather than being killed outright, it is likely that Monte will face a German firing squad as a spy. Roy quickly volunteers to go on the raid as pilot for his brother.
The night just before the raid, Roy discovers Helen in the arms of another officer in a night club. When he tries to take her home, she turns aggressively on him and reveals that she never loved him, that she is, in fact, not the young innocent he believed her to be. Roy is emotionally devastated, but he almost drags the half-drunk Monte away from a pair of wild girls to get him back to the airfield.
The raid on the German munitions dump is successful. However, they've been spotted by a German fighter squadron (Manfred von Richthofen
Manfred von Richthofen
Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen , also widely known as the Red Baron, was a German fighter pilot with the Imperial German Army Air Service during World War I...
and his Flying Circus). Roy defends the bomber with a machine gun until British fighters arrive to take part in the fray. 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. He's ready to give the enemy any information they want, on the German general's promise that his life will be spared. The general is the same man that Roy had a duel with in Germany at the beginning of the film (although he was pretending to be his brother). Roy is forced to act in order to protect thousands of British troops who would be harmed in an impending attack should they tell the Germans what they know. Roy tricks the German into giving him a gun to kill the other English officer he has convinced the German is his rival in a love triangle. For use of the gun, he tells the general, he will give him the information he desires. The canny general gives Roy the gun with just one bullet and has him escorted back to his cell. There, Monte breaks down. He'll tell the Germans everything he knows. Roy shoots him, then cradles his dying brother. In a touching emotional scene, Monte tells Roy that he did the right thing. British soldiers' lives will be saved. The German general arrives in time to witness the tender relationship of the two brothers, and Monte dies. Roy says that he'll tell the Germans nothing. Realizing that he has been tricked, the German has Roy executed by firing squad.
On returning to his war room, the German hears the sounds of a massive bombardment. A British attack on the German front lines has successfully begun.
Cast
(in order of film credits)| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Jean Harlow Jean Harlow Jean Harlow was an American film actress and sex symbol of the 1930s. Known as the "Blonde Bombshell" and the "Platinum Blonde" , Harlow was ranked as one of the greatest movie stars of all time by the American Film Institute... |
Helen |
| Ben Lyon Ben Lyon Ben Lyon was an American film actor and a 20th Century Fox studio executive.-Life:Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Lyon entered films in 1918 after a successful appearance on Broadway opposite Jeanne Eagels. He attracted attention in the highly successful film Flaming Youth , and steadily developed into... |
Monte Rutledge |
| James Hall James Hall (actor) James Hall was an American film actor. Born James E. Brown in Dallas, Texas, Hall began his film career during the silent film era. He made his sound film debut in the 1929 film The Canary Murder Case, opposite William Powell and Louise Brooks. In 1930, Hall co-starred in Howard Hughes' epic film... |
Roy Rutledge |
| 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 Wyndham Standing Wyndham Standing was an English film actor. He appeared in 131 films between 1915 and 1948. A popular and much beloved leading man in the silent film era, he starred and costarred along many famous names of the day, both men and women. He and Ronald Colman were the stars of the now lost classic... |
RFC squadron commander |
| Lena Melana | Gretchen, waitress |
| Marian Marsh | Girl selling kisses |
| Carl von Haartman Carl von Haartman Carl von Haartman was a Finnish Lieutenant Colonel, writer, film actor, and film director. He played the Zeppelin commander in Hell's Angels directed by Howard Hughes and starring Jean Harlow.His daughter and her family currently lives in Spain.-External links:... |
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 HallJames Hall (actor)
James Hall was an American film actor. Born James E. Brown in Dallas, Texas, Hall began his film career during the silent film era. He made his sound film debut in the 1929 film The Canary Murder Case, opposite William Powell and Louise Brooks. In 1930, Hall co-starred in Howard Hughes' epic film...
and Ben Lyon
Ben Lyon
Ben Lyon was an American film actor and a 20th Century Fox studio executive.-Life:Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Lyon entered films in 1918 after a successful appearance on Broadway opposite Jeanne Eagels. He attracted attention in the highly successful film Flaming Youth , and steadily developed into...
as Roy and Monte Rutledge, and Norwegian silent film
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
star Greta Nissen
Greta Nissen
Greta Nissen was a Norwegian-born American film and stage actress.-Stage and Screen Actress:Born Grethe Rüzt-Nissen in Oslo, Norway, Nissen was originally a dancer. She debuted as a solo ballerina on the National Theatre in 1922. She toured in Norway and participated in several Danish films.Nissen...
as Helen, the female lead, and was to be directed by Marshall Neilan
Marshall Neilan
Marshall Ambrose Neilan was an American motion picture actor, screenwriter, film director, and producer.-Early life:...
; a few weeks into production, however, Hughes' overbearing production techniques forced Neilan to quit. Hughes then hired a more pliable director, Edmund Goulding
Edmund Goulding
Edmund Goulding was a British film writer and director. As an actor early in his career he was one of the 'Ghosts' in the 1922 British made Paramount silent Three Live Ghosts alongside Norman Kerry and Cyril Chadwick. Also in the early 20s he wrote several screenplays for star Mae Murray and...
, but took over the directing reins when it came to the frenetic aerial battle scenes. Midway through production, the advent of the sound motion picture came with the arrival of The Jazz Singer
The Jazz Singer (1927 film)
The Jazz Singer is a 1927 American musical film. The first feature-length motion picture with synchronized dialogue sequences, its release heralded the commercial ascendance of the "talkies" and the decline of the silent film era. Produced by Warner Bros. with its Vitaphone sound-on-disc system,...
. 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
Jean Harlow
Jean Harlow was an American film actress and sex symbol of the 1930s. Known as the "Blonde Bombshell" and the "Platinum Blonde" , Harlow was ranked as one of the greatest movie stars of all time by the American Film Institute...
.
When Hughes made the decision to turn Hell's Angels into a talkie, he hired a then-unknown James Whale
James Whale
James Whale was an English film director, theatre director and actor. He is best remembered for his work in the horror film genre, having directed such classics as Frankenstein , The Old Dark House , The Invisible Man and Bride of Frankenstein...
, who had just arrived in Hollywood following a successful turn directing the play Journey's End
Journey's End
Journey's End is a 1928 drama, the seventh of English playwright R. C. Sherriff. It was first performed at the Apollo Theatre in London by the Incorporated Stage Society on 9 December 1928, starring a young Laurence Olivier, and soon moved to other West End theatres for a two-year run...
in London and on Broadway, to direct the talking sequences; it was Whale's film debut, and arguably prepared him for the later success he would have with the feature version of Journey's End
Journey's End (1930 film)
Journey's End is a 1930 British-American war film directed by James Whale. Based on the play of the same name by R. C. Sherriff, the film tells the story of several British soldiers involved in trench warfare during the First World War...
, Waterloo Bridge
Waterloo Bridge (1931 film)
Waterloo Bridge is a 1931 American drama film directed by James Whale. The screenplay by Benn Levy and Tom Reed is based on the 1930 play of the same title by Robert E. Sherwood....
, and, most famously, the 1931
1931 in film
-Top grossing films:-Academy Awards:*Best Picture: Cimarron - MGM*Best Actor: Lionel Barrymore - A Free Soul*Best Actor: Wallace Beery - The Champ*Best Actor: Fredric March - Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde...
version of Frankenstein
Frankenstein (1931 film)
Frankenstein is a 1931 Pre-Code Horror Monster film from Universal Pictures directed by James Whale and adapted from the play by Peggy Webling which in turn is based on the novel of the same name by Mary Shelley. The film stars Colin Clive, Mae Clarke, John Boles and Boris Karloff, and features...
. Unhappy with the script, Whale brought in Joseph Moncure March
Joseph Moncure March
Joseph Moncure March was an American poet and essayist, best known for his long narrative poems The Wild Party and The Set-Up.- Life :...
to re-write it. Hughes later gave March the Luger pistol used in the famous execution scene of the film's ending.
The two talking scenes filmed in Multicolor
Multicolor
Multicolor is a subtractive natural color process for motion pictures. Multicolor, introduced to the motion picture industry in 1929, was based on the earlier Prizma Color process, and was the forerunner of Cinecolor....
but printed by Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
, provide the only color film footage of Jean Harlow. (Multicolor was not prepared to print the number of inserts needed for the wide release Hughes wanted.) The inexperienced actress, just 18 years old at the time she was cast, required a great deal of attention from Whale, who shut down production for three days while he worked Harlow through her scenes.
During the shoot, Hughes designed many aerial stunts for the dogfighting scenes. Pioneering aerial cinematographer Elmer Dyer
Elmer Dyer
Elmer Dyer, A.S.C. was an American cinematographer, the first film cameraman to specialize in aerial photography.Dyer was born in Lawrence, Kansas and died in Hollywood.-External links:...
captured many of the actual aerial scenes. Hughes hired actual World War I pilots 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. 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
Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5
The Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5 was a British biplane fighter aircraft of the First World War. Although the first examples reached the Western Front before the Sopwith Camel and it had a much better overall performance, problems with its Hispano-Suiza engine, particularly the geared-output H-S...
fighter to the Oakland shooting location. Rupert Syme Macalister, an Australian pilot, was also killed. Mechanic Phil Jones died during production after he failed to bail out before the crash of a German Gotha bomber, piloted by Al Wilson
Albert Pete Wilson
Al Wilson, born Albert Pete Wilson, was an American film actor, producer and stunt pilot. He was born in Harrisburg, Kentucky and died in Cleveland, Ohio in an airplane crash while doing flying stunts at the 1932 Cleveland Air Races show.Wilson grew up in Southern California, where his family had...
, which had been doubled by Igor Sikorsky
Igor Sikorsky
Igor Sikorsky , born Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky was a Russian American pioneer of aviation in both helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft...
's Sikorsky S-29-A
Sikorsky S-29-A
The Sikorsky S-29-A was an all-metal, twin-engine biplane airliner, first flown in 1924. It was the first aircraft that aviation pioneer Igor Sikorsky designed and built after coming to the United States, hence the special "-A" suffix signifying "America"...
, his first biplane built after his arrival in the United States.
Due to the delay while Hughes tinkered with the flying scenes, Whale managed to entirely shoot his film adaptation of Journey's End and have it come out a month before Hell's Angels was released; the gap between completion of the dialogue scenes and completion of the aerial combat stunts allowed Whale to be paid, sail back to England, and begin work on the subsequent project, making Whale's actual (albeit uncredited) cinema debut, his second film to be released.
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 TheatreGrauman's Chinese Theatre
Grauman's Chinese Theatre is a movie theater at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood. It is on the historic Hollywood Walk of Fame.The Chinese Theatre was commissioned following the success of the nearby Grauman's Egyptian Theatre which opened in 1922...
in Hollywood on May 24, 1930. All the stars and makers of the film attended, as well as Buster Keaton
Buster Keaton
Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton was an American comic actor, filmmaker, producer and writer. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".Keaton was recognized as the...
, Dolores del Río
Dolores del Río
Dolores del Río was a Mexican film actress. She was a star of Hollywood films during the silent era and in the Golden Age of Hollywood...
, Norma Talmadge
Norma Talmadge
Norma Talmadge was an American actress and film producer of the silent era. A major box office draw for more than a decade, her career reached a peak in the early 1920s, when she ranked among the most popular idols of the American screen.Her most famous film was Smilin’ Through , but she also...
, Mary Pickford
Mary Pickford
Mary Pickford was a Canadian-born motion picture actress, co-founder of the film studio United Artists and one of the original 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
, Billie Dove
Billie Dove
Billie Dove was an American actress.-Early life and career:She was born as Bertha Bohny in New York City to Charles and Bertha Bohny who were Swiss immigrants. As a teen, she worked as a model to help support her family and was hired at the age of 15 by Florenz Ziegfeld to appear in his Ziegfeld...
, Douglas Fairbanks
Douglas Fairbanks
Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. was an American actor, screenwriter, director and producer. He was best known for his swashbuckling roles in silent films such as The Thief of Bagdad, Robin Hood, and The Mark of Zorro....
, and Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
with his girlfriend Georgia Hale
Georgia Hale
Georgia Hale was an actress of the silent movie era.-Career:Georgia Theodora Hale was Miss Chicago 1922 and competed in the Miss America Pageant...
. 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 $ million as of 1 January 2010.
The film received an Academy Award nomination for the Best Cinematography
Academy Award for Best Cinematography
The Academy Award for Best Cinematography is an Academy Award awarded each year to a cinematographer for work in one particular motion picture.-History:...
(Tony Gaudio
Tony Gaudio
Tony Gaudio was an Italian American cinematographer and the first to create a montage sequence for a film....
and Harry Perry).
Impact
Like many other classic films, Hell's Angels has been re-released on VHS and DVD formats by Universal StudiosUniversal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie 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.
In 1962, film director Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick was an American film director, writer, producer, and photographer who lived in England during most of the last four decades of his career...
cited Hell's Angels as one of his 10 favorite movies that influenced his later career. The 1977 TV film The Amazing Howard Hughes
The Amazing Howard Hughes
The Amazing Howard Hughes is a 1977 television movie about American aviation pioneer and filmmaker Howard Hughes, based on the book by Hughes' business partner Noah Dietrich. The film starred Tommy Lee Jones, Ed Flanders, and Tovah Feldshuh....
has one passage where Hughes (Tommy Lee Jones
Tommy Lee Jones
Tommy Lee Jones is an American actor and film director. He has received three Academy Award nominations, winning one as Best Supporting Actor for the 1993 thriller film The Fugitive....
) directs the Zeppelin
Zeppelin
A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship pioneered by the German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin in the early 20th century. It was based on designs he had outlined in 1874 and detailed in 1893. His plans were reviewed by committee in 1894 and patented in the United States on 14 March 1899...
segment over and over in non-stop takes. Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
's The Aviator, a 2004 biopic of Hughes, deals in part with the making of Hell's Angels and its premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theatre
Grauman's Chinese Theatre
Grauman's Chinese Theatre is a movie theater at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood. It is on the historic Hollywood Walk of Fame.The Chinese Theatre was commissioned following the success of the nearby Grauman's Egyptian Theatre which opened in 1922...
.
The involvement of Howard Hughes in this film has spawned a fascinating niche within entertainment, aviation and militaria collectible enthusiasts. Aviation enthusiasts regularly reference the quality and authenticity of World War I aviation in the film. The Luger pistol used in the final scene has generated some recent publicity due to its public auction scheduled in the fall of 2011.
See also
- Jet Pilot (1957)
- List of early color feature films
Other World War I flying films
- The Dawn Patrol (1930)
- The Dawn PatrolThe Dawn Patrol (1938 film)The Dawn Patrol is a 1938 American war film, a remake of the pre-Code 1930 film of the same name. Both were based on the short story "The Flight Commander" by John Monk Saunders, an American writer said to have been haunted by his inability to get into combat as a flyer with the U.S...
(1938) - WingsWings (film)Wings is a silent film about World War I fighter pilots, produced by Lucien Hubbard, directed by William A. Wellman and released by Paramount Pictures. Wings was the first film, and the only silent film, to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Wings stars Clara Bow, Charles "Buddy" Rogers, and...
- Aces HighAces High (film)Aces High is a 1976 British war film directed by Jack Gold and starring Malcolm McDowell, Christopher Plummer and Simon Ward. The screenplay was written by Howard Barker. As acknowledged in the opening credits, the film is based on the 1930s play Journey's End by R. C. Sherriff and the memoir...
- Von Richtofen and BrownVon Richthofen and BrownVon Richthofen and Brown also known as The Red Baron, is a film directed by Roger Corman, and starring John Phillip Law and Don Stroud as the titular characters....
- The Blue MaxThe Blue MaxThe Blue Max is an 1966 British war film about a German fighter pilot on the Western Front during World War I. It was directed by John Guillermin, stars George Peppard, James Mason and Ursula Andress, and features Karl Michael Vogler and Jeremy Kemp. The screenplay was written by David Pursall,...
- The Red BaronThe Red Baron (film)The Red Baron is a German biopic by Nikolai Müllerschön from 2008, about the legendary World War I fighter pilot Manfred von Richthofen. It was filmed in the Czech Republic, France and Germany, entirely in English to improve its international commercial viability.-Plot:In 1906, a young Baron...
- Darling LiliDarling LiliDarling Lili is a 1970 American musical film. The screenplay was written by William Peter Blatty and Blake Edwards, who also directed. The cast included Julie Andrews, Rock Hudson, and Jeremy Kemp.-Plot:...
- ZeppelinZeppelin (film)Zeppelin is a 1971 British World War I action/drama film of a fictitious German attempt to raid Great Britain in a giant Zeppelin and steal the Magna Carta from its hiding place in one of Scotland's castles...
- The Great Waldo PepperThe Great Waldo PepperThe Great Waldo Pepper is a 1975 drama film directed, produced, and co-written by George Roy Hill. It stars Robert Redford as a discontented airplane pilot in the years 1926-1931....
- Flyboys (2006)