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Hell's Angels
Directed by	Howard Hughes
Produced by	Howard Hughes
Written by	Harry Behn Howard Estabrook
Starring	Jean Harlow Ben Lyon James Hall
Cinematography	Tony Gaudio Harry Perry
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date(s)	1930
Running time	127 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$3,800,000
IMDb profile

Hell's Angels is a 1930 film directed by Howard Hughes.

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 aristocrat 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 Theatre 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.

Roy and Monte Rutledge are very different British brothers studying at Oxford together at the outset of WWI. 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, including Helen's. A German student by the name of Karl is best friends to both. After the outbreak of WWI, Karl is recruited into the German Airforce and the two British brothers enlist in the Royal Flying Corps; 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 and then is found in the arms of another man the next day, which devastates Roy.

Meanwhile, Karl is stationed on a zeppelin that is flying over London for an attack high above the clouds. Karl is the marksman 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, but before his superiors find out, the RAF is summoned, including Roy and Monte, to shoot down the zeppelin. Unbeknownst to them, Karl dies in the ensuing battle. The incident badly frightens Monte when his plane is shot down during the attack. 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. 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 frontlines.

• "Would you be shocked if I put on something more comfortable?" — Jean Harlow as Helen

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 emphasizes the problems caused by Hughes' extravagant insistence on a convincing on-screen depiction of the action.

• Jet Pilot (1957 film)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Hell's Angels

• Hell's Angels at the Internet Movie Database