Hell's Angels
Screenplay:
Howard EstabrookComposer:
Hugo RiesenfeldCast:
Ben Lyon, James Hall, Jean Harlow, John Darrow, Douglas Gilmore, Jane Winton, William B. Davidson, Wyndham Standing, Marian Marsh, Carl von Haartman (more)Plots(1)
The Rutledge brothers--upstanding Roy (James Hall) and irresponsible playboy Monte (Ben Lyon)--are carefree Oxford students until war breaks out. Their friend Karl (John Darrow) is unwillingly drafted for Germany, while Roy eagerly joins the Royal Flying Corps and Monte accidentally enlists. Meanwhile, Roy insists that Monte meet Helen (Jean Harlow), the beautiful girl he loves. When Helen and Monte meet, sparks fly. Helen is not the sweet girl that Roy imagines and takes every opportunity to prove it in some racy scenes that would become illegal under the Hays Office Production Code a few years later. As the war progresses, Monte begins to lose his nerve, and Roy must push him to accept a flying mission that could alter the entire war. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Reviews (2)
Howard Hughes outdid himself and presented every conceivable attraction of the time in a single film. The film, which is in black and white, tinted, and in two-strip Technicolor, features sound and intertitles. A film that cost several people their lives and launched Jean Harlow among the constellations of the Hollywood sky. An excellent experience.
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I'll admit right up front that I wasn't enjoying the first half of the film. It felt like a melodrama with no war scenes. Then, in the second half, there were battle scenes, and I must admit that the aerial shots were truly breathtakingly filmed. This really worked out well for the megalomaniacal Hughes. However, I wasn't impressed with the plot.
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