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Powerful

One of my all time favorites.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Howard Hughes was a perfectionist and it shows in these aerial shots, with biplanes whizzing around in Immelmans and spins, machine guns chattering, black smoke trailing. The cameras were obviously mounted on the airplanes in flight.It sings a bit less on the ground. Two American brothers, Roy and Monte, are at Oxford when the war breaks out in 1914. (Kids, that would be the First World War. The First World War was the one that came before World War Two.) Roy is a highly principled and moral young man. His brother Monte is a little flighty. They have a good friend from Germany, Karl, who is conscripted and is sacrificed by the captain of the zeppelin that is bombing London. Too bad for Karl. A nice guy, really.Roy and Monte wind up in the RFC. Roy, the virtuous one, falls for a peroxide blond, Jean Harlow, but she's as capricious as Monte, and when Roy catches the two of them smooching, he's naturally saddened. But the brothers overcome this contretemps and fly on.They both volunteer for a suicide mission that will pave the way for the attack of a British brigade and save thousands of lives.Aside from the thrill of the scenes in the air, what most catches the eye, or rather the ear, is the industrial strength language of the pilots. It sounds pretty rough, the kind of thing you wouldn't expect to hear outside of today's political arena.There's no blood to speak of. The Germans are Prussian stereotypes, led by the hawkish Lucien Prival, but they're not inhuman. And it's exciting to see this gigantic, clumsy German bomber, a Gotha GV, being shot to pieces and still bringing the airmen down safely, at least for the moment.

Famous and Infamous Early Talkie that has about as Much Background Scuttlebutt as any Movie Made, and Deservedly so. After All, it was Produced and Directed by Hollywood Maverick and Eccentric Billionaire Howard Hughes. The Playful Playboy seemed to Invite and Revel in Controversy and was One Unique, Uncompromising Individual.The Common Knowledge is that…this was the Most Expensive Film Ever Made at the Time...…it was first shot as a Silent than Retooled with the advent of Sound…...made Jean Harlow a Star…...uses Tint and Two-Strip Technicolor for some Stunning Contrast, Effect, and Entertainment…...Stunt Pilots were Killed while Filming the Dangerous Aerial Battles…...there was a 250 to 1 Film Footage Shot and then Used in the Final Cut…...Director James Whale is Credited as "staging the dialog" a Year before He made Frankenstein…...although the Movie Lost Money because it was so Expensive it was a Hit (takes a lot of dimes).The Film Holds-Up with its Remarkable Cinematography, Dogfights, and a Zeppelin Sequence that is Masterful. The Actor Scenes may seem Somewhat Dated and Stiff but are better than Typical of the Day. The Pre-Code Slinky Female Attire and Promiscuous Attitudes about Sex, and the Brutality of Battle and the Language of War is Welcome and Realistic.Overall it is a Compelling Movie that Delivers and is Rich Enough in Concept and Character to be a Stimulating Melodrama about War and its Participants. it Contains Many Memorable Scenes and is One of the Best Early Sound Movies and is First Rate Entertainment.

This action movie was directed by Howard Hughes, and it stars Ben Lyon, James Hall, and Jean Harlow. Monte Rutledge (Lyon) and Roy Rutledge (Hall) are brothers attending Oxford. If I have them straight, Roy is straitlaced and Monte is a womanizer and coward. Helen (Harlow) is Roy's girlfriend, and he thinks she's swell. However, she's a woman of easy virtue who sets herself up to be pursued by every man that's attractive to her, including Monte who doesn't say no.NOTE: THERE ARE SPOILERS IN THE FOLLOWING REVIEWThere's a long, not very interesting beginning to this two-hour epic in which we're set up with the back story. We are shown that Monte is a cowardly womanizer and that Roy stands up for his brother to save the family name. We learn that Helen lets Roy think she's a moral, upstanding girl, but she seduces every man she wants, and Roy is so moral he can't see what's really going on. Okay, enough of that. We learn that Jean Harlow can't do an English accent at all and that Messrs. Lyon and Hall aren't too good at it.Finally, World War I breaks out, and Roy and Monte join the Royal Flying Corps, Helen is a volunteer for the canteens, and they all end up in or around Paris. Monte starts claiming he's sick and can't fly all his missions, so others are being sent instead, getting shot down in his place. The squadron resents him, and he volunteers for a dangerous mission to prove he's not yellow. Roy volunteers to fly it with him. Finally, the action starts.Lyon is quite good as the yellow coward, and I actually felt sympathy for him in several scenes. Hughes was not as his best as director here, and the script and dialogue were not the greatest. "It's getting dark," Monte says, as he lays dying (or lies dying -- who knows these days which is which -- maybe he dies lying). "Roy! Where are you?" even though Roy is holding him in his arms. Several of the scenes were unintentionally hilarious, a mix of the Three Stooges and Monte Python's Flying Circus, which is ironic since the brothers are being chased by someone else's Flying Circus of World War I.The best scenes are the bombing of the ammo depot and the dog fight. I can't imagine how they choreographed and arranged the dog fight scenes, with one mid-air collision between planes -- real planes, really colliding. There were camera planes filming the action and cameras mounted on the planes showing the pilots, sky, and earth in all the chaos of rolls, spins, and dives.I felt bad for Monte in the bomber. The German fighters are faster, and he can see them catching up. There's nothing to be done -- they can't dodge them in the bomber, they can't fly faster; all Monte can do is plead for Roy (who's piloting the aircraft) to do something. He's a coward who can see his death approaching, and he can't run away this time, he can't leave it to Roy to get him out of it.But eventually the real drama ends, and we're back in the staged dialogue and campy acting. I'm not sure I recommend this movie for casual watching. It's interesting to see the blonde bombshell at the age of 18 or 19 -- she was quite a good actress, much more natural than Lyon and Hall. This movie was her big break after a few years of bit parts, often uncredited. Her costumes here are revealing, and the version of "Hell's Angels" I saw on DVD had some scenes in color, showing off her costumes and her to great effect. (She died of an infection at the age of 26, so her career was quite short.)And it's interesting to watch a movie directed by Howard Hughes. But it turns out Mr. Hughes wasn't all that good with actors. Like Cecil B. DeMille, he needed action and spectacle. But the action and spectacle are great. There are scenes with a Zeppelin bombing London that are breathtaking, and when Hughes has actors in action, he was quite good with them. Unfortunately, too much of this movie was outside Howard Hughes's area of greatest competence.

I got interested in seeing this when I watched The Aviator, which is about Howard Huges who directed Hell's Angles. This is an excellent war flick, very technologically advanced for its time, cost a fortune to make (4 million, which nowadays wouldn't even cover a star's paycheck).One of the ways you can tell it is a classic is that others have borrowed from the plot. Some of the things you think are dumb are not ** Possible Spoiler** the Zepplins bombing England show crew members jumping out to lighten the aircraft. Some of the crews did jump, but only to avoid being burned alive.The Germans speak German. The movie was going to be a silent film, then talkies came out, so it was all changed. The dog fights were done with real fighters, very dangerous and accordingly, very realistic. Oh, and we can't forget the sex appeal - Jean Harlow, all of 18, may not have been the best actress of the time, but she certainly shows why she got the part.I would have given it 8 stars, but it is a very old movie, one step forward from a silent movie, but unless you can enjoy the historical aspect of the film and take that into context, you should avoid the movie. It could also use a bit of editing. It's a tad long, some of the scenes could be tightened up, but that is the voice of a more modern viewer.