HELL'S ANGELS, 1930
Movie Review

Two brothers attending Oxford enlist with the RAF when World War I breaks out. Roy and Monte Rutledge have very different personalities. Monte is a freewheeling womanizer, even with his brother's girlfriend Helen. He also proves to have a yellow streak when it comes to his Night Patrol duties. Roy is made of strong moral fiber and attempts to keep his brother in line. Both volunteer for an extremely risky two man bombing mission for different reasons. Monte wants to lose his cowardly reputation and Roy seeks to protect his brother. Their assignment to knock out a strategic German munitions facility is a booming success, but with a squadron of fighters bearing down on them afterwards, escape seems unlikely.

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REVIEW:

Airplanes. Scientists, inventors, and artists theorized and envisioned the possibility of flight for centuries. On December 17, 1903, the Wright Brothers made that dream a reality. Though airplanes have made dramatic changes and advances in the following decades, one thing remains the same. Airplanes remain a constant source of entertainment and adventure in the movies. Millionaire Howard Hughes was one of the first directors to tap into this source in his 1930 film Hell’s Angels.

James Hall and Ben Lyon star as Roy and Monte Rutlage, two brothers attending Oxford in England during the days before World War I. When the war breaks out, the brothers enlist in the Royal Flying Corps. During the war, the brothers must endure harrowing flights and challenge their morals and loyalty. Plus, the brothers must compete for the heart of Helen (Jean Harlow). Unsure of which to chose, she sways back and forth, teasing and torturing the guys. Things go down hill from there, especially when the brothers are shot down and captured by German troops.

It wasn’t soon after airplanes were used in combat, that Hollywood took the opportunity to jump all over the possibilities. In fact, Hughes had an ongoing battle with fellow director and good friend Howard Hawks to make the first big airplane war film. Hawks was working on The Dawn Patrol and Hughes was working on a secretive expensive project called Hell’s Angels. Hughes, who had no directing experience but lots and lots of money to spare, used Hell’s Angels to show how big films could go. Both directors’ efforts were a race to the finish.

However, while Hughes was battling it out with Hawks, cinema took a drastic turn with the advent of sound. Hughes, who had been filming Hell’s Angels as a silent film, decided to re-shoot everything he had filmed and make into a sound film. Though the

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Though the stunts and aerial sequences are advanced for their time and can certainly be appreciated in retrospect, the overall film quality is poor. It seems like Hughes spent all of his money on the big stunts and forgot about telling a good story. The script lacks in good characterization and interesting plot. The flying sequences drag on for twenty or thirty minutes at a time, loosing modern audiences’ attention. Some parts of the film are technically chopping and edited poorly, though that might have just been the copy I saw.

There have been countless stories and legends about this film and the production of it. That alone should strike up some curiosity amongst cinema goers, if not for the cult status this movie retains today. Hell’s Angels still stands as a favorite for aviation and film buffs alike.

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