Hell's Angels (1930)
Howard Hughes 1930 Great War epic comes across as more an aviation vanity project than a cohesive film. Taking years to complete as it was originally a silent film and in it's use of real aerial action sequences (Hughes directed these himself from a plane and ended up fracturing his skull in a crash - filming also claimed the lives of three pilots), Hughes brought in James Whale to direct talking scenes and changed his lead actress to an 18 year old Jean Harlow as she had a more suitable voice for cinema goers.
The lengthy scenes of aerial action are magnificent, especially a bombing of a German supply depot which clearly was done for real and bi-plane combat with a Zeppelin over London.
However the acting sequences are less impressive, for the most part it feels like a silent film and expression and movement from the actors are unsubtle to say the least. The two leading men James Hall and especially Ben Lyon come across as stilted in the extreme. Whilst Harlow gets by on slutty sexiness alone (We are talking pre Hays code here). It should be noted that this film features the only colour footage of Jean Harlow in cinema history.
Hell's Angels is a film that should be seen by film lovers and it should also be admired, whether you love it is all down to personal opinion.
|