The machine guns are real machine guns, the bombs are real bombs, the drum of motors is the drum of genuine motors. But the actors themselves are false, puny, inadequate, the only real automatons in a world of vital steel.
Hell's Angels
Howard Hughes' Thrilling Multi-Million Dollar Air Spectacle
1930 · 2h 11m · Passed
Action, Drama, War
Directed by
Howard Hughes
,
Edmund Goulding
,
James Whale
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Hell's Angels
Overview
As the Great War breaks out in Europe, English brothers Roy and Monte enlist in the Royal Flying Corps to fight for king and country, while their Oxford College friend Karl is ordered back to Germany. As a love triangle develops involving Monte, Roy, and Roy's girlfriend, Helen, the brothers' disparate personalities, and Monte's cowardice in the face of war soon threaten to compromise a top-secret bombing mission over German territory.
Director and cast
- Howard Hughes Director
- Edmund Goulding Director
- James Whale Director
- Ben Lyon as Monte Rutledge
- James Hall as Roy Rutledge
- Jean Harlow as Helen
- John Darrow as Karl Armstedt
- Lucien Prival as Baron Von Kranz
- Frank Clarke as Lt. von Bruen
- Roy Wilson as Baldy Maloney
- Douglas Gilmore as Capt. Redfield
- Jane Winton as Baroness Von Kranz
- Evelyn Hall as Lady Randolph
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
It's no sappy, imbecilic tale.
The end result is barely adequate. But it does feature a spectacularly elaborate World War I dogfight, and an equally fine Zeppelin sequence. And of course there's Harlow.
These air scenes, with the crashing of flaming planes, have never been matched on the screen.
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- Runtime
- 2h 50m
- Director
- Martin Scorsese
- Cast
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