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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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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

Critics on Rotten Tomatoes

Top critics, in their words

All reviews
76%
Tomatometer
Rotten

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.

Malcolm Cowley, The New Republic
Fresh

It's no sappy, imbecilic tale.

Variety Staff, Variety
Fresh

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.

Tom Milne, Time Out
Fresh

These air scenes, with the crashing of flaming planes, have never been matched on the screen.

Mordaunt Hall, New York Times

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