Howard Hughes
Hell's Angels
1453
Illustrated from production and publicity photographs. 16mo. Pictorialboards depicting a biplane in flight. Pictorial endsheets. Invigorated with his film success, Hughes set out to make a film on his own based on a subject that was near to his heart: aviation. The script for Hell's Angels came from collaboration between Hughes and two screenwriters, and was based on two younng British pilots competing for the affection of and English society girl ( Jean Harlow in her first screen role ). Written, directed and produced by Hughes, Hell's Angels was to be the greatest motion picture ever made. Hughes set out to do just that, spending $563,000 to buy and re-condition 87 fighters and bombers, and another $400,000 to rent or build airfields in the L.A. area. Hughes needed a Zeppelin to burn and bought one.Needing an army to fight a ground battle hired 1,700 extras at $200 a week each. His attention to detail was immaculate. If the scene called for a rainy night, Hughes would require the actors to be on call until it rained at night, and force them to stay awake all night in the rain. The director would demand re-take after re-take of scenes, often because of his own flaws. And Hughes' attention to detail on the ground was nothing compared to that of the air.The film called for airplane battles in cloudy skies, and for once, Hughes quickly learned that you can't buy clouds. He began to rise early, or stay up all night to watch for an opportune dawn. If the sun rose over Southern California, 40 or more airplanes would take off and seek out cloudy skies. When the weather predicted clouds miles away, Hughes, the pilots, and the fleet of planes would travel in hopes of the proper backdrop. And some days everyone would get paid to stand around. Hell's Angels, many months in production seemed to be drawing to a close, only Al Jolson's The Jazz Singer brought an audible revolution to Hollywood. Sound became the standard by which pictures were judged and Hughes' film lacked just one thing: sound. The film, at length, edited, cut and fitted with titles, was given an unannounced preview in a small L.A. theater. The response from the audience was clear; the 2 million dollar silent picture was not good enough. Hughes refused to quit and set to work on Hell's Angels anew. The flight scenes were easy enough to fix, the sound could be dubbed in, but the scenes in which the actors were to speak would have to be shot all over again. The first task was to write a new screenplay. Hughes insisted that in a silent picture actors could get away with mouthing their words, but in a talking picture they would have to makes sense. He also demanded that the cast be completely overhauled out of fear that one individual might not sound good reading his lines. Production continued through the great depression, and in May of 1930 the film was completed. Hughes had shot 3,000,000 feet of film (1% was used in the final production), and spent almost 4 million dollars, including $754,000 for salaries, $524,000 for sets and costumes, $1,000,000 for aircraft and location. The film opened to pandemonium in Los Angeles. Despite terrible reviews, the public went wild for Hell's Angels. The film set box office records in every theater in that it played, and went on to appear on screens for over 20 years throughout the world. And in the end, it brought in just over eight million dollars, roughly twice Hughes' investment. ( Doug Barrese)
Price Upon Request
More works by this artist