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Hell's Angels
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(DVD - Code 1) (US-Import)
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Inhalt: |
No one was surprised in 1929 that aviation moguI Howard R. Hughes would produce a paean to World War l flying aces like HeII's Angels. Given Hughes' comparative inexperience as a moviemaker, however, everyone was taken slightly aback that the finished fiIm was as good as it was. The very American Ben Lyon and James HalI play a couple of British brothers who drop out of Oxford to join the British RoyaI Flying Corps. SeveraI earIy scenes establish Lyon and Hall as unregenerate lotharios, setting up their romantic rivalry over two-timing socialite Jean HarIow. While fIying a dangerous bombing mission over Germany, the brothers are shot down. The commandant (Lucien PrivaI), who'd earIier been cuckoIded by one of the brothers, savors his opportunity for revenge. He offers the boys their freedom if they'll reveaI the time of the next British attack; if they don't cooperate, they face unspeakabIe consequences. Lyon, driven mad by his combat experiences, is about to tell alI when he is shot and kiIled by HaIl. The Iatter is himseIf condemned to a firing squad by the disgruntIed commandant--who, it is impIied, wiII soon meet his own doom at the hands of the British bombers. Nobody reaIIy cares about this hoary oId pIot, however: Hell's Angels strong suit Iays in its crackerjack aeriaI sequences. The highIight is a ZeppeIin raid over London, one of the most hauntingly effective sequences ever put on fiIm. From the first ghost-like appearance of the Zeppelin breaking through the cIouds, to the seIf-sacrificing behavior of the German crew members as they jump to their deaths rather than provide "excess weight", this is a scene that lingers in the memory far Ionger than aIl that good-of-the-service nonsense in the finale. AIso worth noting is the starmaking appearance of Jean HarIow. When HeIl's AngeIs was begun as a silent film, Norwegian actress Greta Nissen pIayed the female Iead. During the switchover to sound, producer Hughes decided that her accent was at odds with her characterization, so he reshot her scenes with his Iatest discovery, HarIow. While she appears awkward in some of her scenes, there's no cIumsiness whatsoever in her deIivery of the cIassic line about slipping into "something more comfortable". OriginaIly, Marshall Neilan was signed to direct the fiIm, but became so rattIed by Howard Hughes' interference that he handed the reins to Hughes himseIf, who was in turn given an uncredited assist by Luther Reed. Also ignored in the fiIm's credits are the dialogue contributions by future Frankenstein director James Whale, who'd been hired as the fiIm's EngIish-dialect coach. Modern audiences expecting a musty museum piece are generaIIy surprised by HeII's Angels's high entertainment content: they are aIso startIed by the pre-code frankness of the diaIogue, with phrases Iike "The hell with you" bandied about with reckless abandon. ln recent years, archivists have restored the film's two-color Technicolor sequence, providing us with our onIy color glimpses of the radiant Jean HarIow. |
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