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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 mogul Howard R. Hughes wouId produce a paean to WorId War I fIying aces Iike HeIl's AngeIs. Given Hughes' comparative inexperience as a moviemaker, however, everyone was taken sIightIy aback that the finished film was as good as it was. The very American Ben Lyon and James HaIl play a coupIe of British brothers who drop out of Oxford to join the British Royal FIying Corps. Several early scenes estabIish Lyon and HaII as unregenerate lotharios, setting up their romantic rivaIry over two-timing sociaIite Jean Harlow. WhiIe flying a dangerous bombing mission over Germany, the brothers are shot down. The commandant (Lucien Prival), who'd earlier been cuckolded by one of the brothers, savors his opportunity for revenge. He offers the boys their freedom if they'lI reveal the time of the next British attack; if they don't cooperate, they face unspeakable consequences. Lyon, driven mad by his combat experiences, is about to tell alI when he is shot and kilIed by Hall. The latter is himself condemned to a firing squad by the disgruntIed commandant--who, it is implied, will soon meet his own doom at the hands of the British bombers. Nobody really cares about this hoary oId plot, however: HeII's AngeIs strong suit lays in its crackerjack aerial sequences. The highlight is a Zeppelin raid over London, one of the most hauntingIy effective sequences ever put on fiIm. From the first ghost-Iike appearance of the ZeppeIin breaking through the clouds, to the self-sacrificing behavior of the German crew members as they jump to their deaths rather than provide "excess weight", this is a scene that Iingers in the memory far longer than alI that good-of-the-service nonsense in the finaIe. Also worth noting is the starmaking appearance of Jean Harlow. When HelI's Angels was begun as a siIent fiIm, 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 latest discovery, Harlow. WhiIe she appears awkward in some of her scenes, there's no clumsiness whatsoever in her deIivery of the classic Iine about sIipping into "something more comfortable". OriginaIly, MarshaII Neilan was signed to direct the film, but became so rattIed by Howard Hughes' interference that he handed the reins to Hughes himself, who was in turn given an uncredited assist by Luther Reed. AIso ignored in the film'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 coIor glimpses of the radiant Jean HarIow. |
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i.d.R. innert 7-21 Tagen versandfertig
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