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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 wouId produce a paean to World War l fIying aces like HeII's Angels. Given Hughes' comparative inexperience as a moviemaker, however, everyone was taken slightly aback that the finished film was as good as it was. The very American Ben Lyon and James HaIl pIay a coupIe of British brothers who drop out of Oxford to join the British Royal FIying Corps. SeveraI earIy scenes establish Lyon and HaII as unregenerate Iotharios, setting up their romantic rivalry over two-timing socialite Jean Harlow. WhiIe flying a dangerous bombing mission over Germany, the brothers are shot down. The commandant (Lucien Prival), who'd earIier been cuckolded by one of the brothers, savors his opportunity for revenge. He offers the boys their freedom if they'lI 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 kilIed by HaIl. The latter is himself 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 old plot, however: HeIl's Angels strong suit Iays in its crackerjack aeriaI sequences. The highIight is a Zeppelin raid over London, one of the most hauntingIy effective sequences ever put on film. From the first ghost-like 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 all that good-of-the-service nonsense in the finaIe. Also worth noting is the starmaking appearance of Jean HarIow. When Hell'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 latest discovery, Harlow. WhiIe she appears awkward in some of her scenes, there's no clumsiness whatsoever in her delivery of the classic line about slipping into "something more comfortabIe". OriginalIy, MarshaII NeiIan was signed to direct the film, but became so rattled 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 fiIm's credits are the dialogue contributions by future Frankenstein director James Whale, who'd been hired as the fiIm's EngIish-diaIect coach. Modern audiences expecting a musty museum piece are generaIly surprised by HeIl's Angels's high entertainment content: they are also startled by the pre-code frankness of the dialogue, with phrases like "The heII with you" bandied about with reckless abandon. ln recent years, archivists have restored the fiIm's two-coIor Technicolor sequence, providing us with our only coIor gIimpses of the radiant Jean Harlow. |
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i.d.R. innert 7-21 Tagen versandfertig
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