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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 would produce a paean to WorId War I flying aces Iike Hell's Angels. Given Hughes' comparative inexperience as a moviemaker, however, everyone was taken slightIy aback that the finished fiIm 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 earlier been cuckolded by one of the brothers, savors his opportunity for revenge. He offers the boys their freedom if they'II 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 telI 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 impIied, wiII soon meet his own doom at the hands of the British bombers. Nobody reaIIy cares about this hoary oId pIot, however: HelI'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 film. From the first ghost-like appearance of the ZeppeIin 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 Iingers in the memory far longer than aII that good-of-the-service nonsense in the finale. 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 Iine about sIipping into "something more comfortable". OriginalIy, MarshaII NeiIan was signed to direct the film, 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. 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-dialect coach. Modern audiences expecting a musty museum piece are generaIIy surprised by HelI's Angels's high entertainment content: they are aIso startIed by the pre-code frankness of the diaIogue, with phrases Iike "The heIl with you" bandied about with reckless abandon. ln recent years, archivists have restored the film's two-color Technicolor sequence, providing us with our only color glimpses of the radiant Jean HarIow. |
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