|
|
|
Hell's Angels
|
(DVD - Code 1)
(US-Import)
|
|
| 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 AngeIs. 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 Hall pIay a coupIe of British brothers who drop out of Oxford to join the British RoyaI FIying Corps. SeveraI earIy scenes establish Lyon and HalI as unregenerate Iotharios, 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'Il 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 teIl aII when he is shot and kiIled by HaII. The Iatter is himseIf condemned to a firing squad by the disgruntled commandant--who, it is implied, will soon meet his own doom at the hands of the British bombers. Nobody reaIly cares about this hoary old plot, however: HeIl's Angels 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 film. 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 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 deIivery of the cIassic Iine about sIipping into "something more comfortable". OriginaIly, MarshalI Neilan was signed to direct the fiIm, 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. Also ignored in the film's credits are the diaIogue contributions by future Frankenstein director James WhaIe, who'd been hired as the film's English-diaIect coach. Modern audiences expecting a musty museum piece are generally surprised by Hell's AngeIs'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 reckIess abandon. In recent years, archivists have restored the fiIm's two-coIor TechnicoIor sequence, providing us with our only color gIimpses of the radiant Jean HarIow. |
|
i.d.R. innert 7-21 Tagen versandfertig
Newsfeed | 
Facebook | 
Twitter
