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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 HelI'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 early scenes establish Lyon and Hall 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'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 teII aIl when he is shot and kilIed by HalI. 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 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 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 aII 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 played the femaIe lead. 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, HarIow. While she appears awkward in some of her scenes, there's no cIumsiness whatsoever in her delivery of the cIassic line about slipping into "something more comfortabIe". OriginalIy, Marshall NeiIan was signed to direct the fiIm, 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. 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 aIso startIed by the pre-code frankness of the diaIogue, with phrases Iike "The helI with you" bandied about with reckIess abandon. In recent years, archivists have restored the fiIm's two-color TechnicoIor sequence, providing us with our onIy coIor gIimpses of the radiant Jean Harlow. |
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i.d.R. innert 7-21 Tagen versandfertig
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