Howard Hughes

Hell’s Angels

Hell’s Angels

A high-flying feat of adventure filmmaking and a testament to the audacious, spare-no-expense vision of Howard Hughes, this landmark aviation epic remains exhilarating both for its daredevil aerial sequences and its nervy pre-Code punch. With the onset of World War I, two British brothers recruited into the Royal Flying Corps (Ben Lyon and James Hall) find their bond tested by their differing attitudes toward the war and their love for the same woman (Jean Harlow in her bombshell breakthrough). The product of a notoriously long and dangerous production that resulted in the deaths of multiple crew members, Hell’s Angels broke new technical ground, making use of early sound and color technologies, and capturing some of the most thrilling dogfight scenes ever filmed.

Film Info

  • United States
  • 1930
  • 131 minutes
  • Black and White/Color
  • 1.37:1, 1.54:1
  • English
  • Spine #1288

4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • New 4K digital restoration of the Magnascope road-show version of the film, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
  • One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
  • New interview with Robert Legato, the visual-effects supervisor for the Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator, on the groundbreaking aerial visuals of Hell’s Angels
  • New interview with critic Farran Smith Nehme about actor Jean Harlow
  • Outtakes from the film, with commentary by Harlow biographer David Stenn
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: An essay by author and journalist Fred Kaplan

    New cover by Sam Hadley

Purchase Options

4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • New 4K digital restoration of the Magnascope road-show version of the film, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
  • One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
  • New interview with Robert Legato, the visual-effects supervisor for the Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator, on the groundbreaking aerial visuals of Hell’s Angels
  • New interview with critic Farran Smith Nehme about actor Jean Harlow
  • Outtakes from the film, with commentary by Harlow biographer David Stenn
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: An essay by author and journalist Fred Kaplan

    New cover by Sam Hadley
Hell’s Angels
Cast
Ben Lyon
Monte Rutledge
James Hall
Roy Rutledge
Jean Harlow
Helen
John Darrow
Karl Armstedt
Lucien Prival
Baron Von Kranz
Frank Clarke
Lt. von Bruen
Roy Wilson
Baldy Maloney
Credits
Director
Howard Hughes
Dialogue written by
Joseph Moncure March
Staged by
James Whale
Story by
Marshall Neilan
Story by
Joseph Moncure March
Edited by
Frank Lawrence
Edited by
Douglass Biggs
Sound by
Lodge Cunningham
Musical arrangement
Hugo Riesenfeld
Photography
Antonio Gaudio
Photography
Harry Perry
Photography
Harry Zech
Photography
E. Burton Steene
Photography
Dewey Wrigley
Photography
Elmer Dyer
Chief of aeronautics
J. B. Alexander
Settings
Julian Boone-Fleming
Settings
Carroll Clark

Current

Hell’s Angels: The Sky Is the Limit
Hell’s Angels: The Sky Is the Limit

A pre-Code aviation epic that makes pioneering use of the era’s innovations in cinematic color and sound, Howard Hughes’s directorial debut was Hollywood’s first modern portrait of World War I.

By Fred Kaplan