Hell’s Angels (Blu-ray Review)
Director
Howard Hughes, James WhaleRelease Date(s)
1930 (November 18, 2025)Studio(s)
The Caddo Company/United Artists (The Criterion Collection – Spine #1288)- Film/Program Grade: B+
- Video Grade: A-
- Audio Grade: A
- Extras Grade: A
Review
Hell’s Angels, Howard Hughes’ homage to World War I fighter pilots, is still revered nearly a century later for its breathtaking sequences of daredevil aerial footage. Production started during the silent era but extensive delays caused the film to be updated for sound and released in 1930. The film is largely in black & white with some impressive scenes in color.
In England on the eve of World War I brothers Roy (James Hall) and Monte (Ben Lyon) discuss with German pal Karl (John Darrow) the growing tensions between the two countries. Karl, a foreign exchange student, feels loyalty to his native land even though England has been a welcoming second home to him. Soon, all three find themselves swept up into their respective homeland’s burgeoning air forces.
Roy and Monte enlist, less for patriotism than for the social pressure they feel from women and the elderly. A pretty young woman stands by the enlistment board offering kisses to any man who signs up, and there are many takers. Once in uniform, the brothers seek out women and both set their sights on socialite Helen (Jean Harlow), Roy because of her innocent look and Monte because of her suggestive flirtations. Meanwhile, Karl has returned to Germany and become a spotter for bombing missions over England.
The soap opera plot is a routine device to spice up the intervals between scenes of biplanes in battle. Harlow’s line deliveries are amateurishly awkward but her screen presence is strong. Hell’s Angels would be a breakthrough role for her.
As the brothers, Hall and Lyon are barely adequate and lack star power that Harlow has in spades. Even in a life-and-death situation, they seem inappropriately calm as they consider their fate.
One of the most impressive technical achievements of its era, Hell’s Angels still ranks as a great film spectacle. Color-tinted scenes and early two-strip color enhance a party scene early in the film as well as dogfight sequences with machine guns sputtering red and yellow fire. In an extraordinary, nearly silent scene, a huge German dirigible passes through clouds on a secret bombing mission. Only the whirring of the airship’s motors can be heard as the dirigible attempts to climb higher to avoid British planes that have spotted it. Shot mostly with miniatures, the scene is filled with tension. Will the mammoth airship elude the fliers or will the British destroy it?
Howard Hughes, unhappy with how the film was coming along, seized the director’s reins, and his love of aviation is evident in the remarkable aerial scenes, shot with cameras mounted directly on the aircraft providing pilots’ eye views of planes performing rolls, dives, and other exciting maneuvers. Hughes’ goal was to present a cinematic spectacle and he did, but at the expense of dramatic unity. The storytelling aspect is shaky. James Whale, who would direct Frankenstein the next year, was hired to burnish the dialogue and Hughes, uninterested in those scenes, had Whale and Edmund Goulding direct them.
At a cost of $4 million, Hell’s Angels took four years to write and film. Hughes assembled the largest fleet of aircraft ever brought together by one person—a larger air force than governments of many nations at the time. A number of crew members were killed during production.
Hell’s Angels is the kind of film in which technical effects overshadow plot. Whenever the story returns to earth, narrative drive screeches to a halt, mired in wooden delivery of trite dialogue. Only in the final scene does suspense increase, when Roy and Monte are faced with real peril. At over two hours, the film is too long, with many places where scenes that could have been trimmed or eliminated completely. Those who seek out this nearly hundred-year-old film typically do so to see the aerial pyrotechnics.
Hell’s Angels was shot by directors of photography Elmer Dyer, Tony Gaudio, Harry Perry, E. Burton Steene, Dewey Wrigley, and Harry Zech on 35mm color and black & white film with Akeley cameras and spherical lenses, finished photochemically, and presented in the aspect ratios of 1.54:1 (Magnascope) and 1.37:1. The 4K restoration of the Magnascope roadshow version of the film, created from a 35mm duplicate negative, was undertaken by Universal Pictures. Clarity is surprisingly sharp in this 95-year-old film. The aerial footage is spectacular, including daredevil maneuvers with vintage bi-planes. The two-strip color is used to greatest advantage in an elaborate party scene with reds and greens dominating. Details of the planes, the cloud formations, military uniforms, and Jean Harlow’s revealing dresses are well delineated.
The soundtrack is English 1.0 LPCM. English subtitles are an option. According to information in the enclosed booklet, the original monaural soundtrack was remastered from the 35mm optical soundtrack negative. Dialogue is clear, but doesn’t have the full range and sound depth of later films. Ambient background noise is heard beneath dialogue in the party scene. Major sound effects include machine gun fire, airplane engines, and multiple massive explosions. The score by Hugo Reisenfeld and Adolph Tandler adds excitement to the aerial dogfight scenes. Dialogue, sound effects and music are well balanced.
Bonus materials on the Region A Blu-ray release from The Criterion Collection include the following:
- Interview with Robert Legato (11:59)
- Interview with Critic Farran Smith Hehme About Jean Harlow (27:07)
- Outtakes with Commentary by Harlow Biographer David Stenn (4:35)
Interview with Robert Legato – Legato, visual effects supervisor on The Aviator (2004), a film about director Howard Hughes, discusses his research into Hell’s Angels and the difficulties he encountered in recreating its daredevil aviation stunts. Hell’s Angels put Hughes on the map. It dealt with what he wanted to express himself. When the film was screened for Legato at MGM, he was impressed with how “the achievement then was remarkable.” The plane choreography was difficult and dangerous and resulted in a “Busby Berkeley-like ballet” in the sky. Miniatures used in movies are actually quite large, often a quarter of the size of the original. This is necessary to show details. Legato’s research revealed how photographic (in-camera) effects were accomplished. Accompanied by behind-the-scenes footage, Legato discusses how he achieved some of the visual effects on The Aviator. About the technicians who worked on Hell’s Angels, Legato says “a genius then is a genius today.” Hell’s Angels is the film Howard Hughes was destined to make. He had a passion and the money to support it.
Interview with Farran Smith Nehme – Critic Nehme notes that Hell’s Angels was Jean Harlow’s first major screen role. She recounts the actress’ rise from obscurity, meteoric stardom, and sudden end. Critics at the time agreed that Harlow was no actress, but she became a sex symbol of the 1930s. She came from an upper class background. Her mother felt she had been thwarted in her own acting career and focused her aspirations on Jean. Harlow worked her way into films as an extra and in bit parts. Hell’s Angels was shot and completed as a silent just as talkies were emerging and theaters didn’t want to book silent pictures. Hughes ordered all the dialogue sequences to be re-shot, retaining the costly and exciting aerial footage. Harlow got the role in Hell’s Angels through James Hall, with whom she was having an affair. Director James Whale had open contempt for Harlow and her limited acting ability though in her flirtatious scenes she’s very good. On screen, Harlow looked wonderful. Nehme discusses the Multicolor process used for the party sequence, which required special cameras and lighting that caused the set to become extremely hot and uncomfortable. Hell’s Angels is the only film featuring Jean Harlow in color. The film had its premiere at Grauman’s Chinese Theater. Hughes sent Harlow on a publicity tour for the road show engagements and shortly thereafter loaned her out to other studios. Some of her best-known films are The Public Enemy, Platinum Blonde, Dinner at Eight, and Red-Headed Woman. She died while shooting Saratoga at MGM and the production had to be completed with a body double.
Outtakes – Footage of Howard Hughes and cast at work on Hell’s Angels is accompanied by commentary recorded in 2024 by David Stenn, author of Bombshell: The Life and Death of Jean Harlow. The source of the outtakes in unknown and its existence is surprising since there was no reason to keep the footage. Among the outtakes is an eleven-second kiss between Harlow and Ben Lyon.
Booklet – The enclosed accordion-style booklet contains the essay The Sky Is the Limit by Fred Kaplan, cast and credits list, four photos from the film, information about the film’s restoration, production credits, and special thanks.
Hell’s Angels was released the same year as All Quiet on the Western Front. The films deal with World War I from different perspectives, one from the infantryman fighting in the trenches, the other from the fighter pilot doing battle in the clouds. Hell’s Angels glorifies aviator/fighters by showing their incredible expertise piloting open cockpit planes with gunfire coming at them from all directions. The excitement and action would be unsurpassed in movies for years to come.
- Dennis Seuling