Hell's Angels
About Hell's Angels
Oxford brothers Roy and Monte Rutledge, played by James Hall and Ben Lyon, join the Royal Flying Corps when the war starts. Roy is the dutiful one and idealizes Helen, played by Jean Harlow. Monte is not, and he is the one who gives in to her. Their German friend Karl Arnstedt goes up in a Zeppelin sent against London and sabotages the ship. In France the brothers volunteer to bomb a munitions dump, are shot down by von Richthofen's circus, and are captured. Monte is ready to talk. Roy shoots him, and the Germans execute Roy.
Cast & crew
More about Hell's Angels
Hughes began it in 1927 as a silent picture for Caddo and spent three years getting it out through United Artists. Marshall Neilan started the direction and left. Edmund Goulding was brought in, then Hughes took the flying scenes himself. After the decision to add sound, Greta Nissen was replaced because of her Norwegian accent, and Jean Harlow, then 18, played Helen. James Whale directed the dialogue. Harry Behn and Howard Estabrook wrote the script. Joseph Moncure March rewrote it without credit. The premiere was at Grauman's Chinese Theatre on 27 May 1930. General release was 15 November 1930.
Themes
Making
Hughes and Harry Perry designed dogfight stunts and waited on real aircraft, including an S.E.5 and a Sikorsky S-29-A doubling as a Gotha. Al Johnson was killed when he hit wires at Caddo Field.
Look
Tony Gaudio and Harry Perry, later joined by Harry Zech, E. Burton Steene, Dewey Wrigley, and Elmer Dyer, put cameras on the aircraft. Most of the picture is black and white, with tinted passages and a color sequence.
Technique
The charity-ball sequence is the only color footage of Jean Harlow. It was shot in Multicolor and printed by Technicolor. Flames on the Zeppelin are colored on part of the frame. Night fighting is tinted.
Music
Hugo Riesenfeld arranged the music. Engine noise and gunfire sit on the sound track with the dialogue Whale directed.
Preservation
The picture survives, including tinted shots and the color ball. It entered the public domain on 1 January 2026. Criterion's November 2025 edition, spine 1288, is a 4K restoration of the Magnascope road-show version.
Notes
- The $4 million cost Hughes advertised was a publicity figure. The production cost was $2.8 million, less than Ben-Hur (1925). Rentals were about $2.5 million, so the picture did not pay back its cost.
- Stunt pilots Al Johnson, C. K. Phillips, and Rupert Syme Macalister died, and mechanic Phil Jones died when he failed to leave a crashing bomber.
- Paul Mantz refused the last-scene stunt. Hughes flew it, crashed, and came out with a skull fracture and facial surgery.
- The last big flying scene used 137 pilots.
- Whale's dialogue scenes were his first film job, but Journey's End reached theaters first.
- British censors cut more than 30 minutes.
- Frank Lawrence and Douglass Biggs edited. Lodge Cunningham recorded the sound.
Scenes
- Karl's Zeppelin comes out of the clouds toward London, and he sabotages the raid.
- Helen, in the color ball sequence, asks if a more comfortable outfit would shock anyone.
- Roy shoots Monte in German hands so the munitions plan stays secret, then faces the firing party.
Also available
- Criterion Collection 4K / Blu-ray (spine 1288, November 2025)
- Wikimedia Commons (Hell's Angels (1930).webm)
Quotes
Would you be shocked if I put on something more comfortable?
