Hell’s Angels is the First Dad Movie

Hell’s Angels is a poor man’s Wings. Yeah, I said it!

Maybe it’s the Scorsese film, The Aviator or the fact that Howard Hughes is a historical figure that exists beyond the scope of “early film.” The average person on the street might recognize the name Howard Hughes whereas the name William Wellman probably won’t ring any bells unless you're interested in that era of filmmaking. Or maybe it’s just that this was Jean Harlow’s breakout film, but I feel like when talking about influential films of the time Hell’s Angels is talked about a lot more than Wings.

But the aerial scenes!

The aerial scenes!

They’re great, there’s no denying that. But are they better than Wings? Wings which did it three years earlier?

Production on Hell’s Angels started the year Wings premiered, 1927, Hughes being inspired by the movie, set out to make his own World War 1 epic. The film had a notoriously troubled production. They went through two directors, Marshall Neilan and Luther Reed before finally landing on Edmund Goulding (with Hughes in charge of the aerial scenes) Originally supposed to be a silent film, after a year and a half of shooting The Jazz Singer premiered and Hughes decided to incorporate sound, into what was supposed to be a silent film, which meant that Edmund Goulding was out and James Whale was in to direct the dialogue scenes. Hughes was seriously injured, three pilots and one mechanic were all killed over the course of making the film. If you want a more in-depth history lesson on the production as well as Hughes life go listen to The Many Loves of Howard Hughes series of episodes, on the You Must Remember This Podcast. They’re great!

And now fair warning! Spoilers for Hell’s Angels!

The film tells the story of two brothers, Roy and Monte Rutledge. Roy is the straight-laced nerd in love with Jean Harlow’s character Helen while Monte is the womanizing coward who eventually sleeps with Helen behind his brother’s back. World War 1 breaks out and Roy joins the military while Monte…accidentally enlists? This is actually such a funny moment, when he’s shamed into enlisting to fight in World War 1 and he doesn’t even understand that now he has to go to war. Anyway, war war war, fight fight fight, fly fly fly, the brothers get captured. And in what turns out to be a really great ending Roy ends up killing Monte, because Monte, of course, has decided to give up details on an upcoming attack to save his own life. So, Roy kills him because it’s his only way to protect the plan and then he’s sent to the firing squad himself. It really is a terrific ending, I was shocked at how after almost two hours of a film that I wasn’t all that engaged with, that ending knocked me out.

BUT! Having just said that I wasn’t all that engaged with the film…and genuinely feeling like it’s just a string of scenes that don’t amount to much…there’s something about the movie. There’s glimmers of a great film in there and I imagine if I was alive in 1930 I would have eaten this up. Jean Harlow is great. There's a whole section in color, in 1930 which is incredible. There are some real tense moments, (other than the ending) the standout being when Roy and Monte are trying to take down an enemy blimp, but their old friend who was recruited into the German army is on the blimp that they’re trying to bring down, but they don’t know that and the friend misdirects a missile so that it doesn’t land on its target, but then he’s betrayed by his own people. Chef’s kiss. C’est bonne.

Do you like how I spent this whole time saying Hell’s Angels is “pretty okay” and then raving about every scene in the film?

But (for some reason) I stand by what I said, Hell’s Angels is a poor man’s Wings, but I guess I’m a poor man.