American Cinematographer - July 1990 - 98

The Last
Hell's

Angels' 60th Birthday

Hollywood seemed a brighter place than
the rest of the world during the Great

Depression of the 1930s because of the
premiere showings of big movies.
Spotlights criss-crossing the sky pin¬
pointed the locations, which might be at
any of Los Angeles' fancier theaters such
as RKO Pantages, Warners Hollywood,
Grauman's Egyptian, the Criterion,
Carthay Circle, Fox Wilshire, Warners
Beverly, Warners Western, Loew's State,
etc. New York City also had its share of
glitzy premieres.
The gala premiere was epitomized,
however, by those held on Hollywood
Boulevard, especially at Grauman's Chi¬
nese Theatre. The present owner, Ted
Mann, has kept this magnificent showplace in beautiful condition and it is still
the scene of several premieres each year.
world

Two

screens

been added

Page

credited to the

spectacular flying scenes
involving a marvelous collection of vin¬
tage biplanes, miniature work which
blends flawlessly with the live action,
and the utterly fascinating 19-year-old
Jean Harlow.

Hughes, who (unlike most
producers at the time) could afford it,

prints
elaborately tinted,

quence,

toned and handcolored before

two-color process,
contains the only
"natural color"
scenes of the plati¬
num blonde Har¬

tion in November

through United
Artists.
Night

have
Above: Ben Lyon
and Jean Harlow.
Left: Elmer G. Dyer,

adja¬

ASC, during aerial
photography of
Hell's Angels.

tography (Tony
Gaudio, ASC) and
actress are stun¬

Space Museum in Washington, DC.
Douglas Fairbanks Jr. hosted the event.
What made Premiere II so special is that
the picture had been restored by the

in Sid Grau¬
man's time, the
nese

majority of people
attending pre¬

UCLA Film and Television Archive to

mieres remained
outside the theater. Bleachers

were

set

up across the street and police held back
the adoring throngs that surged against

the SRO ropes for closer views of celeb¬
rities in attendance.
One of the more memorable

premieres was that of Howard Hughes'
epic production, Hell's Angels, on May
was at

dominate
the
screen. Both pho¬

ning!

2028

expensive picture

low, who died in
1937, long before
color began to

Hell's Angels was given a second
world premiere on April 11, 1989, this
time at the Smithsonian National Air &

seats in the Chi¬

that time the most

made, costing
Depression dollars.
Many moons passed before the record
was topped. The huge popularity of this
epic of World War I aerial combat can be
ever

four million

skies became

a dark blue, machine guns
spat red fire, a dirigible exploded into red

flames that spread as the giant aircraft
fell and filled the screen when it crashed
to the ground.

During the 1940s the picture
was kept in circulation via R. M. Savini,
head of Atlantic (later Astor) Pictures,
who retained some of the hand coloring
but jettisoned a long sequence of a gala
party which was photographed in Tech¬
nicolor. This was advertised as the "new
streamlined version," and the prints
became more "streamlined" with pass¬

ing time.

American

photo¬
graphed in the

putting them into
general distribu¬

Although

96

Wayne's private

the release

and decorations.

some

entire Technicolor sequence. The Tech¬
nicolor footage had seemingly vanished
from the earth. Later it was found in John
film collection.
This
se¬

ter, which remains
intact with all its
exotic statuary

27, 1930. It

original negative for reissue.
Missing, however, were the tints and
tones of the 1930 release prints and the

months, having

(but not in)
the original thea¬

were

from the

continued to tinker
with the film for

cent to

there

Some years ago Universal struck
beautiful, sharp black and white prints

Cinematographer

July 1990

closely resemble the premiere version. A
television premiere followed on April 28
via American Movie Classics, a cable TV
network which participated in the resto¬
ration.

AMC

now

schedules Hell's An-

gels with some regularity and it's still an
eye-smiter, even on the small screen.
Sixty years after that original gala pre¬
miere it's all there: the daredevil pilots
in the rickety biplanes, the Technicolor,
the hand coloring (excepting the red
machine gun fire), and Jean Harlow.
-

GT
American Cinematographer - July 1990

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