Q-U...
...A- R...
...A- N-T...
...I- N-E.
Quarantine.
Q-U-A-R...
...A- N-T...
...I- N-E.
Quarantine.
You know the cholera?
Yes, Mother.
You've seen the signs on the houses where the coloreds live?
Yes, Mother.
You know the typhus?
I do, Mother.
You know what they can do to you?
Yes, Mother.
You are not safe.
You may be directing this movie, but what you're asking, we can't do.
Don't tell me it can't be done.
The gyro forces are too much. You send these planes into barrel rolls...
...they won't make it. - It's the climax of the picture. Make it work.
Decrease the vertical trajectory if you have to.
A Le Rhône rotary won't stall at 60 degrees.
We're still short two cameras. We need to cut that sequence down...
We're not cutting. I'll get those cameras. Set up for rehearsals.
I'm Noah Dietrich. Your office said I'd find you here.
Dietrich. You're a man on the come.
I read your résumé, talked to your references. Know what I'm looking for?
You're looking for a second-in-command at Hughes Tools.
Someone to oversee the financial aspects of the business.
I'm looking for somebody to run it and do a good job.
There's only one thing you've gotta know.
My folks, they're gone now. So it's my money.
What I do with that money may seem crazy to those sons of bitches in Houston.
I'm sure it does, but it all makes good sense to me. You got that?
- Got it. - Good.
Now, you made, what, $5200 a year at your last job?
- I'll pay you $ 10,000. - I guess I'll be working twice as hard.
You'll be working four times as hard. I just got you at half price.
- Welcome aboard. - Thank you.
You're my voice now. Make them understand that.
Some of those folks still call me Junior. You tell them it's "Mr. Hughes" now.
You bet. So when do we go to Houston?
We don't. Cholera epidemic in 1913. Two thousand dead.
Whole place is nothing but pestilential swamp.
Typhus, malaria, cholera, yellow fever. You name it, they got it.
You see that, Mr. Dietrich?
You are looking at the largest private air force in the entire world.
What do you think of that, now?
It's your money.
Start them up!
I saw the rough cut of the new Tod Browning movie, London After Midnight.
Lon Chaney is incredible.
It's his best performance in a long time.
It's gonna be a big hit. The cards are great.
It's supposed to be...
Hello, Mr. Mayer.
I don't know if you remember me. My name's Howard Hughes.
I was wondering if I could have a moment.
- Oh, Howard Hughes. The airplane picture? - Exactly.
- I remember. - Hell's Angels. You heard of it.
- Good. - Yes.
I was wondering if I could have a moment of your time.
I need a few cameras.
- Yeah? - Yeah, two, to be exact.
I bought every camera I could find. We're shooting our big dogfight sequence.
I need two more. Desperately. You think MGM could help me out?
With what?
- Cameras. - Oh, with the actual cam...
We're not usually in the practice of helping out competition.
- No. No. - So how many cameras do you have now?
Twenty-four.
You...? Wait a minute.
- You have 24 cameras? - That's right.
- And you need...? You need two more? - Yeah.
- You don't think you got it with 24? - No. No, sir.
You know, I think... I think we've got them all...
Don't we have them...? They're all used, right?
- All 26 of them. - I only need two, sir.
- Jesus Christ, sonny. - Howard.
Howard. Let me give you a little advice, huh?
- Take your oil money... - Drill bits.
All right, take your drill-bit money and put it in the bank.
If you continue making the movie the way you are...
...there isn't gonna be a distributor...
...you won't find anybody who wants to see the movie...
...and you're not gonna have any more oil money.
So welcome to Hollywood.
Yeah. Well, I'll be sure to remember that, Mr. Mayer.
- Good luck. - All right.
He needs 26 to make it work? He's out of his mind.
I looked down at my pants. It was a strange situation.
Boss. Scram, love boat, let's go.
- Another soda. You know what I mean. - Milk. In the bottle.
- With the cap still on. - Okay, what did His Highness say?
Son of a bitch won't part with a single goddamn camera.
Why don't you try and make do with what you have.
What I have isn't enough, John, not for how I see it.
Look.
My name depends on this picture. If it doesn't work, I'm back to Houston...
...making goddamn drill bits for the rest of my life.
Can't you do it with the cameras you have?
You ought to hear about what's going on with DeMille.
He's shooting his Bible picture. He's gotta do a crucifixion in Fresno.
Johnny.
- A bunch of tractors... - Johnny.
- You're a press agent, are you not? - Yeah.
You're supposed to know the ins and outs?
- Absolutely. - Do you?
Yeah, absolutely.
Then you leave the big ideas...
...to me. - Oh, yeah. Of course, boss.
Cigar, cigarettes, Sen-Sen?
I thought you were at the Brown Derby...
...with Trixie. No, Theresa.
- Margaret. - Margaret. Exactly.
What happened to Margaret? She lost her...
Thank God that's settled.
Oh, I'm sorry. Thelma, this is Howard Hughes.
Howard and I were discussing how he wants me to pull a camera out of my ass.
- Cigarette? - Oh, no, thanks. I don't smoke.
Boy, you are just hitting on all six cylinders, aren't you?
My God.
Would you do me a favor and just...?
Would you just smile for me one time? Just once?
Yeah. Yeah. You see, you got a short upper lip.
Makes for a much nicer smile.
See, I wonder what gives a beautiful woman like you pleasure.
I mean, say you're just standing there, right? And I just touch you.
Just... Just like this.
With my fingertips.
Do you...? Do you like that?
Do you?
You see, I wanna learn what pleases you.
I wanna learn everything about you.
Would you let me do that?
Would you give me that job?
I'm off in a half an hour.
- Well, I'm in room... - 217.
217.
See you there.
Johnny, get on the horn to Universal and Warners.
I need two more cameras by Saturday.
Rent them if you can. Steal them if you have to.
Absotively, boss.
Absotively.
Rumors coming from a lonely airstrip out in Van Nuys.
Sources whisper that young Texas industrialist Howard Hughes...
...won't stop pouring money into his war epic.
And do we mean epic!
One hundred and thirty-seven pilots, 87 airplanes...
...35 cameramen, 2000 extras. How long will it be before this picture...
...ends up costing as much as the real war?
Damn it. Why the hell do they look so slow?
This isn't what it was like up there. They look like goddamn models!
Son of a bitch.
Howard?
Without something standing still behind the planes...
...we've got no idea of how fast we're moving.
We got no sense of relative motion.
Call UCLA. Get me the best meteorologist they got.
You get him here in an hour, all right?
Hey. You want the good news or the bad news?
- Bad news, always. - All right.
We installed the 450 radial. Struts won't take the vibration.
Minute we fire her up, the struts start cracking at the attach points.
- Well, what's the good news? - There isn't any.
Goddamn it, Odie. If the 450's too big, we figure something else out.
We've done everything. We've rebuilt her from top to toe.
If we drain the fuel tank...
...she might make 180 miles per hour. - I want minimum 200, all right?
I want a date with Theda Bara. That ain't gonna happen.
Oh, don't be so sure.
If the struts won't sustain the engine we need, we gotta get rid of the struts.
No, then the top wing falls off.
Then let it.
What?
Who says we need a top wing?
I mean, who says we need anything?
- A monoplane. - A cantilevered monoplane, right?
They're doing it in France. To hell with the top wing and struts.
- A 550 Wasp engine. - One-hundred-octane fuel.
- That would give us a horsepower of what? - Seven hundred.
We squeeze that to a thousand, we got the fastest plane ever built.
You know, I've gotta say...
...we've already spent over $200,000 rebuilding this plane.
To hell with it.
Tear it up, Odie.
Go on.
Well...
The cumulonimbus formations about which you speak...
...that look like...
Giant breasts full of milk.
I want clouds, damn it.
Yes, clouds...
...that look like giant breasts full of milk...
...cannot exactly be guaranteed for any particular occasion.
So you might have to...
To wait.
Then we'll wait.
Look, whatever they pay you at UCLA...
...I'm doubling it, all right? You work for me now. Find some clouds.
Find some clouds.
Find me some clouds!
Welcome to Hell's Angels.
Thank you.
I've been to Chatsworth, Santa Cruz, Encino, San Diego...
...Riverside, Van Nuys and Bakersfield. It has been eight months!
Where are my goddamn clouds, huh?
They move, Mr. Hughes!
Clouds move.
- That's what they do. They move! - You see that?
It is costing me $5271 a day...
...to keep those planes on the ground. You find me some goddamn clouds, huh?
Nice day.
Yeah, very funny.
I got a call from Houston. They're getting nervous.
Stop showing them the damn bills.
That would be illegal.
Shit, no. Maybe it's a little bit naughty.
Hughes Tool is incorporated in Texas. They have to see the bills.
Incorporate a new division out here. We'll call it Hughes Aircraft.
- Do we need these rivets on the cowling? - Yeah, or the reverse thrust would rip it off.
They're gonna give me drag. Do something about that.
- Wind resistance on rivets? - I want her slippery.
There are tax consequences to incorporating in California.
- Just take care of it, would you? - Mr. Hughes!
Oakland!
- We have clouds in Oakland! - You mean it this time?
Yes!
Goddamn it, yes. I can promise you.
- Clouds in Oakland. - All right, don't get all jittery now.
Oakland!
We're going to Oakland! Oakland.
Down and to the left!
That's perfect!
That's right, Senator George.
Yes, young Howard Hughes has pulled it off!
After two years, Hell's Angels has finally finished filming.
There's gonna be one heck of a wrap party in Hollywood tonight.
The price tag? A staggering $ 2 million.
If every human being in America buys a ticket...
...he might even make a profit.
First, clouds don't come.
Then planes break down. Then the planes crash.
We've had everything but a plague of locusts on this thing.
I mean, you have to admit.
Now, honestly, did you ever think you'd actually finish the damn thing?
Come with me.
Mama, darling, if I'm a success in this show...
- ... we're gonna move from here. - Oh, no.
Yes. We're gonna move up in the Bronx.
Green grass, a lot of people you know.
The Ginsbergs, the Guttenbergs and the Goldbergs.
Oh, a whole lot of "bergs. " I don't know them all.
See, this is what the people want. Silent pictures are yesterday's news.
So I figure we gotta reshoot Hell's Angels for sound.
How much of it?
All of it. Before you ask, I'll tell you.
An additional 1.7 million. We got that much?
- No! - Well, we'll make it.
Take care of that, would you?
Now, get this.
In the halls of 7000 Romaine...
...it goes on day after day, month after month.
Howard Hughes is now editing some 25 miles of film.
Heck, I say release it now and give the world its first 560-hour movie.
Pat, Mr. Hughes needs this reel in the projection room right now!
Enough is enough, Mr. Hughes.
Are you ever gonna let us actually see this epic of yours?
Hurry up!
- Who is it? - Noah.
Come on in.
I've been on the phone to Houston for three hours.
- We're fixing every goddamn book we have. - Wait, wait.
Yeah. Run reel 10 again. I think we're duplicating a shot here.
And tell Jimmy I want 10 chocolate chip cookies, all right?
Medium chips, none too close to the outside.
Got it?
You remember that goddamn shot from reel 10?
No. I don't remember anything from reel 10.
I don't know what reel 10 is.
I'm a businessman, Howard. And so are you.
Now, look.
This has been a great ride.
We've had a hell of a lot of fun.
But you're losing $25,000 a day doing this.
Every day.
So, what are my options?
Well, this time I don't know that you have any.
I'm afraid you gotta close it down.
Dig your way out.
I'm sorry, Howard.
I truly am.
Reel 10, Mr. Hughes.
Mortgage Tool Co.
- Every asset. You heard me. - Lf you do that, you could lose everything.
Well, I won't.
I won't.
All right.
I'll get into it.
Thanks, Noah.
More than half a million souls lining the curb of Hollywood Boulevard.
Look at the automobiles!
There are 45,000 cars here, making it the greatest traffic jam ever seen.
Howard Hughes must have a lump in his throat.
Six months after the stock market crashes and after three pilots' deaths...
...he's finally unveiling his $4 million baby doll.
It's the most expensive movie ever made. Nothing five-and-dime for our Mr. Hughes.
Nothing like tonight has ever been seen before, and I can say...
...it will never be seen again.
Five hundred thousand people are crowding the streets to get a glimpse of the stars.
Three companies of Marines were called to assist...
...the 250 special police who are handling this enormous crowd...
This is an industry town.
And nobody but nobody makes a movie outside a studio.
Some Hollywood insiders over at the Brown Derby may be laughing...
And now, I think...
Yes, yes, I can see Mr. Hughes' car arriving now.
Mr. Hughes escorts the lovely starlet Jean Harlow.
He discovered her for this picture, and we think her platinum blond locks...
...and hot-jazz, baby-doll style are gonna make her a big star.
Howard! Howard!
Over here!
- This way, boss. Right over there. - Mr. Hughes, how about a word?
Big night for you, Mr. Hughes.
Big night for you tonight.
Very big. Very big.
Tell us what it was like making this fabulous picture.
Yes.
Yeah.
So 4 million clams from your own pocket.
Nervous how the flick will fly?
Big night. You enjoy the show.
Yes, well, let me present the feminine star of this spectacle, Hell's Angels...
...Miss Jean Harlow. - Thank you.
I would like to use this occasion to thank Mr. Hughes...
...for the opportunity he gave me. Thank you.
Thank you! Now I'd like to ask Roscoe Arbuckle...
...to introduce his pet lion cub, Gilmore.
What's the matter with you? Can't remember my name?
I'm sorry. Roscoe Turner, and this would be Gilmore.
It's going! It's going!
Murder! That's what this dirty, rotten politician war is, murder!
You know it as well as I do.
Stand up, slim, take a bow.
Reel four played too long. Too many coughs.
Get the team out of the party and to the office. I wanna cut a few shots.
Oh, find Glenn. Somebody write this down.
Flush rivets. Got that?
- Flush rivets. - Flush rivets.
Lickety-split, boss.
Here he is! Here he is!
Variety says, "This one won't miss!"
- Magnificently photographed! - Awesome beyond description!
The most extraordinary output to emerge from a motion-picture studio.
Not for a long time have I seen anything as enthralling.
It costs 4 million dollars and has 4 million thrills!
- Majestically... - Most epic picture of its time!
A lighter shade. I don't want to look like Boris Karloff.
If you know what I mean.
I read in the magazines that you play golf.
On occasion.
Well, how about nine holes?
Now, Mr. Hughes?
If it would be convenient, Miss Hepburn.
You're not extending enough on your follow-through.
Follow-through is everything in golf, just like life.
Don't you find?
Saw your Scarface picture.
- Violent. - Realistic.
Movies are movies, Howard. Not life.
Now the stage.
The stage is real.
Real flesh and blood. Human beings right out there in front of you, buster.
Can't look away. Can't munch popcorn. That would be rude.
Do you like the theater?
- No. - Oh, I adore the theater.
Only alive on-stage. I'll teach you.
We'll see some Ibsen. If the Republicans haven't outlawed him by now.
You're not a Republican, are you? How did you vote in '32?
- Well, I didn't. - You must! It's your sacred franchise.
Heard you were wooing Ginger Rogers. What about that?
She's just a friend.
Men can't be friends with women.
They must possess them or leave them be.
It's a primitive urge from caveman days. It's all in Darwin.
Hunt the flesh, kill the flesh, eat the flesh. That's the male sex all over.
Excuse me?
Well, if you're deaf, you must own up to it.
Get a hearing aid. Or see my father.
He's a urologist, but it's all tied up inside the body, don't you find?
Me, I keep healthy.
I take seven showers a day to keep clean.
Also because I am what's so vulgarly referred to as "outdoorsy. "
I'm not outdoorsy. I'm athletic. I sweat.
There it is. Now we both know the sordid truth.
I sweat and you're deaf.
Aren't we a fine pair of misfits?
Three.
Noble effort.
So I suppose you're wooing me now?
Oh, well.
Not enough.
These rivets have to be completely flush.
I want every screw and joint countersunk.
I want no wind resistance on the fuselage.
She has got to be clean, Odie.
- Clean. Understand? - Okay, Howard.
I don't know what else to tell you.
- What do you got for me? - The thing is, TWA needs a new plane.
- A modern plane. - Oh, yeah? What kind of plane?
Okay. The DC-3 has 21 daytime seats...
...and 14 overnight berths. - Something bigger?
Try 50 seats with a ceiling of 12,000 feet.
No. No, 20,000.
Think about it. What does 20,000 feet give you?
- Less turbulence. - Because it's above the weather.
Jack, we wanna fly above the weather.
Only 1 percent of the American population has set foot on an airliner.
Why? Because they're scared to death. They should be.
I mean, 7000 feet is bumpy as shit. You know that.
We build a plane that flies above the weather...
...we could get every man, woman and child in this country to feel safe.
An airplane with the ability to fly into the substratosphere across the country.
Across the world.
Now that is the future.
- You with me? - Yeah.
I don't wanna get into this if your board doesn't have the balls for it.
- Would they support us? - I don't know.
- What's your financial picture? - Not great.
- Last year's deficit? - 770,000.
- What's it selling at? - About 8 dollars a share.
That's the lowest it's been, huh?
I could do that.
- Do what? - Buy it.
- You wanna buy the airline? - For crying out loud...
...we don't want pencil pushers getting in the way of us making our plane.
Give me brass tacks, now. What does controlling interest in TWA cost me?
Call it 15 million.
That is a chunk of change, huh?
You call Noah Dietrich.
You have him start buying.
Howard, hold on.
Are you sure? You wanna think about it for five minutes?
Hell, Jack, I got a tiger by the tail here. I ain't gonna let it go.
Good evening, Mr. Hughes.
Welcome. Your table is ready.
How goes the aviation?
- Oh, just fine, Pete. - I'm so glad.
Good evening, Mr. Hughes.
- Madame. - It's "miss. "
Miss. The usual, Mr. Hughes?
- Please. - May I recommend for the lady...
...our clementine soup followed by roast duck with currant glaze...
...and poached pears in rose sauce. It's truly divine.
Yeah. That sounds fine.
Your kind of joint, is it?
Wouldn't have thought.
They're open late. I go to a hot-dog stand on La Cienega too.
- They're open till about 4. - Are they?
How marvelous.
Howard! Howard!
Hi! Son of a gun.
Kate, this is Johnny Meyer. I suppose you could call him my press agent.
- Pleased to meet you. Loved Alice Adams. - You're too kind.
- I'm sure you know Errol, right? - Mr. Flynn. Yes.
Kate. Kate. Kate of the clenched-jawed Hepburns. Enchanting as always.
You should use Lux on your hands, by the way. I do.
You and Howard ought to cook up a picture.
Costar with Errol. I could sell that in spades.
That would be marvelous. Howard?
I think not. Don't you read Variety, Mr. Meyer?
Well, I'm box-office poison. I'm on the outs, the skids, the doldrums.
Washed-up, day-old fish not worth the eating, so they tell me.
Hell with them. Hell with them, my dear. Soulless pricks to a man, right?
Johnny tells me you're thinking about doing a Western, of all goddamn things.
Are you making a Western, Howard?
Yeah. Making a Western. I'm gonna call it The Outlaw.
Yeah. And you know what it's about? S-E-X.
- It's all about S-E-X. - It's a Western.
You can't have fornication in a Western. It isn't done.
It's not real sex, it's movie sex.
What Scarface did for the gangster picture, The Outlaw will do for the Western.
Put the sex and guts and blood up there on the screen.
- Have you seen my cigarettes? - Don't mind us.
New York cut steak, 12 peas, bottle of milk with the cap on.
- You can't afford your own cigarettes? - Jack has all my money.
I hope your food isn't getting cold at your table somewhere or something.
No, no. We're here all night. Don't worry.
Now, Howard. Now, Howard. If you're seriously talking about putting carnality...
...back on the silver screen, you must swear to let me in on the casting session.
- I have an eye for talent. Isn't that right? - You ought to give up prancing in tights...
...be a talent scout. - That prancing paid for my new yacht.
You must all come sailing with me. Catalina. What do you say?
- Catalina. Sounds grand. Yeah. - I've even managed to coax...
...the luscious Miss De Havilland and her equally luscious sister to come.
Though I fear their mother will insist on coming, to preserve their questionable virtue.
We shall assault these twin monuments of pristine Britannic beauty nonetheless.
- What do you say, Howard? - Yeah?
- Yeah. Yeah. - Yeah?
I gotta go.
If you'll excuse us, we have... We have to be somewhere.
You are somewhere, Howard, you madman.
- Somewhere else. Excuse us. - Charmed, gentlemen.
Do help yourself to the poached pears. I hear they're divine.
Well. Howard Hughes, ladies and gentlemen.
Was that meant for me?
My hero. God, all that Hollywood talk bores me silly.
As if there aren't more important things, like Mussolini.
- Where are we going, by the way? - Do you feel like a little adventure?
Do your worst, Mr. Hughes.
- Think you own this place, you limey bastard? - I'm a Tasmanian bastard, you prick.
- Thataway, Errol. - Let me at him!
That's Mr. Mayer's house right there.
Do you know where Jack Warner lives?
- What's that on the steering wheel? - Cellophane.
If you had any idea of the crap that people carry around on their hands.
What kind of crap?
You don't wanna know.
Hold on to the wheel for a bit.
That's too hard. Relax your hand. Relax your hand.
You see, you gotta feel the vibration of the engine through your fingertips.
- Do you feel that? - Yes.
Well, that's good.
Golly!
Well, she's all yours.
- Where are you going?! - I think there's some milk back here.
- You just keep us steady, now. - All right.
- Howard. - Yeah?
There's a rather alarming mountain heading our way.
Pull back on the wheel a smidge. Go on.
Golly!
I don't think I've ever met someone who actually uses the word "golly. "
You all right? Do you want me to take over?
Just when I'm getting the hang of it?
- You want some milk? - Oh, please.
Utterly smashing! We'll do it again.
I'm free Wednesday. It's a little early for golf, though.
Oh, no, no. I live right there.
- Feel like a drink? - Lead on.
Now, that makes for a challenging par four.
My decorator picked out the wallpaper and such.
He's queer as a bedbug.
But I just hate this room.
Gives me the willies.
Like I'm about to be swallowed up by the latest issue of Town & Country.
What room do you like?
My study.
Take me there.
You are the tallest woman I know.
And all sharp elbows and knees. Beware.
Will you fly me to work tomorrow?
It is tomorrow.
Keep your eye on the fuel. She's got a minimum to keep her weight down.
Two runs. That's it. After that, you're flying on vapors.
And then you crash and you die. Give her easy flying.
Don't worry about speed and don't think about the record today.
I wish you'd let someone else take her. You've got 20 test pilots.
Hell, why should I let someone else have all the fun? See you in a bit.
Contact!
339.
Goddamn!
347.
Son of a bitch!
- 352. - 352!
Good girl.
Damn it!
Goddamn it!
- Oh, God! - There goes our meal ticket.
Come on!
Howard!
- Howard! - How did we do?
352 on the last run.
She'll go faster.
Country mouse!
- Kate! Katie! - Upstairs, city mouse.