11 replies to this topic

[hesmond]

If any one is going over to France soon , beaware that in Northern France quite a few of the super markets have a sale of DVDs and one in particular is the 1930 Hells Angels its a remasterd copy simply stunning and 1.95 Euro ! its in orginal English with French subtitles well worth having a quick look for .

[centurion]

Careful - it drove Howard Hughes mad - just think what it might do to you!

[hesmond]

Well funny you should say that ? but watched it yesterday and the restored copy is excellent , plot ... is there one ? but an 18 year old Jean Harlow is simply amazing , and loved all those SE5s i counted about 15 ? not sure on the Albtross DV VII though , but had last seen a very poor copy on BBC2 back in the early 1980s and this is so much better cleaned up and remasterd ,i rember some where a article on the Gotha being a converted USAAF aircraft , any way the flying sequences from the Great War era in my view have not been betterd ?

[centurion]

hesmond, on 24 April 2012 - 10:23 AM, said:

Well funny you should say that ? but watched it yesterday and the restored copy is excellent , plot ... is there one ? but an 18 year old Jean Harlow is simply amazing , and loved all those SE5s i counted about 15 ? not sure on the Albtross DV VII though , but had last seen a very poor copy on BBC2 back in the early 1980s and this is so much better cleaned up and remasterd ,i rember some where a article on the Gotha being a converted USAAF aircraft , any way the flying sequences from the Great War era in my view have not been betterd ?

The SE5a equipped some American post war squadrons before being sold off - many went to the film industry


Don't you mean Fokker D VII? (The Albatross D VII was a one off experimental that looked like a DV with DII wings). The US Army did have a few Fokker D VIIs for evaluation purposes

I think the  'Gotha' was a Martin B1 or B2 bomber ex US Army Air Corps

[hesmond]

Ah yes thats the one always mess up me Fockkers , i understand that quite a few were sold to the Bavarian Police and the new Polish Airforce , and that more than a few went to Southern California and used in Hollywood , after watching again am very suprised at the quality of the ariel dogfights which i do not belive have seen their equel , and the 18 year old Harlow is a real suprise , there was a myth that the Gotha was a ex Imperial German airforce but as you say has now been proved to be a mocked up USAAF aircraft , also some of the Fockkers look odd ? i read a article many years ago in Scale Modeler concerning the aircraft used in the movie industry at that time and it mentioned a USAAF fighter converted to represent German aircraft it was known at the time as the Wicthia Fockker ? ,the Imperial German uniforms look very good , Brownlow in his book on early American epics states that Eriv Von Strohiem purchased 1000,s of ex Imperial uniforms from both Germany and Austria for movie use and as their requirement wained in the 1930s were put into storage in the 1930s ,he states that many of the parade uniforms were sold off in the 1960s to colleges ect for conversion to uniforms for use in marching bands ?

[centurion]

hesmond, on 24 April 2012 - 03:43 PM, said:

Ah yes thats the one always mess up me Fockkers , i understand that quite a few were sold to the Bavarian Police and the new Polish Airforce , and that more than a few went to Southern California and used in Hollywood , after watching again am very suprised at the quality of the ariel dogfights which i do not belive have seen their equel , and the 18 year old Harlow is a real suprise , there was a myth that the Gotha was a ex Imperial German airforce but as you say has now been proved to be a mocked up USAAF aircraft , also some of the Fockkers look odd ? i read a article many years ago in Scale Modeler concerning the aircraft used in the movie industry at that time and it mentioned a USAAF fighter converted to represent German aircraft it was known at the time as the Wicthia Fockker ? ,the Imperial German uniforms look very good , Brownlow in his book on early American epics states that Eriv Von Strohiem purchased 1000,s of ex Imperial uniforms from both Germany and Austria for movie use and as their requirement wained in the 1930s were put into storage in the 1930s ,he states that many of the parade uniforms were sold off in the 1960s to colleges ect for conversion to uniforms for use in marching bands ?

The USAAF did not exist until 1941. Between the wars it was the US Army Air Corps.


The  Fokker DVII was especially controlled by the Allied Commissioners after the Armistice and I would be extremely surprised if the Bavarian Police were allowed to operate them.. Those that went to America were initially delivered by the Allied Commission to the US Army and were subsequently sold on (about the same time as were the SE5a s. The DVIIs that went to Poland appear to have been built under licence in the KuK with a Daimler engine (which gave them a better performance than the original version) in the closing period of the war. A number also appeared in  the Hungarian Red  Air Force in 1919 and, from memory, I think the Czechs had some too. Fokker had managed to smuggle a train load out of Germany and sold them, mainly to the Dutch Air Arm. Odd DVIIs appeared all over the place.

The Thomas Morse Scout was used in many films of the period. This bore a close resemblance to the Sopwith Pup (not surprising given that its designer had worked on the Sopwith Pup design team before moving to the USA) and had been the main US fighter trainer during the war.

[Jim Clay]

Pals of a certain age will recall that another star of this film (who did some of the flying scenes himself) was Ben Lyon, patriarch of the popular 1950s BBC radio comedy family series 'Life With The Lyons'.  

The interwebs reminds us that Lyon and wife Bebe Daniels lived in England throughout World War II, including the London Blitz, and that as talent scout with 20th Century Fox, he is often credited with discovering and naming a young blonde starlet ("It's Jean Harlow all over again!" he said) who became Marilyn Monroe. Lyon suggested the name "Marilyn" in honor of Broadway's legendary Marilyn Miller, with whom he had co-starred in Her Majesty, Love.

[centurion]

Jim Clay, on 24 April 2012 - 04:52 PM, said:

Pals of a certain age will recall that another star of this film (who did some of the flying scenes himself) was Ben Lyon, patriarch of the popular 1950s BBC radio comedy family series 'Life With The Lyons'.  

Ah yes I remember it well

A sort of early wireless "My Family" that made occasional references to his role in Hells Angels. There was a wireless son Richard Lyon about whom the standing joke was his meanness - on being nudged to give the waiter a tip he'd start  "well vinegar is very good for getting stains out of ......"





Less of the "of a certain age" please - reminds me of passages in novels that say "Agatha Tiddytwinkle was a lady of a certain age"

[MartinBennitt]

hesmond, on 23 April 2012 - 03:58 PM, said:

If any one is going over to France soon , beaware that in Northern France quite a few of the super markets have a sale of DVDs and one in particular is the 1930 Hells Angels its a remasterd copy simply stunning and 1.95 Euro ! its in orginal English with French subtitles well worth having a quick look for .

Any supermarket chains in particular? Wondering if the same is the case for the Ile de France. If so, will look out for this.

cheers Martin B

[hesmond]

So far has been spotted in Intermarch in Pas De Calais and a few bargin type remainder shops in the area ,also around St Omer ,with in a mile of the old RFC HQ ,so also worth checking the excellent remainder book and DVD shop by the town square in Dunkirk , and have noticed this is a new remasterd copy with sound and picture cleaned ,and colour tones added to the night scenes , apparently this as orginally screned ? Ben Lyon is very good , and the cowardly brother plays the part well , but acting credits must go to a uper foxy Harlow , and you know how as the superb Imperial German officer .

[MartinBennitt]

I have an Intermarché just down the road so will take a look

cheers Martin B

[hesmond]

Martin i am back in St Omer on Saturday and will check again in the bargin Land shop , also have noticed that the Gotha was a mocked up Sikorksy S-29 and the pilots killed 1 was killed when delivering a SE5 , 1 when returning and landed but his plane hit some wire on the field , the fellow killed whilst filming was a mechanic who was ment to fire up the black smoke on the crashing Gotha and jumped to late ? also i never realised that part of the film WAS shot in a early colour ?