Phenomenal public success contrasts with private behaviors close to madness: Howard Hughes from the late 1920s to the late 1940s, from "Hells Angels" (spending a fortune on details) through the only flight of the Hercules, a huge, money-losing transport plane. Along the way, the public Hughes sees the big picture - in movies and in aviation, building TWA and leading it through a fight with Pan Am and the US Senate. In private, phobias and compulsions threaten him with self-imposed solitary confinement. How long can his imagination, drive, and the sympathies of Katharine Hepburn, Ava Gardner, and the men who work for him stave off these internal disorders?

Leonardo DiCaprio spent a day with Jane Russell to hear her memories and impressions of Howard Hughes. She was very impressed with DiCaprio's visit and told him that Hughes was a quiet yet extremely stubborn man who always got his way in the end.

Howard Hughes:
I feel like a little adventure.


Katharine Hepburn:
Do your worst, Mr. Hughes.

Anachronisms: At least one of the Fokker biplanes shown rolling for takeoff in the Hell's Angels (1930) scenes had a modern opposed cylinder engine.

(1930)
from Hell's Angels (1930)
Written by Adolph Tandler
Courtesy of Universal Studios