"HELL’S ANGELS.”

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 144, 19 June 1931, Page 3

"HELL’S ANGELS.”

Everything about the Howard Hughes talking spectacle, “ Hell’s Angels,” which opened at the Theatre Royal to-day, is done in a lavish manner. A Zeppelin built especially for the cameras is destroyed, and aeroplanes • are crashed with no regard for expense. The drama in this picture begins with a glimpse of the Zeppelin nosing its way through the clouds, the officers and men aboard preparing to bomb London. It is the commander’s wish to demolish Trafalgar Square, to know that Nelson’s monument is lying in a heap. Arnsteilt is one of the junior officers on the dirigible, a man who feels as much loyalty to the country in which he was at college as he does to his Fatherland. are flashes of the - Zeppelin’s throbbing motors, and then the director turns to what is happening on the ground below by showing the British at their listening device. Word goes forth that a Zeppelin raid is expected, and soon one sees the great switches in the electric light plarits throw the British metropolis into a state of darkness.

Above, the Zeppelin is speeding in the direction of London, and when that destination is reached the commander instructs young Arnstedt to get into the car that is attached by a cable to the dirigible to telephone when the ship Is over Trafalgar Square. Arnstedt is reluctant to take the job, but hesitation means death, so he is forced to obey. Once in the car that swings from the huge airship, Arnstedt permits the dirigible to pass the desired target, and it is only when he thinks that the bombs will do little or no harm that he send up word to the commander that the ship is over Trafalgar Square. They are really hovering, with motors stopped, high above the body of water in Hyde Park, known as the Serpentine. Several bombs are dropped, and the terrific explosion in the water is perceived. Soon Arnstedt telephones that Trafalgar Square is a heap of ruins The commander is supposed to be so gleeful over the successful bombing that he gives the order to release all the remaining missiles, which also fall into the Serpentine, making it look as if it had suddenly been turned into a boiling lake. The drama of this interlude continues, for by this time the fleet of British aeroplanes is striving to gain the altitude of the Zeppelin and attack her. The commander wants to speed on his way, but he discovers that the aeroplanes, buzzing like bees around the craft, are getting too close for comfort. His executive officer says that the airship must lighten to climb higher and elude the aeroplanes. An officer and several men leap to their death to lighten the airship. The commander has done his utmost to save his craft, and it looks as though he might be able to elude the ’planes, for two of them are shot down and a third disappears. The commander and the few men left on the dirigible, thinking chiefly of their ship, are relieved. Suddenly the surviving aeroplane shoots above the Zeppelin, and the pilot of the small craft decided to sacrifice himself in an attempt to give a death-blow to the airship. The tiny aeroplane cuts through the dnrkness. and then, in a plunge from above, crashes into the Zeppelin, which is rent in twain. The dirigible bursts into a flaming mass, and its metal girders cave in on all sides. The last seen of it is on the ground, still blazing, with the aluminium ribs collapsing.