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