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