Two thousand dead.
Whole place is nothing but
pestilential swamp.
Typhus, malaria, cholera, yellow fever.
You name it, they got it.
You see that, Mr. Dietrich?
You are looking at the largest
private air force in the entire world.
What do you think of that, now?
It's your money.
Start them up!
I saw the rough cut of the new
Tod Browning movie, London After Midnight.
Lon Chaney is incredible.
It's his best performance
in a long time.
It's gonna be a big hit.
The cards are great.
It's supposed to be...
Hello, Mr. Mayer.
I don't know if you remember me.
My name's Howard Hughes.
I was wondering
if I could have a moment.
- Oh, Howard Hughes. The airplane picture?
- Exactly.
- I remember.
- Hell's Angels. You heard of it.
- Good.
- Yes.
I was wondering if I could
have a moment of your time.
I need a few cameras.
- Yeah?
- Yeah, two, to be exact.
I bought every camera I could find.
We're shooting our big dogfight sequence.
I need two more. Desperately.
You think MGM could help me out?
With what?
- Cameras.
- Oh, with the actual cam...
We're not usually in the practice
of helping out competition.
- No. No.
- So how many cameras do you have now?
Twenty-four.
You?
Wait a minute.
- You have 24 cameras?
- That's right.
- And you need..? You need two more?
- Yeah.
- You don't think you got it with 24?
- No. No, sir.
You know, I think...
I think we've got them all...
Don't we have them?
They're all used, right?
- All 26 of them.
- I only need two, sir.
- Jesus Christ, sonny.
- Howard.
Howard. Let me give you
a little advice, huh?
- Take your oil money...
- Drill bits.
All right, take your drill-bit money
and put it in the bank.
If you continue making
the movie the way you are...
...there isn't gonna be a distributor...
...you won't find anybody
who wants to see the movie...
...and you're not gonna have
any more oil money.
So welcome to Hollywood.
Yeah. Well, I'll be sure
to remember that, Mr. Mayer.
- Good luck.
- All right.
He needs 26 to make it work?
He's out of his mind.
I looked down at my pants.
It was a strange 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?