It's surprising that he wasn't born with the name The Amazing Howard Hughes. Since this essay deals only with Hughes' film work, we'll leave a survey of his aviation and industrial accomplishments, and his hermitlike final years, to his many biographers. Tenuously connected with the movie industry by virtue of the fact that his uncle was silent-film director Rupert Hughes, 20-year-old Howard began investing a few of his millions in motion picture production in 1926. Hughes' Caddo Productions made its bow with 1926's Everybody's Acting; his next film, Two Arabian Nights (1927), won an Academy Award for best comedy screenplay. Caddo's Hell's Angels, the first of Hughes' aviation-oriented films, began as a silent in 1929; upon putting Jean Harlow under contract, Hughes scrapped most of the silent footage, replaced original leading lady Greta Nissen with Harlow, and reshot the film as a talkie, directing several of the scenes himself (dialogue director James Whale handled most of the dramatic sequences, while Hughes concentrated on the aerial action highlights). Scarface (1930), Hughes' next production, is regarded as one of the greatest of all gangster films. Because of its violence and its unfavorable portrayal of certain ethnic types, Scarface…  » Read more