Howard Hughes: The Man and the Madness

"IS there a Howard Hughes?"

This was the cliché question in every news report during his last days, as they speculated on the whereabouts of the mystery tycoon whom nobody had seen for ten years, his mind gone, his kidneys shot away through decades of codeine addiction. It was a sad end for the truly brilliant innovator, brought down by his own sheer professionalism. Testing a new reconnaissance aircraft, he had lost a propeller and ought to have baled out. Instead he insisted on completing the landing in order to understand his plane better, and suffered a bad head injury, from which his apparent recovery turned out to be superficial.

Presently he began to show signs of growing eccentricity that led to that weird hermit life, with its obsessive rules of hygiene, observed by his full-time aides, two of whom are interviewed on this video. I had often wondered what kind of gremlin would volunteer for that kind of second-hand life, though these two seem normal enough. Yet the lifestyle must have tested their patience and, according to some reports, their ethics.

There is no doubting the envy that his earlier life aroused. In between breaking aviation records around the world, he is squiring (almost literally) every beauty in Hollywood, before becoming the biggest hotel-owner in Vegas. But Hollywood and Vegas, with their deceptive dazzle, may be the clue. Notice how none of those romantic conquests led to a close, lasting relationship. Why did he have to ask one of his co-directors to keep procuring these girls for him anyway? And why were all of them so expensively sworn to silence?

Although his contribution to the American war effort was prodigious, Tinseltown managed to spoil the story, when it turned out that he had treated President Roosevelt's son to a whole week of wine, women and song, as a sweetener for a big order of planes, apparently not as good as the rival product. This looked shabby at the height of a war when millions were being asked to make daily sacrifices.

From the dozen or so commentators among Hughes' close circle, we can detect that he moved in a decidedly cynical world, only Hollywood columnist Jim Bacon reflecting an air of decency and good cheer that enlivens the viewing experience.

Howard Hughes was one of the most fascinating people who ever lived - brilliant but unstable, a man who loved aviation, movies, Hollywood, and a man who craved adventure. It's hard to ruin a documentary about him because he's just so darned interesting.

This 1999 documentary starts with a look at Hughes' background, his running of Hughes Electronics, his forays into aviation and the movies. It has interviews with people who worked alongside Hughes as he developed his interests in Las Vegas; they went through his time in seclusion, which resulted in power struggles throughout his organization.

I've read about Hughes and seen other documentaries, yet there were some things I didn't know which I found very interesting. He obviously was a man whose brain was always going full bore. When he was hospitalized after crashing a plane in Beverly Hills (so brilliantly shown in Aviator), at that time, there was no such thing as a hospital bed. Hughes invented it. It was probably at that time that he became addicted to codeine. His interest in buying hotels in Las Vegas grew out of staying in a hotel for months, in seclusion -- when the management tried to throw him out, he just bought the hotel. Later, he added others.

The last part of Hughes' life is extremely tragic, as apparently he was terribly neglected in a deranged state - seven broken needles were found in his arm; he also had festering sores. The people who were supposed to care for him were out for themselves. For a man who was so creative and had such a brilliant mind, his final state is horrible to contemplate. Still, he made some valuable contributions to our world, and it's best to dwell on those.

Sure, Howard Hughes may have been (amongst other things) a total control-freak and deathly afraid of catching other people's germs - But, on the other hand, when it came to the field of aviation, man, this dude was nothing short of being brilliantly inventive and highly knowledgeable like no other man of his generation.

And, when it came to the very first atomic bomb testing in the Nevada desert - I must give Hughes a helluva lot of credit for actually publicly challenging his all-mighty government, demanding that they put an end to all of this destructive madness. (But, to no avail)

Through stills, archival footage, and fairly recent interviews with those who knew Hughes - This 90-minute documentary (from 1999) not only covers the highlights of Howard Hughes' life, but it also brings some new insight into his addictions and the surprising circumstances behind his untimely death in 1976.

*Note* - Be sure to check out this DVD's bonus features, especially the newsreel footage of the world's largest helicopter. (Believe me, it's a beauty!)