Here’s an astonishing four minute reel of outtakes from ‘Hells Angels’, saved apparently by accident and carefully preserved and lovingly restored. I can’t begin to tell you how rare it is to see outtakes from a film this early–movie outtakes began to be saved in the mid-thirties as a result of a then-new party idea–showing actor ‘blooper reels’ at wrap parties. The ‘Hells Angels’ outtakes are not bloopers, but simply pieces of film mostly showing the moments before the actual take begins; an assistant cameraman waits patiently, slate in hand, until he’s given the go-ahead to hit the clapboard and walk away. The narrator, author David Gann, postulates the longish wait times as having something to do with the then-early sound-syncing method which may have taken awhile to achieve ‘speed’. While we wait, we see the actors waiting as well–out of character, sometimes chatting with each other and in the case of Jean Harlow staring off nervously waiting to go into her dance. Director James Whale’s involvement in the project feels a good deal more present than accounts generally represent–his name’s on the slate for most scenes, even though Hughes takes Director credit for the entire film (Whale is relegated to a ‘dialogue scenes staged by…’ credit). Oh, and the slates themselves are quite charming; they’ve yet to add the information about scene number, camera roll, DP and Director’s names etc. all of which are there for the editors…er…edification. Instead, they’re simply horizontal attached sticks, solely intended for sound-syncing purposes. Most important of all, though, is the final outtake in the reel, which shows us Howard Hughes himself, directing–or fussing is more like it–at age 24. It’s the first view of Hughes on film and he looks (from what we can see of him) a lot like a young Gary Cooper. All in all, an invaluable look at the operations of an early sound movie set…and proof that the more things change technologically, the more they stay the same in actual practice.