Rules Don't Apply * * *

      ...And again with the dramatisation of the life of Howard Hughes.  

       This was was written, produced, and directed by Warren Beatty and stars him playing Hughes,so I guess he must have really wanted to do it.  It focuses on a ten year section from Hughes life - from the mid fifties to the mid sixties.  

"I'm not a crazy millionaire.
I'm a crazy Billionaire!"

       Hughes mental health is deteriorating and he is becoming increasingly dependent upon his assistant Frank as he avoids questions from the press, financiers and shareholders over whether Hughes is of sound mind - especially as he is the head of TWA.

       At the same time Hughes is finding it hard to let go of his film production interests and all the glamour - and very pretty girls - that come with it.  He ships them into Hollywood, signs them up, puts them into lovely homes, assigns drivers to take them around, pays them a retainer and pretty well keeps them in storage until RKO is ready to engage one - or Hughes is ready to amuse himself with one.

      One of those pretty girls is a naive Marla Marbrey (LIly Collins).  She’s a good Baptist girl who wants to be a star without compromising herself.  She develops a very warm relationship with Frank, which is actually against the rules. Hughes has given the driver's strict instructions not to flirt with the starlets.

      It’s an odd film in that it appears to have aspirations of a blockbuster but no one asked if such a broad audience would be interested in this story. The lighting is absolutely beautiful, giving the whole thing a lovely ambient glow. The sets are flawless and you’ll see the largest and most impressive collection of classic 1950s vehicles ever.

      What is perhaps not so good is the story and the telling of it.  It’s just loose and sloppy. Waren really should have engaged a few script doctors to tighten his screenplay up. The Individual scenes are fine in their own right but as a whole it’s rather untidy. There is nothing wrong with anyone’s performance: it’s just that there is no dramatic imperative, it just meanders along.

       It was taken out of the cinemas late last year in the USA after spectacularly bombing and has only just been released here.   It’s a bit of a shame that the whole thing is a disaster really because it doesn’t come across as cynical, or exploitive.  You sense the love, the commitment and good intent is all there.  I just wish it had turned out better for them - and us.