HOWARD HUGHES: HIS WOMEN AND HIS MOVIES (2000) B/W & C 60m

From Now Playing, the TCM Viewer's Guide: "In an arena noted for erratic behavior, Howard Hughes (1905-1976) proved the greatest eccentric of them all --- moving impulsively from career to career as industrialist, aviator and filmmaker while progressing from flamboyant man-about-town to reclusive hermit. Our look at this dynamic but very odd legend includes four films that he produced or directed and the world premiere of a TCM original documentary. Howard Hughes: His Women and His Movies focuses on both his filmmaking career and his zealous romantic pursuit of such stars as Ava Gardner, Ginger Rogers and Katharine Hepburn. Hughes made his name in the movies as the producer-director of Hell's Angels (1930), a World War I aviation epic that showcased not only his knowledge of planes, but his appreciation of beautiful women; the film launched the career of Jean Harlow. As the producer-director of The Outlaw (1943), Hughes introduced another striking beauty --- Jane Russell, whose cleavage in this 'sex-western' created a national sensation and caused lingering censorship problems. Russell, who remained under personal contract to Hughes for years, again aroused the censors' ire with her sexy costumes in his musical The French Line (1954). Hughes co-produced The Sin of Harold Diddlebock (1947), the final film of Harold Lloyd, with the great comic attempting to update his silent-screen image of the bespectacled 'average nice young man.' Hughes spent the last ten years of his life in complete isolation from the outside world, leaving his survivors to battle over his multimillion-dollar fortune."