Did You Know?

At least one of the Fokker biplanes shown rolling for takeoff in the Hell's Angels scenes had a modern opposed cylinder engine.
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In the early scene when Howard Hughes takes Katharine Hepburn on a flight over LA, the first aerial shots briefly show a couple of obviously modern buildings as well as part of a freeway.
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In 1928, Howard Hughes orders "10 chocolate chip cookies" - which were not invented until 1933.
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The Honolulu clock behind Owen Brewster shows the time is 9:30, 3 hours earlier than the time on the Los Angeles clock (12:30). Based on Brewster's line about Harry S. Truman being Vice President, the scene takes place between January-April 1945. Until the Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time Zone was changed to its present 3-hour differential in 1947, Hawaii was a half-hour behind the West Coast.
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When the Spruce Goose first gets airborne, two members of the crew stationed behind the cockpit can be seen briefly exchanging a high five.
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Near the end of the film, when Howard Hughes and others are in the tent beside the Spruce Goose, the ceiling fans are of a modern style not invented in the 1950s.
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The dialog places the scene where Howard Hughes shows Frye and Gross the XF-11 on Christmas Night 1944, but the plane's insignia is of the post-World War II USAF, a red bar in the center of the white bar; it should have just the white bar. And the star on the left boom is pointing in the wrong direction.
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In the Coconut Grove Errol Flynn is portrayed as an established and successful movie star. The scene is set prior to September 13, 1935 (the date given in a scene soon thereafter), but Flynn was virtually unknown until Captain Blood, which was released in December of that year.
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Luddy shoots Howard Hughes with a Bolex reflex camera, which was not manufactured until the 1950s.
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At least two of the Feds who trash Howard Hughes's office are smoking filtered cigarettes before filtered cigarettes were introduced.
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During the filming of Hell's Angels, as one of the SE5a scout biplanes taxis past, the fact that it is a reduced-scale replica is obvious due to the oversize pilot's head. Also, same shot, you can see his modern microphone attached to the helmet.
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The scene in which Howard Hughes locks himself in the projection room and cuts off most contact from the outside world for an extended period of time is somewhat misleading. Though Hughes battled germ phobia all of his life (the fear of germs was instilled in him early on by his mother) Hughes did not become a recluse until much later in his life. The scene that is portrayed in the movie is very similar to a documented incident where Hughes did spend almost a year in a private movie theater however it wasn't until he was near 50 years old.
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Louis B. Mayer's mouth movements doesn't match his vocals near the end of his talk with Howard Hughes.
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When Howard Hughes is in the hospital after his plane crash, a boom mic is visible on the door.
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When first in the Coconut Grove, Howard Hughes orders a "milk with the cap still on". When Howard receives the milk there is no cap on it.
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A main plot point is that Howard Hughes is mysophobic, yet he engages in behavior that someone who suffers from mysophobia would not: he makes incidental contact with various characters; he opens the doors of public places with a bare hand; he turns the public restroom faucets on with a bare hand, and uses their towels; Katharine Hepburn and Ava Gardner complain about his womanizing; Ava refers to his "filthy gym shoes"; he shares the same sundae and spoon with Faith Domergue; he shakes hands with Owen Brewster before their lunch; he leaves food in the projection room half-eaten and exposed to ants; he shakes hands with people as he walks out of the hearings.
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Johnny Meyer tells Howard Hughes that all the color cameras in Hollywood are being used by Cecil B. DeMille, who is making a movie for Paramount. The film referenced, The King of Kings, was actually made for Pathé-DeMille, not Paramount.
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When Howard Hughes and Faith Domergue are at the nightclub, they share a chocolate sundae. The scene begins with a continuity issue involving Faith's spoon. As the sundae itself melts and re-freezes, the cherry jumps from the top to the side and back to the top with fresher fudge. Also, at one point, Faith is shown with her arm raised, eating, but, in the very next shot, her arm is on her lap.
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When the model of the Hercules is brought out to promote the plane's construction, the propellers are turning in the wide shots, but not in the close-ups.
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As Howard Hughes steps out of his plane just before meeting Katharine Hepburn on the beach and he buttons his coat, his tie is outside the coat. In the next shot of Hughes, the tie is tucked in under the buttoned coat.
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The overhead shot of the H-1 just before Howard Hughes takes it off for its test flight show the airplane with its short wings (used for setting pure speed records), whereas the in-flight shots portray the airplane with its long wings (used for cross-country races and setting cross-country records).
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At the premiere screening of Hell's Angels, in the first wide shot after the film ends, Dietrich is seen to be one of the first to applaud, but on the close up of him, he is shown as being hesitant and watching others to see if they start applauding.
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In the restaurant scene with the indoor snowfall, snowflakes on Howard Hughes' shoulders appear and disappear between shots.
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When Howard Hughes is dining with Senator Owen Brewster in the hotel, his jacket seems to vary between being buttoned and unbuttoned. Before he rises to leave, he buttons it, but when he stands up, it is unbuttoned again. Then when he walks into the hallway (in what appears to be a differently coloured jacket) it is buttoned up again.
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When Howard Hughes rolls out the "Spruce Goose" at the dinner party, the plane's eight engines are shown with propellers spinning, then seen from a different angle they are not spinning, and then back to a head-on shot they are spinning again.
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When Faith Domergue crashes her car into Howard Hughes and Ava Gardner's car, even after two crashes there is no significant damage seen on either car.
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As Howard Hughes enters the tent at the end of the film, he raises his arms to clasp Noah and Odie on their backs. But in the next shot, his arms are down.
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As Howard Hughes enters the tent at the end of the film, he is carrying his hat. When he's talking to Noah and Odie in the next shot, his hat is on his head.
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Errol Flynn reaches out for Katharine Hepburn's hand twice as Howard Hughes introduces them.
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The lamp shade Errol Flynn removes off the lamp sits flat on the table, then leans on its left side, then sits flat again.
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The sky alternates between sun and shade during the speed-test run.
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Odie has his finger on the reset button of his stopwatch during the speed-test, then at the crown.
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While Howard Hughes asks Ava Gardner if she wants to go to Paris, two guys with blue suits pass behind them three times.
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When Howard Hughes starts to shout "Oakland!", the shadow of the tower behind him and Dietrich changes.
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The Spruce Goose flies over a group of boats, which disappear in the next shot. Moreover, the plane is flying lower in the shot.
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When Katharine Hepburn and Howard Hughes drive up to the Hepburn estate, it is sunny. When she gets out of the car moments later, the sky is overcast. When we zoom in on Hughes as Luddy shoots him, the sky is sunny again. When she gathers the clan and introduces them to Hughes, the sky behind them is blue, and the sunlight reflecting off of the roof is a yellow-orange, indicating that the sun is beginning to set. When we cut back to Hughes, the sunlight is the same as it was when we first cut to him as he was being shot by Luddy.
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After Dietrich introduces himself to Howard Hughes, everything to their right disappears when the shot changes.
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The positions of Howard Hughes's arms and Frye's head as they talk about Hughes buying TWA.
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Howard Hughes' left hand is hanging up the phone as he points his right index finger up to acknowledge Katharine Hepburn as she walks into the office. In the next shot, his left hand is rubbing his forehead, and the finger is down.
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As Howard Hughes confronts Roland Sweet, you see the face of the thug in the car behind Hughes. When we cut back to Hughes, the thug's face is completely dark. When we cut to Hughes again, the thug's face is visible again, and lighted differently from the first time we saw him.
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As Frye tells Howard Hughes about the airline route bill that Owen Brewster is pushing on Trippe's behalf, Hughes removes his hat. In the next shot, the assistant walking behind them has the hat, and Hughes has the drawings for TWA's new logo. It's clear that Hughes exchanged the drawings for the hat, but we never see the assistant with the drawings to begin with.
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At the lunch with Owen Brewster, the garnish on Howard Hughes' fish, the garnish next to the fish, and the potatoes and the asparagus on the plate move from when Hughes is served the meal to when he begins to eat.
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After Ava Gardner shaves Howard Hughes, she instructs him to rinse off his face. The water in the sink has drained, and the faucet is off. But as his hands move under the faucet, it is running, and there is water in the sink again.
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As Howard Hughes lifts off in the XF-11, there are yellow and white stripes on the runway that weren't there a moment earlier.
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When Errol Flynn reaches Howard Hughes and 'Katherine's table, he takes a final drag off of his cigarette, then exhales. When Flynn kisses Katherine's hand moments later, he is clearly exhaling the cigarette smoke.
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Errol Flynn holds a drink in his right hand and a cigarette in his left hand as the man behind him hits him with the crumpled-up paper ball. As he turns around to react in the next shot, the drink in now his left hand, and the cigarette is in his right hand.
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When we first see Louis B. Mayer, his arms are down. When he turns around after Howard Hughes taps him on the shoulder, he has a drink in his hand.
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As Howard Hughes talks to the cigarette girl at the Cocoanut Grove, the same couple walk up to the table behind him twice.
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Howard Hughes inspects a rudder while talking to Dietrich, but neither he or Dietrich are in the shot when we cut to a frontal view of the plane, even though we still hear Hughes talk.
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In the projection room with Dietrich, Howard Hughes jots down notes with his right hand. When he is at 'Ava' Gardner''s house much later in the film, he jots down notes with his left hand.
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As Dietrich breaks the bad news regarding the cost overruns on Hell's Angels, Howard Hughes runs his hands through his hair up either side of his head, then stops. In the next shot, his hands have met on the back of his head, with the the fingers interlocked.
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When Howard Hughes is burning his clothes, his fringe appears in the close ups and disappears in the wide shots.
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Howard Hughes puts the drawings for TWA's new logo down on the table to free his hands. But as he chews out the assistant who gave him the drawings, we cut to a close-up of the mock TWA logo, and Hughes is holding it with his left hand. In the next shot, his hands are empty again.
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As Howard Hughes finishes shaving as he talks to Katharine Hepburn, there is still foam on his chin. As he moves to rinse his face, the foam is gone.
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The two models who present the Hercules are at the curtain as it parts. In the next shot, they are standing several feet from the curtain, near the middle of the runway.
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The ice cream spoon Howard Hughes holds against the carton as he enters his office is in the carton when he defies Katharine Hepburn and answers the phone.
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The handkerchief folds in the breast pocket of Trippe's dress jacket as he talks to Howard Hughes at the Cocoanut Grove.
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As Mrs. Hepburn asks Howard Hughes about his politics, the drinking glasses before her and the plate of sliced bread before him are spaced apart, and he holds a bowl of carrots even though he doesn't have a plate. Katharine passes a bowl of string beans to Mrs. Hepburn, who passes them back to her, and takes the carrots with her left hand. When we cut to Hughes after Mrs. Hepburn asks him about Franklin D. Roosevelt, the carrots are now in her right hand, and the drinking glasses in front of her have moved. As Hughes grunts, the carrots are in Mrs. Hepburn's left hand again. When we cut to Hughes after Luddy says "What are you snickering at?", there are carrots on Uncle Willy's plate that weren't there before. As Hughes complains about the dog, Luddy holds the string beans with his left hand. In the next shot, Luddy's left hand reaches for the dog under the table. In the next shot, Luddy holds the string beans with his left hand again. When Dr. Hepburn says "Don't you like dogs?", there are carrots on Hughes's plate that weren't there before. When we cut to Mrs. Hepburn, she is holding a full bowl of carrots. When she passes the carrots to Katharine Hepburn without serving herself as Hughes says "No, no, I wasn't", the amount of carrots has changed, and the carrots on Hughes's plate are gone. As Luddy asks Katharine something, he passes the string beans to his right. When Dr. Hepburn says "A bad experience? With a dog?", the string beans are passed across him. Two shots later, Luddy holds the string beans again. Seven shots later, Hughes holds the string beans. When Dr. Hepburn asks Hughes if he reads, Hughes handles a fork and a napkin. When Uncle Willy reacts to Hughes's use of the word "snuff", Hughes is leaned over to his right as he looks at Uncle Willy, then, two shots later, is upright holding just the napkin. When we cut to Hughes after Mrs. Hepburn says "Flying magazines?", his hands are on his lap, and the plate that was next to the vase before is now near him. When Katharine mentions the plane Hughes is building, Luddy, a glass up to his lips, says "Oh, really?", but his lips don't move. We then cut to Luddy, and the glass is gone. When Luddy says "a mere trifle, darling", Hughes's arms are in his lap when they should still be holding the two pieces of bread he was using to describe the plane he is building. As Hughes reacts to Dr. Hepburn telling him he's a urologist, there is a fork and vegetables on Hughes's plate that weren't there before. When Hughes says "I'll bet", the fork and vegetables are gone. As Hughes says "Well, that's because you have it", his plate is gone, the drinking glass and the sliced bread are in the same spot they were when the scene began, the spoon in the string beans has moved, and the amount of beans in the bowl has changed. When Hughes gets up, his plate reappears, there is a red pitcher between Hughes and the lady which should have been in the shots of Hughes from Dr. Hepburn's point-of-view, and there is a candle holder near Katharine and Mrs. Hepburn which we should have seen in the shots involving them.
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During the H-1 run, close up shots of Howard Hughes shows an open canopy, but farther shots show a closed canopy.
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Lighting screens are reflected in Katharine Hepburn's glasses while she's in the car heading to the set.
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During the crash of the XF-11 aircraft over Los Angeles, Howard Hughes radios that he will put down on the Wilshire Country Club. Hughes actually lived in a Spanish Villa at Wilshire Country Club (near the 8th hole), the crash of the XF-11 was into Beverly Hills at the Los Angeles Country Club.
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Odie was not aboard the Hercules on her maiden flight because Hughes wanted there to be no doubt that he was at the controls. Those on board with Howard Hughes were Radio Operator Merle Coffee, Flight Engineer Don Smith, Flight Mechanic John Glen, James McNamara, and various reporters.
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In the film, the witnesses inside the Hercules are seated and separated from Howard Hughes as he was at the controls. Newsreel footage showed that people were actually standing in the cockpit, with James McNamara steps away from Hughes.
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The real Howard Hughes had brown eyes, but Leonardo DiCaprio's blue eyes are not covered with brown contact lenses.
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The hearings were chaired by Michigan Senator Homer Ferguson, not Senator Owen Brewster. Brewster did testify at the hearings, and was questioned by Howard Hughes himself.
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Howard Hughes is shown ordering 40 Lockheed Constellations on Christmas Night 1944 after being pitched by Frye and Gross. In fact, in 1939, after Hughes bought 25% of TWA at Frye's behest, he requested a 40-passenger transcontinental airliner with a 3,500 mile range from Lockheed; in the movie, Frye and Gross pitch a 60-passenger craft with a 3,000 mile range.
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According to biographers, Hughes Tool Company ("Tool Co"), which owned a 90% market share of petroleum drill bits, was such a gusher of cash, the financial crunches in the movie never took place. Howard Hughes entered the entertainment, aviation, and hospitality industries solely by using the revenues generated by Tool Co. In 1953, Hughes spun off Hughes Aircraft, which had been spun off from Tool Co., and donated it to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute as its endowment.
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In a newsreel account, Howard Hughes himself says that the H-1's top speed was "approximately 370 miles an hour", and that the engine failed when the plane was "20 feet above the ground". In the movie, the H-1's top speed is 352 MPH, and the engine fails in mid-air.
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In the H-1 run, Howard Hughes wears a fedora. As the newsreel account of the ensuing crash showed, he actually wore a skull cap and goggles.
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In the closing credits, Kenneth Welsh's name is misspelled as Kenneth Walsh.
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Several changes were made in the movie to the relationship between Katharine Hepburn and Howard Hughes. Hepburn did not in fact leave Howard for Spencer Tracy. The two broke up long before she had met Spencer Tracy. And lastly, Katharine Hepburn's brother committed suicide when she was little, not during her years as a star.
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Despite the fact that this was filmed in Super 35, "Filmed in Panavision" is listed in the end credits.
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Various people and events in Howard Hughes' life, and events in the lives of the real-life characters he interacts with have been altered or omitted to fit the dramatic narrative.
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It is not certain that Howard Hughes had any of his germ phobias prior to either the crash of the XF-11 or the congressional hearings. However, according to Faith Domergue's autobiography, Hughes began to display the bizarre behavior that would typify his later years as early as 1942.
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How did Faith Domergue know exactly where Howard Hughes and Ava Gardner were going, and when they would arrive?
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In a shot with the Hercules aircraft in the background, a painter is seen applying paint to the nose-area of the aircraft with a paint roller. The roller passes past the section that he is supposed to be painting.
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When we see Sir Ian Holm sitting in the Hercules his head barely comes over the back of the seat. In reverse shots the head and shoulders of Professor Fitz are clearly visible - obviously a stand-in.
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Howard Hughes flies the H-1 without goggles, yet his eyes are not affected. Even with a windscreen, the wind should have caused his eyes to water.
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As Howard Hughes gets the idea to build a single-wing plane out of the bi-plane, Odie smashes the support holding up its upper wing with a beam. But the upper wing is already broken, with a covering laid over the joint.
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As Howard Hughes wipes the blood off his hands in the Cocoanut Grove bathroom, it is obvious from the spots on the towel that it is make-up and not actually emitting from the cut on his finger.
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(At 07:45) Howard Hughes sits down to the table with Johnny Meyer who pulls out a cigarette and proceeds to light a match with the cigarette backwards in his mouth. In the next cut of him holding the match up to the cigarette, it has been reversed.
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