- Ava Gardner: You listened to my phone calls?
- Howard Hughes: No! No! No! Honey I would never do that! I'd never do that! I... I just read the transcripts, that's all.
- Katharine Hepburn: Men can't be friends with women Howard. They must posses them or leave them be. It's a primitive urge from caveman days. It's all in Darwin. Hunt the flesh. Kill the flesh. Eat the flesh. That's the, ah, male sex all over.
- [on "The Outlaw"]
- Glenn Odekirk: Howard, you really think they're gonna let you put out a whole movie just about tits?
- Howard Hughes: [beat] Sure. Who doesn't like tits?
- [cut to a panel of frowning members of the Motion Pictures Association of America]
- Howard Hughes: Does that look clean to you?
- Ava Gardner: Nothing's clean, Howard. But we do our best, right?
- Doctor: [after detailing Hughes's terrible injuries in the plane crash] He's getting blood transfusions now, but, uh...
- Noah Dietrich: Whose blood?
- Doctor: I'm sorry?
- Noah Dietrich: Whose blood?
- Doctor: From our stock.
- Noah Dietrich: Oh, he's not gonna like that.
- Doctor: Mr. Dietrich... I doubt he's ever gonna like or dislike anything again. I'm terribly sorry.
- Howard Hughes: Look at me, Kate. Stop acting.
- Katharine Hepburn: Ha. I'm not acting.
- Howard Hughes: I wonder if you even know any more.
- Katharine Hepburn: Don't be unkind.
- Howard Hughes: [doesn't hear what Kate says] Excuse me?
- Katharine Hepburn: Well, if you're deaf, you must own up to it. Get a hearing aid, or see my father. He's an urologist, but it's all tied up inside the body, don't you find?
- Howard Hughes: Mmm.
- Katharine Hepburn: Me, I keep healthy. I take seven showers a day to keep clean, also because I'm so vulgarly referred to as "outdoors-y." Well, I'm not "outdoors-y," I'm athletic. I sweat! There it is, now we both know the sordid truth: I sweat, and you're deaf. Aren't we a fine pair of misfits?
- Katharine Hepburn: I've been famous - for better or worse - for a long time now... I wonder if you know what that really means.
- Howard Hughes: I got my fair share of press on Hell's Angels. I'm used to it.
- Katharine Hepburn: Are you?
- Katharine Hepburn: Howard, we're not like everyone else. Too many acute angles. Too many eccentricities. We have to be very careful not to let people in or they'll make us into freaks.
- Howard Hughes: Kate, they can't get in here. We're safe.
- Katharine Hepburn: Oh? Oh, they can always get in. When my brother killed himself there were photographers at the funeral. There's no decency to it.
- Howard Hughes: Actresses are cheap in this town, darlin'. And I got a lot of money.
- Katharine Hepburn: Please, Howard, this is beneath you.
- Howard Hughes: No no. This is exactly me. You come over here out of the blue and tell me you're leaving me for someone else and you have the nerve to expect graciousness?
- Katharine Hepburn: I expected a little maturity, I expect you to face this situation like an adul...
- Howard Hughes: DON'T TALK DOWN TO ME! Don't you EVER talk down to me! You are a movie star, nothing more!
- Howard Hughes: No, wait! Honey, you can't move! You can't move, you're safe here! You're in the germ-free zone now, y'understand?
- Ava Gardner: I'll take my chances.
- Howard Hughes: No, no! Honey, wait... wait, uh...
- [Ava removes the string barriers from the doorway and walks into the study. She turns on the light, revealing that entire room is covered with used tissues and string barriers everywhere. Silence for a moment]
- Ava Gardner: Love what you've done with the place...
- Katharine Hepburn: What's that on the steering wheel?
- Howard Hughes: Cellophane. If you had any idea of the crap that people carry around on their hands.
- Katharine Hepburn: What kind of crap?
- Howard Hughes: You don't wanna know.
- Ava Gardner: You don't own me, Howard. I'm not one of your teenage whores and I'm not some damn airplane!
- Howard Hughes: Do you know those fellas? Do they work for me?
- Noah Dietrich: Everybody works for you, Howard.
- Sen. Ralph Owen Brewster: All right, let's get down to business. Let's talk turkey. My investigation...
- [He nearly bursts into laughter]
- Sen. Ralph Owen Brewster: My investigation has turned up a lot of dirt. It could be really embarassing if this stuff got out. I'd like to save you from that embarassment.
- Howard Hughes: That's very kind of you, Owen.
- Sen. Ralph Owen Brewster: My committee has the power to hold public hearings. I'd like to spare you from that.
- Howard Hughes: [smirks] Would you, now?
- [Brewster abruptly drops his silverware]
- Sen. Ralph Owen Brewster: Look, do you wanna go down in history as a war profiteer, Howard? Is that what you want?
- Howard Hughes: [gravely] What do you want, Owen?
- Sen. Ralph Owen Brewster: You agree to support my C.A.B. bill, and I won't hold public hearings.
- Howard Hughes: I can't do that, Owen. Can't do that. The C.A.B. bill would kill TWA.
- Sen. Ralph Owen Brewster: Sell T.W.A. to Pan Am. You'll get a good price. You'll get a fair price, I'm telling you.
- Howard Hughes: And then...? Then you won't go public?
- Sen. Ralph Owen Brewster: Right. That's right. The investigation's closed. Nobody knows a thing. It's better for everybody.
- [pause]
- Howard Hughes: You know, Owen, I'm still wondering one thing. The picture of the llama you got last year. Where'd you sail from?
- Sen. Ralph Owen Brewster: [disinterested] We didn't sail. We flew.
- Howard Hughes: You flew?
- Sen. Ralph Owen Brewster: Yeah.
- Howard Hughes: Ah.
- [Brewster stops chewing abruptly, realizing what Howard's implying]
- Howard Hughes: [leans in] Are you sure you want to do this, Owen? You want to go to war with me?
- Sen. Ralph Owen Brewster: It isn't me, Howard. It's the United States government. We just beat Germany and Japan. Who the hell are you?
- Howard Hughes: [getting up from the table] You tell Juan Trippe something for me, all right? Tell him thanks for the flowers. And he can kiss both sides of my ass.
- [leaves]
- Glenn Odekirk: We installed the 450 radial, but the struts won't take the vibration. Minute we go contact, the struts start craking at the attach points.
- Howard Hughes: Dammit, Odie, if the 450's too big, figure something else out!
- Glenn Odekirk: We've done everything - we've rebuilt her from top to bottom. If we drain the fuel tank for a couple of runs she might make 180 mph.
- Howard Hughes: I want minimum 200.
- Glenn Odekirk: Yeah, well, I want a date with Theda Bara, but that ain't gonna happen either.
- Howard Hughes: Don't be so sure... OK, OK, OK, this is a simple engineering problem. We just gotta think it out.
- [pause]
- Howard Hughes: So if the struts won't sustain the engine we need - then we gotta get rid of them.
- Glenn Odekirk: Then the top wing falls off.
- Howard Hughes: Then let it.
- Glenn Odekirk: What?
- Howard Hughes: Who says we need a top wing?
- [pauses]
- Howard Hughes: Who says we need *anything*?
- [Glenn is warming up to Hughes' idea]
- Glenn Odekirk: A monoplane...
- Howard Hughes: A cantilevered monoplane. They're doing it in France. To the hell with the top wing and the struts...
- Glenn Odekirk: 550 Whitney Wasp engine...
- Howard Hughes: 100 octane fuel will give us a top horsepower of - what?
- Glenn Odekirk: Seven hundred.
- Howard Hughes: Squeeze it to a thousand and we got the fastest plane ever built.
- Glenn Odekirk: You know, I just gotta say... we've already spent over $200,000 rebuilding this plane.
- Howard Hughes: To the hell with it.
- [smiles]
- Howard Hughes: Tear it up, Odie.
- [Glenn takes a sledgehammer and annihilates the struts on the top wing; the top wing falls off]
- Howard Hughes: You know, sometimes I - I get these feelings, Katie. I get these ideas, these - crazy ideas about the - things that may not - things that may not really be there. Sometimes I truly fear that I'm - losing my mind. And if I did, it would - it would be like flying blind.
- Howard Hughes: [pensively weighing options] I could do that.
- Jack Frye: Do what?
- Howard Hughes: Buy it.
- Jack Frye: You wanna *buy* the airline?
- Howard Hughes: Well why not? We don't want a bunch of pencil-pushers gettin' in the way of us makin' our plane now do we?
- Jack Frye: No...
- Howard Hughes: [walking away] You call Noel Dietrich. You tell him to start buying!
- Jack Frye: [yelling after him in shock] Hang on Howard! You sure you don't want to stop and think about this for a second?
- Howard Hughes: Nope! I've got a tiger by the tail here and I'm not about to let go!
- Howard Hughes: Pull back on the wheel a bit.
- Katharine Hepburn: GOLLY!
- Howard Hughes: I don't think I've ever met anyone who uses the word Golly.
- Katharine Hepburn: [flying Howard's plane] Howard, there's a rather alarming mountain heading our way.
- Howard Hughes: [talking of Juan Trippe] He owns Pan-Am. He owns Congress. He owns the Civil Aeronautics Board. But he does not own the sky.
- Juan Trippe: [walks away from TV showing the Hughes investigation trial] Switch it off.
- Pan-Am Employee: The hearings aren't over yet.
- Juan Trippe: The hearings *are* over.
- [Is looking at a map of the globe]
- Juan Trippe: The airline bill will be defeated in the senate. TWA will begin flights over New York to Paris, leaving over Moscow to Japan, to Hawaii, to Los Angeles... to New York.
- [Realizes that Pan-Am's monopoly is finished]
- Juan Trippe: Fuck!
- Professor Fitz: Well, the cumulonimbus formations about which you speak that look like...
- Howard Hughes: Giant breasts full of milk. I want clouds, damn it.
- Professor Fitz: Yes, clouds that look like giant breasts full of milk, cannot exactly be guaranteed for any particular occasion. So you might have to... to wait.
- Howard Hughes: Then we'll wait. Look, whatever they pay you at UCLA I'm doubling it, all right? You work for me now. Find some clouds. Find some clouds! Find me some clouds!
- Hell's Angels Pilot: Welcome to Hell's Angels.
- [Last day of the Senate Committee hearings]
- Sen. Ralph Owen Brewster: Mr. Hughes, did you receive $43 million to manufacture 100 XF-11 spy planes for the United States Air Force?
- Howard Hughes: I did.
- Sen. Ralph Owen Brewster: How many functional planes did you deliver to the United States Air Force?
- Howard Hughes: None.
- Sen. Ralph Owen Brewster: Would you lean a little closer to the microphone, sir?
- Howard Hughes: [annoyed, Howard does so] None!
- Sen. Ralph Owen Brewster: Did you receive $13 million to manufacture a prototype of a flying boat known as The Hercules?
- Howard Hughes: [clears throat] I did.
- Sen. Ralph Owen Brewster: And did you deliver that plane?
- Howard Hughes: I did not.
- Sen. Ralph Owen Brewster: [stunned] So, by your admission in this chamber, Mr. Hughes, you have received *$56 million*... for the United States government... for planes you never delivered.
- Howard Hughes: That is correct.
- Sen. Ralph Owen Brewster: [Brewster can't believe his own luck, begins chuckling] Well, excuse me for asking, Mr. Hughes, but... where did all that money go?
- Howard Hughes: Well, it went into the planes, Senator. And a lot more.
- Sen. Ralph Owen Brewster: More?
- [still darkly chuckling]
- Sen. Ralph Owen Brewster: Do tell, Mr. Hughes? What other larcenies did you commit?
- Howard Hughes: I mean, I put *my* money into these planes, Senator. My money. See, the thing is...
- Sen. Ralph Owen Brewster: [attempting to stop Howard from speaking] Mr. Hughes, your personal finances are n -- are not...
- Another Senator: [sitting next to Brewster] Let him speak.
- Sen. Ralph Owen Brewster: [wary] Alright, proceed, Mr. Hughes.
- Howard Hughes: See, the thing is, I care very much about aviation. It has been the great joy of my life. That's why I put my own money into these planes and I've lost millions, Senator Brewster, and I'll go on losing millions. It's just... what I do. Now, if I've lost a lot of the government's money during the war, well, I hope folks will put that into perspective. You see, more than 60 other airplanes ordered from such firms as Lockheed, Douglas, Northrup and Boeing never saw action either. In all, more than $800 million was spent during the war on planes that never flew. Over 6 *billion* on other weapons that were never delivered. Yet, Hughes Aircraft, with her 56 million... is the only firm under investigation here today. Now I cannot help but think that has a little more to do with TWA than planes that did not fly!
- Sen. Ralph Owen Brewster: [now worried] I think you've made your point, Mr. Hughes...
- Howard Hughes: One second, Senator Brewster! I have one more thing to say here to this committee... and that has to do with The Hercules. Now, I am supposed to be... many things that are not complimentary. I am supposed to be capricious. I have been called a playboy. I've even been called an eccentric, but I do not believe I have the reputation of being a liar. Now, needless to say, The Hercules was a monumental undertaking. It is the largest plane ever built. It is over five stories tall with a wingspan longer than a football field. That's more than a city block! Now, I put the sweat of my life into this thing, I got my reputation all rolled up in it. And I have stated several times that if The Hercules fails to fly, I will leave this country and never come back! And I mean it! Now, Senator Brewster, you can subpoena me, you can arrest me, you can claim I've folded up and taken a run-out powder, But, well... I've just about had enough of this nonsense. Good afternoon.
- [leaves]
- Spencer Tracy: Trouble with Mr. Hughes?
- Katharine Hepburn: There's too much "Howard Hughes" in Howard Hughes. That's the trouble.
- [Howard is getting attention after flying around the world in 3 days]
- Katharine Hepburn: You know, fame is supposed to be *my* turf.
- Katharine Hepburn: I've got a better idea, take me flying! Or better yet, I'll take you flying!
- Howard Hughes: Do your worst, Miss Hepburn.
- Sen. Ralph Owen Brewster: All right this has gon on long enough. Juan Tripp is a great American. His airline has advanced the cause of commercial aviation in this country for decades. Juan Tripp is a patriot. Juan Tripp is not a man who's interested in making money.
- Howard Hughes: Well, I'm sure his stockholders would be happy to hear that.
- [Everybody starts laughing]
- Juan Trippe: If you let him testify at that hearing, the whole world will see what he's become. They should remember him for what he was.
- Howard Hughes: I've been to Chatsworth, Santa Cruz, Encino, San Diego, Riverside, Van Nuys, and Bakersfield. It has been eight months! Where are my goddamn clouds, huh?
- Professor Fitz: They move, Mr. Hughes! Clouds move. That's what they do. They move!
- Howard Hughes: [pointing to the Hell's Angels planes] Do you see that? It is costing me $5,271 A DAY to keep those planes on the ground! You get me some goddamn clouds, huh?
- Ava Gardner: ...You can't buy me, Howard, so stop trying. Don't buy me any more diamonds or sapphires or any other damn thing. You can buy me dinner...
- [Howard takes Kate to the Cocoanut Grove]
- Katharine Hepburn: Your kind of a joint, is it? Wouldn't have thought.
- Howard Hughes: Yeah, well, they're open late. I go to a hot dog stand on La Cienega, too; they're open 'til around 4.
- Katharine Hepburn: Are they? How marvelous!
- Sen. Ralph Owen Brewster: ...we would like him to reappear. Would you ask him to return?
- Howard Hughes: No, I don't think I will.
- Sen. Ralph Owen Brewster: Will you try to have him return?
- Howard Hughes: No, I don't think I'll try.
- Sen. Ralph Owen Brewster: You don't think you'll try?
- Howard Hughes: No, I don't think so.
- Howard Hughes: [Attempting a take-off of the Spruce Goose] Power coming up!
- Glenn Odekirk: Power coming up!
- [Howard pushes on the throttles]
- James McNamara: [On the radio] Howard Hughes has just alerted us. Asked everyone to hold on. Tremendous horsepower kicking up.
- Howard Hughes: [Continuing to push on the throttles] Let me hear it, Odie!
- Glenn Odekirk: 25 miles per hour! 30!
- James McNamara: Here we go. Here we go...
- Glenn Odekirk: 35!
- James McNamara: ...The airspeed indicator has moved up to 25... 30... 35...
- Glenn Odekirk: 40!
- James McNamara: ...As he pushes the throttle, that's 40...
- Glenn Odekirk: 45!
- James McNamara: ...45. More throttle. That's 45...
- Glenn Odekirk: 50!
- James McNamara: ...50. It's 50 over a choppy sea...
- Glenn Odekirk: 55!
- James McNamara: ...55. That's 55...
- Glenn Odekirk: 60!
- James McNamara: ...More throttle, that's 60...
- Glenn Odekirk: 65!
- James McNamara: ...65!
- Glenn Odekirk: 70!
- James McNamara: ...That's 70...
- Glenn Odekirk: 75!
- James McNamara: ...75!
- [Howard finishes pushing the throttles forward, the plane suddenly stops shaking as it takes off. There's a pause before everyone on the plane starts applauding]
- James McNamara: And something momentarily cuts out, I believe we are airborne. We are airborne, ladies and gentlemen. I don't believe Howard Hughes meant this to be, I don't know. And we were up in the air. We were clearly up in the air.
- James McNamara: Ladies and gentlemen, the Hughes mammoth aircraft has flown this afternoon in Los Angeles harbor. And it will personally look, at this moment, that Howard Hughes will be around in the United States for some time to come.
- Howard Hughes: [repeating over and over again] Show me all the blueprints. Show me all the blueprints. Show me all the blueprints... show me all the blueprints... show me all the blueprints... show me all the blueprints...