This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The acting in this movie is really good.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

As with "The Blue Max" and other movies starring George Peppard, this is him playing himself as the pompous and arrogant man he was.There's no doubt that Peppard was a great actor at one time; but, the characters he played make you want to like him 'almost' as much as you want to hate him. This movie is no exception.Peppard plays a 'rich-kid' who revels in the fact that his dad suddenly dies and leaves everything to him.He immediately takes charge of all of his dad's business affairs (and, other affairs), and...there are many unexpected and monumental things that take place by an overly ambitious and arrogant inherited son who always thought that his dad was never the businessman whom he believed himself to be.This is a good movie.

The previous reviewers who noticed a resemblance between Jonas and Howard are correct. In fact when the novel came out, Hughes tried to buy the rights so as to bury them. When the movie was being filmed, Hughes had the daily Rushes screened so as to either veto them or accept them. Those which he vetoed were re-shot. He wanted Jonas different from himself. Hughes was an only child. Hughes was, from all accounts, a tea-totaler. He never smoked. He married Ella Rice (Rice University, Texas) and divorced her. He married Jean Peters and divorced her. He married Terrie Moore and died. He never went back to any of his old flames, unlike the movie. Whether or not the old actors like William S Hart were like Nevada Smith is up to you. He would have met the real Wyatt Earp during movie making although it is never reported. He did pal around with Cary Grant, and never did get over Katherine Hepburn. Some where among all the young starlets, he is rumored to have contracted Syphilis but to my knowledge, it was never confirmed officially in the autopsy. Hughes is to be admired for his genius and achievements and to be pitied for his self-imposed asylum confinement in hotel suites. His money did make Los Vegas casinos respectable. His money did fund Hughes Medical Institute which still does medical research. He saw the coming of cable TV, although his underlings torpedoed his investment in that. Personally, I think that he did meet Melvin Dumar on a dark road in Nevada. Associates must have "done him wrong" early on because he never seems to trust anyone but himself. Had he trusted any of his wives, and he may have been salvaged instead of savaged. The movie is sheer entertainment.

The lives of famous people is often seen from the perspective of those whom he trampled on the way to success. Thus one can easily see the legendary figure of the late Howard Hughes in the film, "The Carpetbaggers." For many who lived through the era of the infamous tycoon, it is not difficult to envision the phobic billionaire in the ambitious character Jonas Cord (George Peppard). The film is a tribute to his youth which unexpectedly cuts short his carefree lifestyle by the death of his father. Hiding a deep dark family secret which Jonas believes is hereditary, he plunges recklessly into the world of business, finance, aviation and film making. Along the way, he secures friends and foes alike including life-time friend Nevada Smith (Alan Ladd) and film agent Dan Pierce (Robert Cummings). Furthermore, he seeks and abandons a bevy of beautiful women, like bouquets of flowers. Once he wins those delicate cuts of nature, he discards them at will. All things Cord touches either makes him richer or more despotic. The film's pace is as fast as Hughes' life and in the end, one wonders if it offers a moral lesson or a warning to those seek fame and fortune at the cost of one's humanity? ****

I'd heard of this movie, but had never gotten around to watching it... I was impressed by the quality of the script in some scenes and then let down in others... Interesting characters, though stereotypical. The pretty blonds, the cowboy, the drunks, the agents but one character stands out, and that is the wife of power hungry industrialist, Monica Wintrop. You think she'll flake but she keeps on going and in the end well... I won't spoil it for you! I think she has the best line in the movie. Here it goes: When her husband asks if she's pregnant: "It happens, you know, look at all the people in China!... Besides, accidents happen mostly in the home."