Reviews were universal in acclaim for the flying scenes but the mundane plot and maudlin characterizations were also noted. The Hell's Angels screening revealed many traits of pre-code Hollywood. In addition to some fairly frank sexuality, there was a surprising amount of adult language (for the time) during the final dogfight sequence, e.g. "son of a bitch", "goddamn it", and "for Christ's sake", along with the words "ass", "hell", and a few uses of "God" in other scenes. While Harlow, Lyon and Hall received mixed reviews for their acting, Hughes was praised for his hard work on the filming and aircraft sequences. Morduant Hall, reviewer for The New York Times, was especially critical about Harlow's performance, saying, "his film is absorbing and exciting. But while she is the center of attraction, the picture is a most mediocre piece of work." Harlow had top billing on the posters but in the film itself, she was billed third under Lyon and Hall. It earned $2.5 million for its backers at the box office, which made it one of the highest grossing sound films of its era, but still slightly less than its $2.8 million production costs. Tony Gaudio and Harry Perry were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography. Legacy In 1962, film director Stanley Kubrick cited Hell's Angels as one of his 10 favorite films that influenced his later career. The 1977 TV film The Amazing Howard Hughes has one passage where Hughes (Tommy Lee Jones) directs the Zeppelin segment over and over in non-stop takes: although he did repeated takes, Hughes, in reality, shot the Zeppelin scenes and left the partially shot footage untouched except for adding sound. According to film experts, he did not do any retakes of the Zeppelin sequence. Martin Scorsese's The Aviator, a 2004 biopic of Hughes, during the opening act portrays the making of Hell's Angels and later its premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theatre. The line "Would you be shocked if I put on something more comfortable?", spoken by Jean Harlow, was nominated for the American Film Institute 2005 list AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes. Hell's Angels has been re-released on VHS and DVD formats by Universal Studios, which in later years acquired the rights to the film. In its original British release, the censor cut more than 30 minutes from the film. The involvement of Howard Hughes in Hell's Angels spawned a niche