gilligan1965 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.

JLRMovieReviews George Peppard stars in this film, based on a Harold Robbins novel of lust, ambition, dysfunction, and love, or lack thereof. Father Leif Erickson disapproves of his wild ways, never settling down and his pursuit of anything in a skirt. You might say, George worried him to death, as Leif has a sudden heart attack right in front of him, as they were arguing. As a result, George inherits everything and promptly begins to tell people what to do. But with responsibility, maturity does not always follow. He is very spontaneous in his dealings with people and will drop them or fire them at will. Enter Carroll Baker who was, to begin with, his girlfriend, but then she went after his father, so now she is a widow. But they are still hot to trot for each other. The cast is a film lover's dream, as it includes formidable stars Alan Ladd, Bob Cummings, Lew Ayres, Martin Balsam, Elizabeth Ashley, Audrey Totter, and Martha Hyer. The film seems to be a mixture of other films like The Bad and the Beautiful, The Oscar, and The Betsy, which incidentally was also written by Robbins. Its over-the-top melodramatics just keep getting more and more dramatic near the end with him buying companies, including a movie studio, and throwing them away like Kleenex. Then, there's a mysterious part of his past that deals with a deceased brother. What next, huh? I started to say, it's nowhere as good as The Oscar, being less unintentionally funny, but it really gets your attention and never lets you go. If you love melodrama, don't miss The Carpetbaggers.

patnclaire 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.

thinker1691 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? ****