In early 1927, Howard Hughes met and “became fascinated by the pin-cheeked, plump young Russian-American director Lewis Milestone,” according to biographer Charles Higham. Milestone, who had served in the aerial-camera division of the U.S. Army Air Corps, was able to offer Hughes — then a successful 21-year-old industrialist and aviation enthusiast — tips on an aviation story he was interested in producing as a film. The aviation film would evolve as Hell’s Angels (1930), which Hughes would also direct. In the meantime Milestone had a film idea of his own to pitch to the neophyte producer: Two Arabian Knights. The movie relates the adventures of a sergeant and a private who are captured by the Germans and escape by disguising themselves as Arabs. Dispatched to the Middle East, both doughboys fall for a beautiful Arabian princess, but must deal with a gang of cut-throats led by her father. At the 1927-28 ceremonies, Milestone won the only Academy Award ever presented for “Best Comedy Direction”. Milestone’s fellow nominees were Charles Chaplin for The Circus (1928) and Ted Wilde for the Harold Lloyd vehicle Speedy (1928).

Roger Fristoe