George Peppard plays a hard-driven industrialist more than a little reminiscent of Howard Hughes. While he builds airplanes, directs movies and breaks hearts, his friends and lovers try to reach his human side, and find that it's an uphill battle. The film's title is a metaphor for self-promoting tycoons who perform quick financial takeovers, impose dictatorial controls for short-term profits, then move on to greener pastures. The Carpetbaggers is the kind of trashy classic most people were too embarrassed to admit they enjoyed back in the early 60s. But this Harold Robbins adaptation is so cheerfully vulgar, it's hard not to have a good time - especially given the thinly veiled portrait of Howard Hughes at its center. George Peppard plays the heel-hero, who founds an airline company in the 1920s and buys a movie studio in the 1930s, crushing friends and mistresses along the way. The high cheese factor is aided by the good-time cast: Carroll Bake
r as Peppar
d&#39
;s hot step
mom, Bob Cu
mmings (qui
te funn
y) as a c
ynical a
gent, and Eli
zabeth Ashley,
who mar
ried Peppa
rd, in her de
but -unchara
cteristically
, as a
good gi
rl. One sad no
te is Alan Lad
d, looking a
nd sounding ver
y end-of-
the-line in h
is final
role, a
s a man&
amp;#39
;s man cow
boy star
. Elmer Ber
nstein&am
p;#39;s swagge
ring score help
s goose the
action
along.　　George
Peppard
plays a hard
-driven
industrial
ist more th
an a li
ttle reminisce
nt of Ho
ward Hughes
.