Taking over the already profitable Hughes tool company from his deceased father, the teenaged Howard Hughes (
Tommy Lee Jones) turns the operation into a billion-dollar business. Along the way, he dabbles in film production, romancing such Hollywood lovelies as
Katharine Hepburn (
Tovah Feldshuh) and
Billie Dove (
Lee Purcell). Fame becomes notoreity as Hughes embarks on such projects as the "bosom western"
The Outlaw and the "Spruce Goose." He also defiantly stands up to the HUAC-only to become one of America's most virulent anti-Communists. In his twilight years, the fabulously wealthy but increasingly paranoid Hughes lives like a down-and-out hermit in his high-rise Las Vegas suite, communicating only with his trusted associate Noah Dietrich (
Ed Flanders), and then not even with him. Adapted from the memoirs of Noah Dietrich, The Amazing Howard Hughes originally aired April 13 and 14, 1977. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide