George Peppard plays a hard-driven industrialist more than a little reminiscent of Howard Hughes.<br />　　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.<br />　　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.<br />　　The Carpetbaggers is the kind of trashy classic most people were too embarrassed to admit they enjoyed back in the early 60s.<br />　　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.<br />　　The high cheese factor is aided by the good-time cast: Carroll Baker as Peppard's hot stepmom, Bob Cummings (quite funny) as a cynical agent, and Elizabeth Ashley, who married Peppard, in her debut -uncharacteristically, as a good girl.<br />　　One sad note is Alan Ladd, looking and sounding very end-of-the-line in his final role, as a man's man cowboy star.<br />　　Elmer Bernstein's swaggering score helps goose the action along.