Hell's Angels was released in 1930. The FAA didn't exist until 1958. The Civil Aeronautics Board, which preceded the FAA was formed in 1939. There was the Aeronautics Branch of the Department of Commerce [1] that existed between 1926 and 1934. Their handling of the 1931 Fokker F-10 [2] crash is what led to the creation of the NTSB as a separate agency. Presumably the DoC wasn't that interested in air crashes at the time. Probably understandable, considering the reliability of early aircraft.

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_government_role_...

[2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1931_Transcontinental_%26_West...

(Further reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_government_role_...)