Wellesnet | Orson Welles Web Resource

Clockwise from top left: Cloris Leachman, Orson Welles, Wayne Rogers and Marlo Thomas of It Happened One Christmas.

Largely forgotten, It Happened One Christmas was a gender reversing remake of  Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life with Marlo Thomas in the role immortalized by Jimmy Stewart and Orson Welles in a supporting role.

Dialogue was lifted and many shots copied from the 1946 original, prompting  Capra to describe the December 11, 1977  movie-of-the-week as plagiarism.

The ABC movie was not a hit with the critics with some of the kinder reviews calling it "satisfying" (The Los Angeles Times) or "a well-intentioned but minor-league TV remake" (The Chicago Tribune). Read the rest of this entry »

A portion of a proposed mural in Woodstock, Illinois. (One Zero Charlie artwork)

Orson Welles, the Dick Tracy comic strip and the 1993 motion picture Groundhog Day would be feted on a 118-foot long mural under consideration in Woodstock, Illinois.

The Woodstock City Council discussed the downtown mural during its November 15 meeting, when graphic designer Michael Stanard, owner of Woodstock’s One Zero Charlie, presented details from a plan he spearheaded with Councilman RB Thompson, The Woodstock Independent reported.

The 15-foot tall mural, planned for a wall bordering the pedestrian walkway adjacent to Classic Cinemas Woodstock Theatre on Main Street, Read the rest of this entry »

Orson Welles (Actor Manager / Captain Ahab) peers over the shoulder Joan Plowright (Young Actress / Pip) at a rehearsal for Moby Dick Rehearsed at the Duke of York's Theatre in London. This photo was taken prior the play's opening on June 16, 1955. (AP file photo)

By RAY KELLY

Wellesnet routinely fields questions from researchers, authors and producers, but a recent email exchange from Turkey was a bit out of the ordinary.

A national theater company there is interested in translating and staging Orson Welles' Moby Dick Rehearsed. They asked us to put them in contact with the proper rights holders.

The 1955 stage adaptation of Herman Melville's seafaring tale of obsession has been performed regularly by regional theater troupes with stagings in Oregon, Mississippi and Massachusetts earlier this year. Still,  Moby Dick Rehearsed is not as well known to the general public as Citizen Kane, The War of the Worlds or even "Voodoo" Macbeth.

One reason is that few photos exist of the bare-bones London production, which starred Welles, Patrick McGoohan, Kenneth Williams and Joan Plowright – and then there is the legendary lost film.  Read the rest of this entry »

We have made a significant upgrade to the Wellesnet Message Board, which will allow registered members to access the forum on a routine basis using their Facebook login.

There are a few steps that must be completed for first time use.

Below are instructions for current members who want to link their Facebook account to the Wellesnet Message Board and a separate set for prospective members.

(Board registration is still required for new users). Read the rest of this entry »

Updated to include brief video clip, AFI podcast

Peter Bogdanovich and Beatrice Welles pose outside the Egyptian Theater in Los Angeles on Nov. 13, 2016.

By RAY KELLY

AFI Fest 2016 honored the 75th anniversary  of Orson Welles' Citizen Kane on November 13 with a special screening at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood.

Following the showing,  an enthusiastic Scott Mantz of Access Hollywood led a Master Class featuring Welles colleague and friend Peter Bogdanovich and the late filmmaker's youngest daughter, Beatrice Welles.

"The event went great," Mantz said. "For starters, I've seen Citizen Kane  on the big screen a bunch of times, but not like this. The print was so sharp. And the Q&A afterwards with Beatrice Welles and Peter Bogdanovich was amazing! Both told great stories and were in great spirits. I wish it could have gone on for hours. The crowd really enjoyed it."

Commenters on social media echoed his sentiments. Read the rest of this entry »

Tuesday is shaping up to be a great shopping day for Orson Welles fans.

Warner Home Video is releasing the 75th anniversary edition of  Citizen Kane, while  Olive Films will issue a deluxe edition of  Macbeth on DVD and Blu-ray.

As first reported in Wellesnet back in May, this special Olive Films Signature Edition will go far beyond the bare bones package that the Chicago-based label released four years ago.

It will include both the original 1948 107-minute cut, replete with affected highland accents, and the 1950 pared-down 85-minute re-release that removed much of the accented dialogue. In addition, it offers footage from the 1937 New York stage production of  "Voodoo" Macbeth with reflection from renowned Welles and cinema experts.

Olive Films released an exceptional version of 107-minute cut with no extras in 2012. The company has told Wellesnet that it undertook an "extensive cleanup to remove dust, dirt, stains, and other issues" from Read the rest of this entry »

Orson Welles with cameraman Gary Graver

"Gary is an absolutely first-class cinematographer. He has a strong visual sense and the taste to go with it. He commands the highest degree of technical expertise, and I know of nobody who can lead a crew with more authority. His people always like him, and he knows how to get that extra degree of effort, and to maintain an atmosphere of enthusiasm on the set. As a director-producer, I especially prize him for being such an exceptionally fast worker. You are always ahead of schedule with Gary Graver...  Above all, he knows how to get it all up on the screen, to make every dollar count. This degree of efficiency and this combination of talent is rare indeed." – Orson Welles

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Ten years ago on November 16, 2006, Gary Graver, faithful cinematographer to Orson Welles, lost his battle with cancer. He was 68. Read the rest of this entry »

A scene from Orson Welles' Citizen Kane.

AFI Fest 2016 will host  a special 75th anniversary screening of Orson Welles' Citizen Kane on November 13.

The  American Film Institute showing will take place at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood.  Later, Welles colleague Peter Bogdanovich and the late filmmaker's youngest daughter, Beatrice Welles, will take part in an AFI Master Class, led by Scott Mantz of Access Hollywood.

Beatrice Welles will share her father's feelings toward Citizen Kane and its legacy, while Bogdanovich, who co-authored the book This Is Orson Welles, is expected to detail the making and importance of the movie.

Bogdanovich recent discussed Citizen Kane in an online  interview with the AFI, where he said, "I was influenced by Orson’s thinking, and things he said to me. But I wasn’t particularly influenced by the film. I wasn’t influenced by the technique of it as much as by the youthful spirit of it. I was influenced by a general feeling of fearlessness." Read the rest of this entry »