Wellesnet: The Orson Welles Web Resource

By RAY KELLY

A half hour guide on gambling hosted by Orson Welles and filmed some 35 years ago for Caesars Palace has gone viral. The acclaimed actor-director provided a lively and colorful how-to on card playing, craps, baccarat, roulette, and slot machines for the famed Las Vegas casino.

Why Welles?

As he explains at the start of the film, "I know a little about cards, a little about history and, well, because I have been know to pick a long shot or two."

"Caesars Guide to Gaming with Orson Welles" was shown to guests staying at Caesars via the closed-circuit television in their hotel rooms. The guide is informative. effective and – not surprisingly – entertaining.

Check out the video (more...)

I have recently been talking with Michael Dawson, the producer of the 1992 restored version of Othello, who explained some of the many problems he encountered while working on the restoration of the film. The interview will be published shortly on Wellesnet’s main page, and hopefully may led to a three-DVD reissue of Othello, that would contain three different versions of the film, as has proven so successful with Touch of Evil and Mr. Arkadin.

You can see images from Orson Welles's Othello on our facebook page HERE.

The three versions of Othello that should be be included on the DVD would be these:

First,  Orson Welles’s European cut of the film, which featured spoken titles.

Second, the original 1955 United Artists cut released in America, which replaced the spoken titles by Welles, with printed ones, along with a much re-worked soundtrack, that changed many line readings and added much more of Welles’s own voice over narration.

This was the version that Criterion released to great acclaim on Laserdisc in 1993, and it should be noted that whatever flaws these versions may contain, they were both approved and edited by Orson Welles himself.

Finally,  a newly corrected version of the 1992 “restored” Othello,  that would be most welcome, since the original Academy Entertainment release on both VHS and DVD was seriously flawed, by using the wrong elements for the transfer!

This astounding news became quite apparent to me after I did an  A and B comparison of the little seen VHS tape of Othello that Michael Dawson supplied to me, that was put out by Cinar Video and distributed by the Utah based Feature Films For Families (Shades of Macbeth in Salt Lake City).

Apparently Castle Hill had mistakenly used the “unrestored” elements of the print, which featured white speckles running though out many scenes that is quite common in older films, due to “emulsion chipping and base abrasions.”  What is supremely ironic about this, is that in the restoration documentary on the Othello DVD, it shows how these very blemishes were removed from the film, and then through the incompetence of some unknown person, the “unrestored” elements were included for the actual DVD transfer!

Mr. Dawson attempted to correct this situation, but he was in a position much like Welles was through most of his career, where nobody wanted to listen to him.  The result is that most of the released versions of the "restored " Othello are not restored at all, as they don't represent the expensive digital image correction that was done on the film!  Amazingly, none of the mainstream media critics seemed to noticed this, but that's not so very strange considering how little most of them know about their supposed field of expertise.

This, is no doubt, one reason why the Criterion laserdisc actually looked superior to the botched Academy Entertainment release that was released in 1993 on VHS, and subsequently on DVD.

Thankfully, this can now be corrected with a new DVD release of Othello.  It should also be no problem to include the original 1955 United Artists American release version, because as Mr. Dawson told me, the Welles Estate had no objection (in theory) to the Criterion laserdisc of Othello, except for the fact they had already made an agreement with Image Entertainment that specified they would release the "restored" version of the film on Laserdisc.  Thus, when Criterion opted to release the original American release print of the film, after Jonathan Rosenbaum pointed out some of the  flaws that went uncorrected in the restored version, the Welles Estate was naturally displeased, as they had already spent a lot of time and money on their new version of the film.

Amazingly, the flawed "restored" Othello went on to be hailed by most American critics as a wonderful restoration. Thankfully, Welles experts, such as Mr. Rosenbaum, and Variety’s Todd McCarthy, noted some of the mistakes it contained, which Mr. Dawson was also aware of but was apparently powerless to correct.

Now, however, the Welles Estate is currently planning to reissue Othello, so hopefully they will want to make a truly definitive version by finding a distributor who is willing to have Othello re-issued as a deluxe 3-DVD set, featuring the corrected "restored" version, as Mr.  Dawson intended,  along with the 1955 UA version, and the original European release version.

Needless to say, such a deluxe DVD package would obviously make much more money for the Welles Estate, and there are certainly many extras that could be included, starting with Welles’s own last film,  Filming Othello, and Ciro Giorgini’s Rosabella, a splendid, but little seen documentary that focuses on Welles’s time in Italy, which is where Orson met his third wife, Palo Mori, the mother of Beatrice Welles.

Much of the original Othello promotional material is also available, including the original UA pressbook, the British pressbook, a complete set of 8 11 x 14 lobby cards, and numerous stills and other promotional items.

I find it quite fascinating to compare the legacy of two of America's greatest theatrical and film directors, Orson Welles and Elia Kazan.

Both were famous stage directors who started out in the thirties, and went on to make their best-known work in the movies.  Mr. Kazan, however, became much more famous for his "naming names" in April, 1952 before that ridiculous and shameful side show of Congress known as The House Un-American Activities Committee. As Kazan was later to admit, this was a disgusting act on his part. Yet, like Orson Welles, Kazan was a lifelong liberal, and was (unlike Welles), actually a member of the communist party in 1935, when he was also a member of the Group Theatre, which shared the limelight on Broadway with Orson Welles’s Mercury Theatre in the thirties.

Of course, there is no doubt that Kazan was a great director of actors. Yet sadly, Kazan would never accept any responsibility for his “naming names.” In his autobiography, A Life, Kazan also goes into some detail to denigrate Orson Welles, for becoming fat and doing television commercials as he got older. Which made me think, “I wonder how I would view Orson Welles if he had appeared before the HUAC and had named names as Kazan did.”  That probably wouldn’t change how I feel about Welles work as an artist, but I certainly would have very little respect for Orson Welles as a moral voice if he had done what Kazan had done.  I think this is something any political artist must consider.  For instance, Jean-Luc Godard essentially turned down his Academy Award this year, which certainly gives him a great moral authority,  given that this same Academy had given Elia Kazan a Oscar for "Life Achievement " in 1999 .  Of  course, one of  Kazan's most famous discoveries,  turned down his Oscar in 1972 for The Godfather.

Welles, essentially did the same thing in 1970, by not showing up for his "honorary Oscar" even thought he was in Los Angeles to start work on The Other Side of the Wind.  In fact Hollywood's hypocrisy is well demonstrated by Welles receiving an "Honorary" Oscar in 1970 and then getting the third AFI life Achievement award in 1975.  It was precisely during those years that no Hollywood studio would come forth to back Welles and his new film.  In a way, who could blame them, as a Welles movie would probably be released to baffled reviews, and certainly not make very much money.  Today, there are still many who feel the The Other Side of the Wind should never even be shown. Yet in the seventies it was the era where everybody created whatever they wanted... and it often made money.  So the studios heads would back any young director, yet  "old man Welles " couldn't get any backing for his experimental movie  which was far more worthy than anything done by Michael Sarne, Barry Shear,  or any of the other young directors of that era!

Interestingly enough, both Kazan and Welles were very  political artists who naturally  made very political films, just as Godard does.  Kazan's last film was based on F. Scott's Fitzgerald's The Last Tycoon, who also wrote the short story Pat Hobby and Orson Welles, about Welles arrival in Hollywood in 1940.

Given the view Welles showed us about friends who later become traitors in Touch of Evil, Falstaff, and many of his other films,  I don’t imagine Welles would have ever have caved into pressure to testify against anyone he knew, as Mr. Kazan did.  Which is why I found it so strange to read Kazan  complaining about Orson Welles supposedly “selling out” by doing TV commercials in his book!

Meanwhile, for the the record, here are the names of the 11 people Kazan’s testimony helped to ruin when he betrayed them by naming their names before the HUAC in April, 1952:

Clifford Odets
Morris Carnovsky
Phoebe Brand
Tony Kraber
Sid Benson
Art Smith
Ann Howe
Paula Miller (Strasberg)
Lewis Leverett
Robert Reed
J. Edward Bromberg

So here is the young Mr. Kazan writing about Orson Welles direction of the Mercury Theatre in 1938, taken from Kazan on Directing.  I'd say that the young Kazan was envious of  Welles directing talent, and the "style" of his direction for the Mercury Theater.  Of course, at the time Kazan was  a mostly unknown name.  He had acted in several plays with the Group Theatre, and although he had already directed five plays, he was certainly not the big name he would later become, when he staged an acclaimed play by one of Welles'  first sponsors, Thorton Wilder (The Skin of my Teeth), followed by the sensational work he did with playwrights Arthur Miller (All My Sons, Death of a Salesman)  and Tennessee Williams (A Streetcar Named Desire, Camino Real).

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STYLE IN THE THEATER

By Elia Kazan (1938)

Style in considered an arty term in the theatre. Yet when an agent advises a playwright that the only director for his play is George Abbott (for farce or musical) or Jed Harris (for drama), they are talking about “style,” the style of production. Even safe directors have a style. Any sensible agent would be only too happy to entrust his client’s play to Guthrie McClintic, for McClintic gives his play “tone.” He’s definitely the modern expression of the old school who believes that the theatre had to sell glamorous, mysterious, and legendary beautiful personalities, and surround them with sterling actors, and beautiful décor—featuring flowers and the latest chapeaux. Thus Mr. McClintic takes an energetic, wholesome, intelligent woman with considerable beauty but with about as much mystery as a bar of soap and creates out of her a theatrical personality. (Kazan is referring of course to Katherine Cornell, who Welles appeared with as an actor, in his first major theatrical production of a Shakespeare play, Romeo and Juliet) .

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Here is an excerpt from Nora Ephron's article on the filming of Mike Nichols CATCH-22, that appeared in the New York Times on March 16, 1969 .  I find the piece to be hysterically funny, given how many facts Ms. Ephron gets wrong concerning Orson Welles.  Many sections of the article are clearly second-hand  fabrications, probably "influenced" by Raymond Sokolov's earlier on location report on the filming  that appeared in Newsweek  on  March 3, 1969.  Welles refuted Sokolov's own "second-hand" version of  events in THIS IS ORSON WELLES.  Ms. Ephron also seemed to think that back in 1969, when Mr. Bogdanovich had only made TARGETS with Boris Karloff, he was some kind of  "experimental"  filmmaker!

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GENERAL DREEDLE (Orson Welles)  is alive and well and in the  Mexican Desert

The arrival of Orson Welles, for two weeks of shooting in February, was just the therapy the company needed: at the very least, it gave everyone something to talk about. The situation was almost melodramatically ironic: Welles, the great American director now unable to obtain big- money backing for his films, was being directed by 37-year-old Nichols; Welles, who had tried, unsuccessfully, to buy "Catch-22" for himself in 1962, was appearing in it to pay for his new film, "Dead Reckoning." The cast spent days preparing for his arrival. "Touch of Evil" was flown in and microscopically reviewed. "Citizen Kane" was discussed over dinner. Tony Perkins, who had appeared in Welles's film, "The Trial," was repeatedly asked What Orson Welles Was Really Like. Bob Balaban, a young actor who plays Orr in the film, laid plans to retrieve one of Welles's cigar butts for an admiring friend. And Nichols began to combat his panic by imagining what it would be like to direct a man of Welles's stature.

"Before he came," said Nichols, "I had two fantasies. The first was that he would say his first line, and I would say, 'NO, NO, NO, Orson !'" He laughed. "Then I thought, perhaps not. The second was that he would arrive on the set and I would say, 'Mr. Welles, now if you'd be so kind as to move over here. . .' And he'd look at me and raise on eyebrow and say, 'Over there?" And I'd say, 'What? Oh, uh, where do you think it should be?'"

Welles landed in Guaymas with an entourage that included a cook and experimental film-maker Peter Bogdanovich, who was interviewing him for a Truffaut-Hitchcock-type memoir. For the eight days it took to shoot his two scenes, he dominated the set. He stood on the runway, his huge wet Havana cigar tilting just below his squinting eyes and sagging eye pouches, addressing Nichols and the assembled cast and crew. Day after day, he told fascinating stories of dubbing in Bavaria, looping in Italy and shooting in Yugoslavia. He also told Nichols how to direct the film, the crew how to move the camera, film editor Sam O'Steen how to cut a scene, and most of the actors how to deliver their lines. Welles even lectured Martin Balsam for three minutes on how to deliver the line, "Yes, sir."

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The Archive of American Television in partnership with E1 Entertainment has just released Orson Welles 1953 Television debut as King Lear in a deluxe DVD package. It is highly recommended, since although this historic TV show is still mastered from a kinescope copy, it looks far better than the blurry VHS copies that have long been in circulation.

The DVD also comes with over 90-minutes of bonus features, including:

* A 5-minute preview of King Lear, including rehearsal footage of the blinding of Glouster's eyes, along with interviews with director Peter Brook and composer Virgil Thompson. Peter Brook also shows us a series of drawings, (presumably rendered by production designer Henry May), which are much more detailed and elaborate then what eventually ended up in the production itself. See a excerpt on YouTube HERE.

* A discussion on staging Shakespeare by Walter Kerr, including scenes from Hamlet.

* A 43-minute report from the Yale University Shakespeare Festival in 1954 by Omnibus host Alastair Cooke.

* Dr. Frank Baxter on the Globe Theater, with Mr. Baxter explaining William Shakespeare’s famed theatre (10 minutes).

* A nicely designed 16-page booklet with rare photos taken during the performance, and a comprehensive background essay by Simon Callow, along with a short introduction from director Peter Brook, who relates his memories of working with Orson Welles.

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Here is a review of King Lear that appeared in The New York Herald-Tribune:

ORSON WELLES AS KING LEAR ON TV IS IMPRESSIVE

By John Crosby
October 22, 1953 – The New York Herald Tribune

Orson Welles, a great ham of an actor, undertook the role of King Lear, a great ham of a part, on Omnibus last Sunday and was, I thought, enormously impressive. This was the great Orson’s television debut and it was a fortunate inspiration to cast him as Lear. No other part is big enough for Welles who suffers from gigantism of manner and mind.

Welles, whose five year sojourn abroad has added quite a lot of poundage to his face and the rest of him, was every inch a king, a phrase that came from Lear, and his voice, a redoubtable organ, was superb in declaiming some of the most sweeping poetry in all of Shakespeare.

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The recent BBC Four showing of the first episode from Orson Welles Sketchbook dovetails nicely into something Christian McKay and I recently discussed during dinner when Mr. McKay was in San Francisco to promote Me and Orson Welles.

Namely, how Welles work in television, which has probably remained the least celebrated aspect of his work, is also in many regards, quite as sensational as his work in film, theatre and radio.

What is amazing to me, is that it took my talk with Mr. McKay, along with a article by Ben Walters on Welles television work at Columbia University's website, to make me realize just how much Welles did for the artistry of television.

Ah, but therein lies the rub...

Because for me, at least just the mention of the words "artistry" and "television" makes me blanch. Yet there is no doubt Welles brought his artistic gifts to television, as can be attested by his TV shows such as Fountain of Youth, In The Land of Don Quixote, Orson's Bag, The Immortal Story, and even his many guest appearances on television shows like Dean Martin, Johnny Carson and Dick Cavett.

Christian McKay and I discussed Orson Welles and his work for television in this excerpt from our long talk, below, which is followed by a complete transcript of the first episode of Orson Welles Sketchbook.

I found this missing episode from the Sketchbook series especially entertaining, as it sets the tone and ideas that will be presented in the following five shows, and even if the events Welles talks about are not totally believable, they are certainly quite entertaining. I for one would love to hear Welles expound about the night "The police had to be called out to protect him from the wrath of an Irish audience. But that’s another story. Maybe I’ll tell that some other time..."

What I also found to be especially interesting, is that both Mr. Welles and Mr. McKay talk about the innocence they experienced when working as actors for the first time (albeit in different mediums.)

In Welles case, on the stage in Dublin in 1931, and Mr. McKay, his first major role in a movie shot at the Gaiety Theater, on the Isle of Man, just off the east coast of Ireland, over 75 years later.

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LAWRENCE FRENCH: If you should get a Best Supporting Actor nomination for Me and Orson Welles, I’m sure you’d want to promote a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Orson Welles work in the theatre.

CHRISTIAN McKAY: But I’ve already seen two of them for Welles.

LAWRENCE FRENCH: Yes, but you can get three. Welles doesn’t have a star for theatre yet, and you can get one for television as well. Bob Hope actually has four stars, but I don’t think Welles will ever get a star for his work in American television.

CHRISTIAN McKAY: You don’t think so?

LAWRENCE FRENCH: No, not in this country, anyway.

CHRISTIAN McKAY: What about The Fountain of Youth?

LAWRENCE FRENCH: Oh, that’s right!

CHRISTIAN McKAY: That was astonishing!

LAWRENCE FRENCH: You’re absolutely right, and if you consider all the TV shows he did in Europe, he should have four stars. Wouldn’t that be terrific! Bob Hope and Orson Welles would each have four stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame! It's just that I don’t know if they would actually consider Welles for his television work in America.

CHRISTIAN McKAY: What about Around the World with Orson Welles, and Orson Welles Sketchbook?

LAWRENCE FRENCH: They are great, but I’m not sure if they would consider that work, because they were made in England. Here they remember Welles for his appearances on the Dean Martin Roasts and Johnny Carson.

CHRISTIAN McKAY: But what about all the skits he did? Putting on his make-up for Falstaff on The Dean Martin Show. That is absolutely brilliant.

LAWRENCE FRENCH: You're right! He also did a staggering version of Shylock on The Dean Martin Show. It was the best scene of Shylock I’ve ever seen. Stefan Drossler used it in his compilation of scenes from the various versions Welles made for The Merchant of Venice, and the version Welles did on Dean Martin is far and away the best reading of “Hath not a Jew eyes” he ever did.

CHRISTIAN McKAY: Orson was absolutely brilliant on those shows! And that was all television work.

LAWRENCE FRENCH: And one of the greatest speeches ever given on an awards show was Welles acceptance speech after he received the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1975. That was a television show broadcast on his old station, CBS.

CHRISTIAN McKAY: Where he talks about “My own particular contrariety.” That’s the title of my book, you know.

LAWRENCE FRENCH: Yes, it's where Welles quotes Samuel Johnson.

CHRISTIAN McKAY: I love that speech and I wrote a book called My Own Particular Contrariety, which is about me playing Orson. I had a publisher in London who wanted to do it, but I suddenly got cold feet. I thought, “No, this is ridiculous this is one the first good roles I’ve ever had, so it’s silly." I wanted to share the experience, but it was brutally honest about other people, as well as myself. My own failings, and it talks at great length about preparing for the role and playing Welles, but I thought it was too early.

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Orson Welles' Sketchbook

Episode One - April 24, 1955

On: Stage props, an earthquake in Hollywood and debuting at the Gate Theatre in Dublin

ORSON WELLES: I hope you haven’t gathered from the title of this that you are in for a televised art exhibit. The sketchbook part of it is frankly, just a prop. A prop is a stage term, it’s an abbreviation of the expression, stage property. Anything that you may see up on stage besides an actor and the scenery is likely to be a prop. For example Yorick’s skull is a prop, Romeo’s vial of poison and the telephone in Dial M For Murder, they’re all props. There are also props in real life -- when we are self-conscious we put our hands to our neckties and light a cigarette -- all that sort of thing. In other words a prop is just what it means in the dictionary. It is something to prop us with. It’s a crutch, something to lean on. So the sketchbook is exactly that, it’s a prop, something for me to turn to when I lose the thread of what I’m talking about and it’s something for you to look at besides my face which ought to come as a nice break in the horrid monotony.

I remember the first night I was ever in Hollywood, I would have been very grateful indeed for a prop like the sketchbook, because I did lose the thread. I was speaking after dinner. I had been introduced as a great after dinner speaker, I don’t know quite why, because I’m not, but I had been and this was a great Hollywood dinner with every star I’d ever seen in my life. I was tremendously impressed and there they all were with a lot of other grand people besides: Maharajahs and all kinds of titled folk. I had been called upon and of course, being very frightened and very eager to please I started a funny story which I heard that day. I had gone on for a while when it dawned on me that I had forgotten how it ended. I continued with the story and I hoped that somehow I would find an ending. Somehow find a way to invent one. The people were all looking at me very eagerly, waiting for the finish, because they knew that although the story was very boring, it must be boring for a purpose. Obviously it was boring because the end was going to be so tremendously amusing that they all looked up at me eagerly and I continued and continued and I thought “how in heavens name can I get of this thing? I could pretend to faint or drop dead, or rush out and yell “fire,” or continue to invent comical finishes that elicited no titters whatsoever -- quietly and secretly praying to myself to heaven -- and then my prayer was granted. Ever since then I’ve been a great believer in the efficacy of prayer because just as I’d given up hope, just as I was wondering how I could get out of the situation, the walls started to shake, the chandelier fell down from the ceiling onto the table, people jumped under the table – this was California, remember – it was an earthquake! So I was saved and my Hollywood career was saved by an earthquake. I can’t pretend my drawings are any sort of an earthquake, but they’ll have to stand in for that sort of distraction.

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Many thanks to Paul Condon of Dublin, Ireland for alerting us to the retrospective of Orson Welles films that will be screening in Dublin this month under the auspices of The Irish Film Institute.

Chimes at Midnight is one of only three Welles' movies that will not be shown, the others being Othello and Filming Othello.

This is unfortunate since Welles directed a stage version of Chimes at Midnight at the Gaiety Theater in Dublin in 1960.

Of course, anyone who has read any of the numerous Orson Welles biographies will also know that Welles made his professional acting debut in Dublin at the Gate Theatre, in October of 1931.

To celebrate the Irish Film Institutes Welles retrospective, here is what the great Irish actor Michael MacLiammoir recounts about his first meeting with Orson Welles in his book All For Hecuba; An Irish Theatrical Autobiography, published by Methuen in 1946.

It should also be noted that Michael MacLiammoir and Hilton Edwards, the two founders of Dublin's Gate Theater remained friends with Welles throughout his life and were featured in Orson Welles's last completed essay film, Filming Othello.

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...We ransacked our lists for nights for the (part of the) Duke (in JEW SUSS) and could find no one. And it was not, I think, until I was painting the last pieces for The Melians, and the plans for the following production had been all but changed, that Hilton walked into the scene dock one day and said, 'Somebody strange has arrived from America; come and see what you think of it.' 'What,' I asked, 'is it?' 'Tall, young, fat: says he's been with the Guild Theatre in New York. Don't believe a word of it, but he's interesting. I want him to give me an audition. Says he's been in Connemara with a donkey, and I don't see what that's got to do with me. Come and have a look at him.'

We found, as he had hinted, a very tall young man with a chubby face, full powerful lips, and disconcerting Chinese eyes. His hands were enormous and very beautifully shaped, like so many American hands; they were coloured like champagne and moved with a sort of controlled abandon never seen in a European. The voice, with its brazen transatlantic sonority, was already that of a preacher, a leader, a man of power; it bloomed and boomed its way through the dusty air of the scene dock as though it would crush down the little Georgian walls and rip up the floor; he moved in a leisurely manner from foot to foot and surveyed us with magnificent patience as though here was our chance to do something beautiful at last-yes, sir-and were we going to take it? Well, well, just too bad for us if we let the moment slip. And all this did not come from mere youth, though the chubby tea-rose cheeks were as satin-like as though the razor had never known them -that was the big moment waiting for the razor-but from some ageless and superb inner confidence that no one could blow out. It was unquenchable. That was his secret. He knew that he was precisely what he himself would have chosen to be had God consulted him on the subject at his birth; he fully appreciated and approved what had been bestowed, and realized that he couldn't have done the job better himself, in fact he would not have changed a single item. Whether we and the world felt the same-well, that was for us to decide.

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It's hard to complain too loudly when Warner Home Video finally brings out one of their many movies people have been waiting to see on Blue Ray and DVD. Yet, the way Warners has been carelessly dropping film gems on the marketplace without any advance publicity, is rather disheartening, to say the least. Such classics as this week's release of John Ford's Wagonmaster and Peter Bogdanovich's documentary, Directed by John Ford, are perfect examples. It simply makes you wonder about the effectiveness of the Warner PR operations.

As it turns out, it appears they have "fired" their longtime PR firm of Carl Samrock, and hired a new company, but rather ironically, nobody at the studio seems to be able to confirm whether this is actually the case!

As a result, I wasn't even aware that WB had finally brought out such important titles recently as Michelangelo Antonioni's Zabriskie Point and John Boorman's Beyond Ragoon, just to name two movies that obviously could use a little help from some internet publicity. So, many thanks to Greg Boozell for letting me know about WB's release this week of two important John Ford films.

Orson Welles magnificent narration truly enhances Directed By John Ford, as it is clearly done straight from his heart, as is related by Peter Bogdanovich in his new introduction to the movie, which can be seen on YouTube HERE

You can also see an album of Monument Valley photos, including John Ford Point, at my Facebook page HERE.

Unfortunately, the way WB is handling it's "product" only makes one rather alarmed at whatever their mysterious plans may be for the release of The Magnificent Ambersons and Journey Into Fear on DVD. Given how badly their so-called "experts" botched the "over-restoration" and supplemental disc on Citizen Kane, one does not hold out much hope for whatever they will eventually deliver to supplement The Magnificent Ambersons, but at this point, I suppose just getting a bare-bones DVD is about the best that can be hoped for!

In the meantime, you can see some of the cut scenes from The Magnificent Ambersons at the Wellesnet Facebook page HERE.

R. Michael Stringer, a longtime friend of Orson Welles and Gary Graver has posted a wonderful video of Orson Welles to celebrate July 4th on his FaceBook page. You can view it HERE.

Reading Simon Callow's perceptive two books on King Henry IV, Part One and Part Two made me want to revisit Welles masterpiece, Chimes at Midnight. In doing so, I also looked at one of the best interviews Welles ever gave about a single movie, his long talk with Juan Cobos and Miguel Rubio that was first printed in the Spanish film magazine, Griffith.

Since Juan had worked as an assistant director to Welles on the film, he was in the perfect position to ask especially interesting questions about Welles's shooting techniques. For his own part, Welles was in an wonderfully expansive mood, as he had studied the history plays at least since his 1938 production of Five Kings, and clearly was in his element, knowing his subject like the true Shakespearian scholar he was. What I found especially interesting in re-reading the interview, was realizing how abridged it was when it first appeared in Sight and Sound's Autumn, 1966 issue. This fact became clear when I looked at a second version of the interview that appeared later in Cahier du Cinema in English. Almost like a Welles film, the two interviews are very different translations and often contain completely different comments. So below, I have taken the liberty of combining the two and also have re-arranged the order of the questions and answers.

Interestingly enough, when talking to Juan Cobos, he told me he thought he still had the master tapes of the interview, which obviously would make for a fabulous audio commentary for any eventual DVD release of the film. Or, if the sound quality of the tapes wasn't up to snuff, an actor like Simon Callow could "play" the voice of Orson Welles for a DVD commentary track---if the daunting rights issues can ever be worked out!

Meanwhile for your visual enjoyment you can see a set of twenty beautiful German lobby cards for Falstaff HERE.

Finally, like Falstaff's banishment, Chimes at Midnight was to become Orson Welles own banishment from filmmaking on an epic scale. Over forty years later, it seems inconceivable to me that this poetic masterpiece, a film that is clearly among the greatest movies ever made and one that Welles himself felt was his greatest work, still remains so unknown and unseen.

To understand why, one only has to look at this letter written by Sir John Gielgud, from Cannes on May 13, 1966:

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I talked to Sol Levine (another of those (Sam) Spiegel--(Mike) Todd --(Otto) Preminger--film tycoons), about the possibility of getting backing for my film idea for The Tempest, with Orson Welles (as director). He (Levine) was gracious and seemed interested but unless Chimes at Midnight gets better notices elsewhere than the one in The New York Times, which is very damning, I fear no one will risk (Orson) for another Shakespeare picture.

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After reading John Gielgud's "damning" indictment of The New York Times assessment of Chimes at Midnight, one has to wonder what Welles was expected to do to get further backing to make movies.

Give up Shakespeare and go back to making thrillers like The Deep? Do a remake of War of the Worlds starring Charlton Heston? Make sherry wine commercials?

To quote Pauline Kael (who was herself quoting a young Afro-American woman), "There just ain't no way." Which essentially describes Welles commercial career after Chimes at Midnight opened and quickly closed wherever it played, although at least it did do slightly better than Othello in America, in that it actually played in about a dozen cities.

In retrospect, it seems like there was just no way Welles was going to to able to make a commercially successful movie as he so often dreamed about doing, during the last twenty years of his life.

Instead, he had to emulate Shakespeare and do wine commercials, as he so prophetically notes in this YouTube clip from The Dean Martin Show of September 26, 1968. Welles gives a marvelous talk about Sir John Falstaff while making himself up as plump Jack, and then delivers "Shakespeare's first and greatest commercial on the subject of booze"---Falstaff's witty speech about the benefits of Sherry Sack.
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ORSON WELLES on directing CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT

By JUAN COBOS and MIGUEL RUBIO

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Did you do much work before you began shooting on Chimes at Midnight?

ORSON WELLES: Yes, I did a stack of research. But I had already worked on that period earlier, so I knew it rather well. But after you have done that research, the elements of that research are only a preparation, because the drama itself fixes the universe in which it is going to unroll. So you must not make museum pieces; you must create a new period. You must invent your own England, your own period, starting from what you have learned.

What importance do you give to the setting of the film?

ORSON WELLES: Very much, obviously. But a setting ought not to appear perfectly and solely real...

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A few months ago I found several old issues of Theatre Arts magazine in the tenderloin district of San Francisco, a few short blocks from where Wellesnet "legend" Glenn Anders lives. The mags were priced at a big 100% mark-up over their original price.

Well, since the original price was only .50 cents, they were actually great bargains, so I quickly grabbed several issues, including the September, 1951 copy that featured an article by Walter Kerr assessing Orson Welles career in both theatre and film, up to that point. Indeed, in 1951 Welles had only been active for 15 years in radio, the stage, and on the screen, and he had already become something of a legend. Or, according to Walter Kerr, a legendary "has-been."

Which is why I thought Kerr's article was way off the mark. (more...)

In his introduction to Ray Harryhausen's Film Fantasy Scapbook, Ray Bradbury confesses that his dream as a teenager (presumably after seeing Citizen Kane) "was to work some day with Orson Welles, whose career was begining to burgeon on the American Scene."

Bradbury continues: "Somewhere along through the years we realized our dreams. I wrote lines for Orson Welles twice: when I did the screenplay of Moby Dick for John Huston and the narration for Nicholas Ray's Kings of Kings."

Bradbury also wrote lines for Welles a third time, when his movie version of Something Wicked This Way Comes (whose title comes from Macbeth), was turned into a radio play that was narrated by Welles, to tie in with the movie's release in May, 1983.

I bring this up because Phil Nichols, who runs a Ray Bradbury website, www.bradburymedia.co.uk sent me this interesting message about an apparently lost Welles-Bradbury TV show:

The Center for Ray Bradbury Studies at Indiana University would like help tracking down a video for one of Ray Bradbury’s most illusive television appearances. at Indiana University would like help tracking down a video tape for one of Ray Bradbury’s most illusive television appearances. On New Year’s Eve 1984 (presumably December 31, 1983), Ray Bradbury taped a television show in Los Angeles (possibly CBS) with Orson Welles reading passages from Something Wicked This Way Comes. Welles had read the radio narration about a year earlier. Bradbury provided commentary, and also read a message about the New Year and his belief that George Orwell’s 1984 would never arrive. It was a message of hope and a great hour of television, but Bradbury discovered that the show was not archived by the network studio. Neither (Bradbury’s Agent) Donn Albright nor Jon Eller have been able to locate any private recordings of this show, but Mr. Bradbury has asked them to find a recording if at all possible. If anyone has information about a home-made recording of the 1984 Bradbury-Welles New Years eve show, or know of someone who does have a recording, please let us know at the Bradbury Center so that a copy of this show can be archived.

So if any Welles collectors out there have a copy or any info on what sounds like a fascinating show, please let me know.

Meanwhile, here are some of Ray Bradbury's comments about Orson Welles, made when I talked to him at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank during the making of Something Wicked This Way in 1983.

Bradbury describes the poetic ending he had written for Nicholas Ray's King of Kings, and says he had also written a script at MGM based on The Dreamers. I wonder if he could have shown it to Orson Welles when he met him at MGM!

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