Wellesnet: The Orson Welles Web Resource

Richard Collins, a writer and producer who was blacklisted during the 1940s communist witch-hunts and later "named names" before the House Un-American Activities Committee, has died at the age of 98 in Ventura, California.

Collins was an uncredited scriptwriter on Orson Welles' 1943 film "Journey Into Fear." He was married to actress Dorothy Comingore between 1939 and 1945. She co-starred as Susan Alexander in "Citizen Kane."

Collins was one of 19 Hollywood writers and directors called by HUAC in 1947. Subpoenaed by HUAC in 1951, Collins, who was under financial pressures because of the blacklisting, identified more than 20 colleagues as communist sympathizers. (more...)

Here are several articles detailing the production of Journey Into Fear from the pages of The New York Times.� Especially interesting is the story by Thomas Brady, on a "Genius under Stress." Ironically, it appears Welles was actually quite worried about spending so much of RKO's money! ����

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SCREEN NEWS HERE AND IN HOLLYWOOD
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�Magnificent Ambersons� and �Journey Into Fear� to be Made by Orson Wells for RKO �
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By Douglas W. Churchill � July 23, 1941 �
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After several weeks of conferences RKO and Orson Welles today announced the program for the actor-writer-producer-director for the new season.
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All conflict between Welles and the studio has been ironed out by Joseph L Breen, new head of production, and Welles will begin preparation immediately of the first screen story, Booth Tarkington�s novel of American transition, �The Magnificent Ambersons," which will go before the cameras in September. It will be followed by "Journey Into Fear," an Eric Ambler novel which Ben Hecht has adapted to the screen.
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Michele Morgan, RKO's French import, had been announced for the latter picture, but the Welles office said that he will discard the RKO plans for the production and start afresh. Welles third venture will be "It's All True," a photoplay about which no information was divulged. Mystery also surrounded the nature of Welles connection with each project; which he will appear in and which he will direct was not disclosed.
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His office announced, however, that negotiations had been resumed with the Mexican government for permission for the producer-writer to make a picture there with Dolores Del Rio. Mexico previously had banned the film.

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This past week, the BERLIN AND BEYOND Festival welcomed Stefan Drossler, the director of the Munich Film Museum to San Francisco for the American premiere of the rare German silent film, NATHAN THE WISE (with Werner Krauss and Max Shreck).� And while Stefan was here, he was able to offer a screening of his work in progress on�JOURNEY INTO FEAR to a select group of Wellesnet's San Francisco members. Among�them was a young Persian Welles fan (and relative of Medhi Bouscheri), Medhi Dara Alavi. I felt this was most appropriate, in light of the cut dialogue in the new version that refers to the past glories of the Persian Empire in Iran and ties JOURNEY INTO FEAR into Welles last film, THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND.
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But the real eye opener for me was that much of the cut dialogue (mostly due to censorship concerns) refers to God, religion, socialism and sex. In fact, it is�quite�strange how overlooked this film has been in the Welles canon,�simply because the 69 minute version was so badly mutilated by RKO. Naturally, no one, including myself, really thought of it as a true Welles film, or that it was any great loss.� Possibly because it was clearly directed by Norman Foster for the most part. But this new version, along with the RKO-Welles memos, indicates to me that Welles really had his hands all over the project. One of the biggest changes confirms this. The�opening title now reads: Orson Welles' Mercury production of JOUNEY INTO FEAR.
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With that title�restored,�so is Welles' ownership of the film. Obviously, the film was meant�to be a much more�commercial venture than KANE or AMBERSONS, but it also contains some incredibly interesting�comments about life, death, war and many other issues that seem to resonate in today's world.�But perhaps what struck me most was that this film might actually be the truest record on film we have of all the Mercury players that Welles had worked with in New York. Many of the�Mercury actors and assistants only had a film part in Welles�third and final film at�RKO,�including Eustace Wyatt, Frank Readick, Herbert Drake, Robert Meltzer, Shifra Haran and Jack Moss.

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