Wellesnet: The Orson Welles Web Resource

Universal Studios is readying "Touch of Evil" for domestic release on Blu-ray.

Wellesnet veteran Roger Ryan alerted us to a remark made by Michael Daruty, head of Universal’s Technical Operations, in TIME. While the article focused on the restoration and home video release of "Schindler's List," Daruty revealed that Welles' 1958 thriller is undergoing its own restoration.

"We have a commitment to restore 3 to 5 new prints a year. Right now, we’re working on ... Touch of Evil, High Plains Drifter, Double Indemnity – and we’ll probably add another title or two at the end of the year," Daruty said.

Daruty details Universal's restoration program in the (more...)

By KYP HARNESS

Finally released last month on DVD to little fanfare, having been unavailable for 20 years in its country of origin, Orson Welles’s The Magnificent Ambersons is surrounded by a mythology (more...)

By ROGER L. RYAN

On September 13th The Magnificent Ambersons made its very belated DVD debut in North America as an Amazon.com exclusive “add-on” for customers who buy the Ultimate Collector’s Edition Blu-ray of Citizen Kane. Even though fans had been very vocal about wanting Ambersons released on DVD for a decade or more, the disc has arrived with virtually no fanfare from the Warner Home Video publicity department. There is a good reason for this: the new Ambersons DVD is disappointing.

The release feels like it just barely escaped being issued on the “Warner Archive Collection”, a recent division of Warner Home Video that provides “burn-on-demand” product to a niche audience. With an emphasis on “B-movies”, these releases are primarily un-restored existing prints transferred quickly to DVD-R and sold via a dedicated website. The discs contain little-to-no extras and cannot be purchased in stores or rented. Thankfully, Ambersons arrives on a properly  “pressed” DVD, but like many of the “Archive Collection” discs, the film looks and sounds like it received very little restoration effort and the release contains no special features whatsoever. During on-line chats and in interviews, Warner Home Video has insisted for years that the delay in releasing Ambersons on DVD was due to an on-going search to find “better elements”.  Evidently, no “better elements” have been found.
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When Welles didn't work, he drank, bragged, ran through women, ate like a beast and hated himself. He'd eat supper at his dressing table--two steaks, each with a baked potato; an entire pineapple; triple pistachio ice cream; and a bottle of Scotch. Appetite drove him. Applause wasn't enough. He wanted amazement, the gasp of a common crowd.

---From the narration of  The Battle Over Citizen Kane

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The Battle Over Citizen Kane is factually misleading...  A mean-spirited and profoundly distorted view of who Welles was and what he did.

---Ronald Gottesman,  editor of  Focus on Citizen Kane

This whole attempt to connect his life with William Randolph Hearst and imply they're similar is nonsense.

---Henry Jaglom,  film director

What's wrong with the film is that, in its zeal to show a parallel between Hearst and Welles, it overlooks (the fact) that there are enormous differences between the two and it makes certain statements about Hearst and Welles that seem to be dubious.

---James Naremore, author of  The Magic World of Orson Welles

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With the arrival of the 70th Anniversary edition of Citizen Kane, I watched The Battle Over Citizen Kane for the first time since it's 1996 debut on PBS and I once again  found it to be a "profoundly distorted documentary" on both Orson Welles, and probably William Randolph Hearst, as well. Welles may have "ate like a beast" but to suggest he "hated himself" has got to be one of the stupidest things I've ever heard about the man. Here is another choice bit of misleading narration from this supposed "documentary":

"Welles was a young man who courted danger. That was always an element of his success. In the theater, he demanded magic. Characters had to appear from nowhere, or levitate into the sky. Actors were at risk. There were broken bones, fistfights. He liked the reflection of light on a real dagger, but one night he ran a fellow actor through, severed an artery and almost killed him. It was a risky way to live even when it did work and audiences cheered. When they didn't love Welles or his shows, that was worse."

Welles may indeed have asked a lot from his actors, but to imply that they were at risk, is at best, a highly debatable contention. The implied suggestion that Welles as Brutus, deliberately stabbed Joseph Holland as Julius Caesar, rather than accidentally, is quite preposterous and more akin to the kind of yellow journalism Mr. Hearst liked to report about in his newspapers.

Though what is truly objectionable about the inclusion of The Battle Over Citizen Kane and the even more ridiculous RKO 281 as the two extra discs in the Citizen Kane "Ultimate Collector's Edition" is their tone. Given the kind of  puff-piece promotional material studios normally include as extras on their DVD's it boggles the mind that such misguided extras would appear alongside Citizen Kane, long regarded as "the greatest film ever made."  It is almost a replay of having the screenplay for Citizen Kane published alongside the now completely discredited essay by Pauline Kael in The Citizen Kane Book in 1971.  In contrast, when Criterion released Citizen Kane as a 3 laserdisc  set it included interviews with over 30 prominent directors and other people influenced or associated with Citizen Kane, who were all full of praise for Welles and his work. Just imagine if Warner Bros. decided to release such a questionable documentary as The Battle for Citizen Kane and a dubious fictional film in their recent box set devoted to Stanley Kubrick! I'm sure the Kubrick Estate would never have allowed such gross misrepresentations to occur.

Of course, Orson Welles was no saint and he did have a very large ego, but as the Welles scholars quoted above duly note, both extra discs hardly present us with a fair or balanced portrait of the man, since The Battle Over Citizen Kane is clearly determined to somehow make Welles life fit into a mirror image of the career of William Randolph Hearst.  One can easily see why Robert Carringer,  who wrote The Making of Citizen Kane and served as a consultant on the film,  asked that his name be removed from the credits, as they clearly paid no attention to any of his advice!

The final narration of the film recounts the same old sad and tired Welles story we've all heard many times before.   It was all downhill for the boy genius after Citizen Kane, although anyone who knows even the slightest about Welles's later career and such big-budget cinema classics as Falstaff, The Trial or Touch of Evil, could never possibly write such an error-filled passage as this one:

"In latter years, Welles was a vagabond, trying to patch together his low-budget films. He begged or borrowed from everyone he knew, including $250,000. from an old pal, Charlie Lederer, Marion Davies' nephew. The money came from her estate. Welles never paid it back. He'd do bit parts for money--ads for airlines or Paul Masson wine--between fits of temper at the journeymen filmmakers or junior execs who were now directing him. Sometimes he was so overweight he had to be ferried about in a wheelchair. He hated the fat man jokes. He hated it worse when people asked him what had he done with himself after Kane." 

As for that even more awful "fictional" portrait of Welles,  RKO 281, I will let Peter Bodanovich's comments about its many flaws tell the story:

LAWRENCE FRENCH:  RKO 281 lost me right at the start, because in the very first scene they show Orson Welles at San Simeon and everybody knows that Welles was never at Hearst Castle.

PETER BOGDANOVICH: Actually, most people don't know that. Most people haven't even seen Citizen Kane! But for anybody who knows anything about Orson Welles, it's quite clear that he was never at San Simeon and he didn't know Hearst.  To be candid, I thought that movie bore very little relationship to the Orson Welles that I knew, or to any of the facts that I knew. It was so filled with errors, that it was painful to observe!

All of that was clearly spelled out in my book, This is Orson Welles.  Also, Orson didn't base Citizen Kane on Hearst alone, but there was another press lord from Chicago, Colonel Robert McCormick, who had an opera house built for his girlfriend, who was a singer. So that whole aspect of Citizen Kane comes from McCormick, but people incorrectly assumed that it was Hearst, because they were spun to believe that by Louella Parsons.

Louella was pissed off because she had been on the set of Citizen Kane and wrote a lot in her column about Orson and the wonderful movie he was making, and then ironically, Hedda Hopper found out that part of the movie was based on Hearst—the part about the Spanish-American War—but not Rosebud, and not Susan Alexander Kane or the political scandal. So Orson always said he though it was Louella and the people around Hearst who made such an issue out of Citizen Kane. Particularly Louella, because she had been scooped by her arch-rival, Hedda Hopper. It was Hedda who blew the whistle and said that Citizen Kane was based on William Randolph Hearst, after Louella had been on the set and been friendly to Orson.

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As Peter Bogdanovich pointed out to me, most people apparently really don't know much about Welles career, including Citizen Kane. Looking at some of the internet reviews on the new Citizen Kane set, I was astonished to see one site rate the film at 8  (out of 10) and the extras at 9.5!

After the break is the complete article by Cathy Dunkley from the 1996 Hollywood Reporter that first reported on the distortions contained in The Battle Over Citizen Kane:

RAISING 'KANE' OVER PBS DOCUMENTARY:  SCHOLARS BLAST FILM AS "MEAN-SPIRITED AND PROFOUNDLY DISTORTED"

By Cathy Dunkley

The Hollywood Reporter - March 29, 1996

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Warner Bros. has released the official press release for their 70th Anniversary edition of  Citizen Kane, due out on September 13, 2011. It will come in three editions:   a  DVD 3-disc set, priced at $49.99;  a Blu ray 3-disc set priced at $64.99, and the Amazon exclusive edition which will include a fourth disc featuring Orson Welles's stunning second film The Magnificent Ambersons,  priced at $79.99.  None of the extra discs on any set will be in the  Blu ray format.  Amazon is currently listing their exclusive 4-disc set for $49.99 and both the 3-disc DVD and Blu ray sets are only $5.00 cheaper at $44.99, making the Amazon exclusive a must for Welles fans who have long wondered why Warner Bros. has failed to release The Magnificent Ambersons on DVD or Blu ray.

Here is the Warner Bros. press release:

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Orson Welles’ Tour de Force Citizen Kane Celebrates 70th Anniversary with Blu-ray Debut of Remastered Ultimate Collector’s Edition

Burbank, Calif., June 13, 2011 -- Citizen Kane, Orson Welles’ tour de force which the American Film Institute (AFI) chose as the #1 film of all time,  celebrates its 70th Anniversary with an all new 1080p hi-definition restoration from original nitrate elements in stunning 4K resolution and revitalized digital audio.  Warner Home Video will bring the iconic masterwork to a new generation with their new Blu-ray™ 70th Anniversary Ultimate Collector’s Edition, complete with more than three hours of bonus content and an array of rare and collectible premiums including a 48-page collector’s book filled with photos and behind-the-scene details, a 20-page reproduction of the original 1941 souvenir program, lobby cards, and reproductions of rare production memos and correspondence (Blu-ray Disc $64.99 SRP;  DVD $49.92 SRP).

This classic story of power and the press starring, produced, directed and co-written by then 25-year-old Orson Welles, the film captured nine Academy Award®* nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Director, and won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

These newest 70th Anniversary editions will present the film in the highest quality yet. "The work to recreate the original look of the film and to clean up the effects of aging was a painstaking, frame-by-frame process. The source for most of the picture was a 4K scan from a 1941 composite fine grain positive master" says Warner Bros.  Motion Picture Imaging (MPI) colorist Janet Wilson.

The new edition includes feature-length stories-behind-the-story that include the two- hour Academy Award-nominated documentary Battle over Citizen Kane and RKO 281, the Golden Globe® and Emmy ® winning HBO docudrama that chronicles the clash between William Randolph Hearst and Hollywood.  Memorabilia in the premium packaging includes the 1941 movie premiere newsreel, gallery of storyboards, studio correspondence, call sheets, rare photos and more.

Citizen Kane 70th Anniversary Edition is new to digital and will be releasing with iTunes Extras and will be available On Demand from cable and satellite providers and for digital download from online retailers including iTunes™, VUDU and Amazon Instant Video.

THE  EXTRAS!  READ ALL ABOUT THEM!

Disc 1
·    Commentary by Peter Bogdanovich
·    Commentary by Roger Ebert
·    Opening: World Premier of Citizen Kane Vintage Featurettes
·    Interview with Ruth Warrick
·    Interview with Robert Wise
·    Storyboards
·    Call Sheets
·    Still Photography with Commentary by Roger Ebert
·    Deleted Scenes
·    Ad Campaign
·    Press Book
·    Opening Night
·    Theatrical Trailer

Disc 2: The Battle over Citizen Kane (PBS Documentary)

Disc 3: RKO 281 (HBO Feature film)

Amazon only exclusive:

Disc 4:  The Magnificent Ambersons

About Orson Welles and CITIZEN KANE

CITIZEN KANE, according to director Martin Scorsese, made Orson Welles “responsible for inspiring more people to be film directors than anyone else in the history of cinema.”  Starring, produced, directed and co-written by Welles, CITIZEN KANE opened May 8, 1941 at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood and was nominated for nine Academy Awards®, winning the Oscar® for Best Screenplay.

The picture starred actors from Welles Mercury Theater, who at the time, were entirely new to motion pictures.  Joseph Cotten played Jedediah Leland, the best friend of Charles Foster Kane, while William Alland was the investigative reporter who delves into the life of Kane, in a quest for the meaning of Kane's dying word, “Rosebud.” Welles himself played the title role, from a boyish, ambitious young man to the old, bloated and embittered recluse he became.  Other actors Welles cast included Everett Sloane, Agnes Moorehead, Ruth Warrick and Paul Stewart.  Alan Ladd and Arthur O’Connell appeared in uncredited bit parts as reporters.

The legendary Gregg Toland was the film’s cinematographer, and Robert Wise, later a two-time Academy Award®-winning director, was the editor on the picture. One of the screen greatest composers, Bernard Herrmann created his first movie score for CITIZEN KANE, and was nominated for the Academy Award, but that same year Herrmann beat himself for the Oscar — for his second film score, ALL THAT MONEY CAN BUY. After remaining out of circulation for many years, the film was re-issued by RKO in 1956, and in 1962 CITIZEN KANE was selected by a panel of film critics as the greatest film of all time. During the ensuing years, in poll after poll, CITIZEN KANE has consistently ranked as the highest embodiment of film art. Says critic Roger Ebert, “Seventy years later, this towering achievement is as fresh, as provoking, as entertaining, as funny, as sad, as brilliant, as it ever was. Many agree it is the greatest film of all time.” Critic and film historian Arthur Knight observed, “Less by imitation than by inspiration, the Orson Welles film has altered the look not only of American films, but of films the world over.”

Given that "The Greatest Film Ever Made" certainly deserves a Deluxe release on it's 70th anniversary, which also happens to be how many years Orson Welles lived on the planet Earth,  I would like to propose my own wish list of extras and improvements that Warner Bros Home Video can make to their upcoming Blu Ray release of Citizen Kane, which  will most likely be released in September.   Since RKO proclaimed September 5, 1941 as Citizen Kane Day, when the film went out at "popular prices" in many theatres across the country,  that would seem to be the obvious day for WB to release their new Citizen Kane Blu Ray disc.

So here are some other suggestions to Warner Home Video for their upcoming release of Citizen Kane:

*  A truly deluxe edition, along the lines of the superb editions Warner Home Video has given us on such classic titles as The Searchers, King Kong, A Star Is Born and Bonnie and Clyde.  This would mean reproductions of the original RKO Citizen Kane pressbook and Souvenir program. Reproductions of the various Citizen Kane posters could also be included, or better yet, offer up a reproduction of the original one-sheet (style B,  please) as WB did with their box sets for The Searchers,  King Kong and Bonnie and Clyde.

* The most obvious major extra to include would be The Complete Citizen Kane, the excellent 1991 BBC documentary that talks about all things relating to the making of Citizen Kane and features interviews with many of the people who worked on the movie who are now no longer with us.  This documentary was hardly seen in the U.S.  and there can be little doubt it would be a far superior extra than the lamentable The Battle Over Citizen Kane documentary, which WB included on the first DVD release of Citizen Kane.

* Reprints of the articles many of the major creative people wrote about Citizen Kane. Besides the many articles Welles himself wrote about the film, there are also many other pieces that could be included, such as articles written by Gregg Toland, Bernard Herrmann,  John Houseman, Linwood Dunn, etc, etc.

* RKO correspondence on the making of Citizen Kane, both to and from Welles. Most of this material is preserved in the Lilly Library and even if only a few choice samples are included, it would make for fascinating reading.

* Audio tracks for some of the radio shows Welles did that satirize movie-making, such as Miss Dilly Say No and the 1939 I Lost My Girlish Laughter, where Welles plays a David O. Selznick-like producer named Sidney Brand who tells a novelist whose book he has brought, "I'll give you sole screenplay credit!"

* Both Time and Life Magazine did numerous articles on Citizen Kane during its production and after it was finally released on May 1, 1941.  Henry Luce was clearly happy to help Welles and his film, as he was often at odds with William Randolph Hearst.   Given the corporate connection between Time-Warner,  why not include a selection of photos and articles on Citizen Kane from the vast Time-Life archives,  such as this piece that appeared in Time in March, 1941.

*  WB should certainly "un-restore" the "News-on-the-March"  sequence which Welles intentionally wanted to have a dirty and scratched look,  as well as all the scenes in the previous digital restoration that removed such “artifacts” as the raindrops on the windows outside of  Mr. Bernstein’s office.

* Instead of  a documentary featuring interviews with current directors talking about how much Citizen Kane “influenced” them,  it would be far more interesting to edit together Orson Welles own comments on the film from the various  interviews he has done over the years.  You could easily get a 30-minute documentary of  Welles talking about Citizen Kane as almost everyone who ever interviewed Welles asked him about the making of  Kane. Obviously,  cost considerations would come into play,  in terms of  getting the rights to some of  Welles's  interview clips and other  material, but given that Citizen Kane is  “The Greatest Film of All Time,” wouldn’t you think WB would give it at least as deluxe a treatment as they are planning to do for  Ben-Hur?

Anything less should be greeted with King Lear-like howls of indignation!

By LAWRENCE FRENCH

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.

Ciro Giorgini has written to let us know that his fine documentary Rosabella is now available on DVD, with new interviews with Elsa Martinelli and Suzanne Cloutier as extras.  It can be ordered from Minimum Fax in Italy For 19. Euros, and comes with the book Orson Welles: Interviews on the art of the Cinema .

CORRECTION:  The DVD is in Italian and  DOES NOT have optional English subtitles, so although it is worth having only if  you understand Italian.

ROSABELLA:  Orson Welles's Years in Italy
A film by Gianfranco Giagni and Ciro Giorgini

Italy 1993; 60 min.

Thanks to Tony for posting these notes to the messageboard that were written by the directors of ROSABELLA:

Rosabella is the absurd name given to Rosebud in the Italian version of Citizen Kane, but it may also indicate the contradictory relation between Orson Welles and Italy.

At the 1948 Venice Film Festival the disastrous criticism of his Macbeth made him declare:  "This film is for an audience that understands. I am not liked in Italy. My love for this country is not returned".

Yet in the same Italy he lived for twenty years, and the life in Italy of Welles left a chain of memories in those who lived close to him at the time.

Thus our seeking of direct evidence became a fascinating journey across Orson Welles' Italian years, far from the folklore of the Dolce vita and the Restaurants of Rome.

Italian years that were mainly relations with cinema technicians (cameramen, editors) whom he involved in his endless projects, many of which - so many times - remained unfinished, often through no fault of his.

Cameramen editors and producers who lived for months or years with him as in a tunnel. After their Welles experiences some no longer worked, some changed their profession, others felt a certain responsibility for the rest of their lives. And his life in Italy was full of private sentiments. From Lea Padovani to his great love for Paola Mori who became his third wife. Then his attachment to Venice and other unexpected places: Tuscania, Viterbo, the castle of Bracciano, the EUR area of Rome, that we find transformed in films he completed (Othello), that remained unfinished (Don Quixote) or remained only projects (Julius Caesar).

Our attempt has been to trace the story of his life in Italy but this is also the story of a number of Italians who narrate how their lives were marked by Orson Welles, the one and only Welles, and how much they missed him.

Includes interviews with:
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Gary Graver (cinematographer and friend of Orson Welles)
Alessandro Tasca di Cutò (producer, Chimes at Midnight, Don Quixote, In the Land of Don Quixote)
Suzanne Cloutier (actress, Othello)
Walter Chiari (actor, Chimes at Midnight)
Arnoldo Foà (actor, The Trial, Narrator for the Italian version of In the Land of Don Quixote)
Francesco Lavagnino (music composer for Chimes At Midnight, Othello, The Merchant of Venice)
Mauro Bonanni (editor, Don Quixote, Merchant of Venice, The Deep)
Renzo Lucidi (editor, Othello, Mr. Arkadin, Don Quixote)
Giorgio Tonti (Camera operator, The Deep, The Merchant of Venice)
Oberdan Troiani (camera operator, Othello)
Roberto Perpignani (assistant editor, Don Quixote, The Trial, In the Land of Don Quixote)
Mariano Faggiani (assistant editor, Don Quixote, In the Land of Don Quixote)
Maurizio Lucidi (sound editor Don Quixote, In the Land of Don Quixote)
Lello Bersani ( Journalist )
Rosalba Tonti (production secretary, The Deep, The Merchant of Venice)

and  ORSON WELLES

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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Christian McKay and Richard Linklater spent one-and-a-half days in San Francisco to talk about their new film Me and Orson Welles and dazzled the preview audience at the Embarcadero Center Cinemas.

Having arrived in SF from the Austin premiere the night before, the San Francisco event was a much more low-key affair, since teen heart-throb Zac Efron had dropped off the promo tour for their stop in San Francisco. That turned out to be a blessing in disguise, since it made for a much more casual and intimate screening, where people in the audience could actually talk with both Richard and Christian after their long Q & A session. In fact, many Wellesnet members who attended the screening where able to chat one on one with Richard Linklater and Christian McKay when they adjourned to The Holding Company, next to the theatre for drinks after the show. Just imagine if Zac Efron tried to do that!

Earlier in the day, Mr. Linklater and Mr. McKay had done a Q & A after a matinee screening of the movie at George Lucas's Premiere Theatre in the Presidio, before they faced the press for a long afternoon of interviews at the Prescott Hotel near Union Square. I spoke to them for my allotted 30 minutes, but to my delight, Christian McKay happily agreed to a much longer tête-à-tête during the showing of the movie. The resulting interview, which I will be posting shortly, should prove to be a real delight to Wellesnet readers across the globe, as Mr. McKay has throughly immersed himself in researching Orson Welles, to the point of watching many of the terrible movies Welles appeared in, such as The Witching, Butterfly and Ferry To Hong Kong.

I'd also like to give a special thanks to Karen Larsen and her associates, Leo Wong and Kelda McKinney for doing such a splendid job in handling the movie's publicity in San Francisco.

It was also nice that Christian McKay told me he had just received word that he had been nominated for "Best Supporting Actor" in the independent "Spirit Award" nominations. I told him I thought he would also probably garner an Oscar nomination, but noted he will be facing some stiff competition from actors like Christoph Waltz, Woody Harrelson, Christopher Plummer and Alfred Molina.

Here is a short preview of our talk, which centers on an idea which would make a great extra for the DVD that Warner Bros Home Video will eventually release next year.

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CHRISTIAN McKAY: When I had lunch with Norman Lloyd in Los Angeles just before I spoke with you, we had talked about maybe going on the stage together and doing a talk show about the Mercury Theatre, Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, Jean Renoir, Charlie Chaplin and all the other people Norman has worked with. You would get some of the greatest stories that you would ever hear! Norman said to me, “Well, I haven’t been on the stage in a while, it’s been at least four years,” and I thought, “that would have made him 91!”

RICHARD LINKLATER: An evening with Christian and Norman Lloyd on the stage in LA would be amazing!

CHRISTIAN McKAY: Yes, wouldn’t that be great -- and if we could get it recorded so people could watch it, that would be fabulous, because there is nobody left alive who has met all these personalities and worked with them.

RICHARD LINKLATER: And you guys are two of the few people who could ask him all of the right questions.

LAWRENCE FRENCH: Well, I’d love to go to Los Angeles to talk to Norman Lloyd. In fact, perhaps Warner Bros. might want to do something like that as a supplement for the DVD release of the film. I think it would be fabulous if you directed Christian and Norman Lloyd in an evening of movie and stage memories at the Geffen Playhouse in Westwood! Tim Burton did something similar when he did a interview with Vincent Price on film, but it was never finished.

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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.

Orson Welles had a perception of everything in the film, including the music. He knew. He truly understood film scoring. ...Touch of Evil was one of the best things I've ever done.

—Henry Mancini

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While Orson Welles often had trouble in his dealings with producers and studio executives, he usually attracted the highest calibre of artistic collaborator, who would often turn in their best work for an Orson Welles film. This certainly was the case with Henry Mancini's score for Touch of Evil, even though Welles didn't choose him for the job, or even confer with him about the use of music in the movie. As Mancini relates in this excerpt from his autobiography Did They Mention the Music?, he was simply assigned to the picture by Joesph Gershenson, the head of the music department at Universal. Mancini then visited the set to observe Welles at work, but only met the director briefly, apparently when Welles was still working on his first cut of the picture.

However, Mancini's creative juices were still very much inspired by Welles, since the director had already written several memos to Joseph Gershenson explaining where and what type of music he wanted included in his movie. Unfortunately, by the time Mancini was actually composing the score, Welles was no longer a welcome presence on the Universal lot. As Welles later explained to Peter Bogdanovich: "The music, which I didn't have anything to do with, was, I thought, quite well done. But I wasn't there as I would normally be—like a mother hen, on every note."

It's also interesting to note that Mancini's Touch of Evil music was issued as his first movie soundtrack album, although by the time it appeared in record stores in late 1958, the film had already long been gone from movie theaters.

* Dedicated to Ray Sherman, solo pianist on TANYA'S THEME and THE BLUE (ANGEL) PIANOLA *

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As the camera roves through the streets of the Mexican bordertown, the plan was to feature a succession of different and contrasting Latin American musical numbers - the effect, that is, of our passing one cabaret orchestra after another. In honky-tonk districts on the border, loudspeakers are over the entrance of every joint, large or small, each blasting out it's own tune by way of a "come-on" or "pitch" for the tourists. The fact that the streets are invariably loud with this music was planned as a basic device throughout the entire picture. The special use of contrasting "mambo-type" rhythm numbers with rock 'n' roll will be developed in some detail at the end of this memo, when I'll take up details of the "beat" and also specifics of musical color and instrumentation on a scene-by-scene and transition-by-transition basis.

—Orson Welles, from his 58-page memo

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HENRY MANCINI ON SCORING TOUCH OF EVIL

From Did They Mention the Music? - Contemporary Books, 1989

I once referred to the music department at Universal as a salt mine. But it was a good salt mine, and younger composers in film today do not have access to that kind of on-the-job training. Being on staff there I was called upon to do everything. I mean, everything. Whenever they needed a piece of source music, music that comes from a source in the picture, such as a band, a jukebox, or a radio, they would call me in. I would do an arrangement on something that was in the Universal library, or I would write a new piece for a jazz band or a Latin band or whatever. I guess in every business you have to learn the routine—in film scoring, the clichés—before you can begin to find your own way.

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