Wellesnet: The Orson Welles Web Resource

What better way to celebrate the birthday of those two icons of terror cinema, than to have them talk about their work with Orson Welles.

So happy birthday to Vincent Price and Christopher Lee!

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LAWRENCE FRENCH: How did you like working with Orson Welles?

VINCENT PRICE: Orson was a marvelous director. I did two plays with him, THE SHOEMAKER'S HOLIDAY and HEARTBREAK HOUSE. He was a really brilliant director, although I never thought he was a very good actor. I mean he's too Orson Welles. There's absolutely no characterization at all. More he did when he was young, then he does now, because he really is a caricature of himself now. I mean, that fat!

LAWRENCE FRENCH: Was Welles as undisciplined as some people have claimed?

VINCENT PRICE: He was completely undisciplined. You see, he had the theater like that! (holds up his hand in a fist). I would have loved to have worked with him again, but everybody in the Mercury Theater had a bit of a falling out with Orson. There were two plays we were supposed to do, Oscar Wilde's THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING ERNEST, and John Webster's THE DUCHESS OF MALFI (intriguingly described by a Mercury press release as, "one of the great horror plays of all time"). My then wife, Edith Barrett was going to be in THE DUCHESS OF MALFI as well. Orson was going to direct both of them, and the actors had contracts to do them. Then, when we went to rehearse them, Orson never showed up. He didn't show up for either show. He just decided he didn't want to do them, but he didn't bother to tell the actors.

LAWRENCE FRENCH: One book on Welles claims he had a fear of completion.

VINCENT PRICE: I think so. Like Michelangelo. I think he could have been the greatest director of the American theater and of the cinema, but there was something missing there.

LAWRENCE FRENCH: It's sad, because when Welles directs, his films are so brilliant. I think his CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT is one of the greatest films ever made.

VINCENT PRICE: And CITIZEN KANE. THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS I saw the other day, and it falls apart completely at the end.

LAWRENCE FRENCH: But the ending of AMBERSONS was re-edited by the studio.

VINCENT PRICE: Yes, I know it.

LAWRENCE FRENCH: Was there ever any talk of you acting at RKO when you first went out to Hollywood, perhaps working with Orson Welles, or with Val Lewton's horror unit?

VINCENT PRICE: No. I first went to Hollywood under contract to Universal, and then was with 20th-Century Fox for seven years. However, at that time, my first wife (Edith Barrett), made two films with Val Lewton—I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE and THE GHOST SHIP—although I never worked with Val Lewton. Later on, I did THE COMEDY OF TERRORS with Jacques Tourneur, who had worked a great deal with Val Lewton.

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LAWRENCE FRENCH: I understand you once worked with Orson Welles on a film version of MOBY DICK.

CHRISTOPHER LEE: Yes, that's right. It was made for television, right after he did his stage version. I've no idea what happened to it. I don't think it was ever shown. Welles played Captain Ahab, Patrick McGoohan played Starbuck, the first mate, and I played Flask, the 2nd mate. Kenneth Williams played Elijah and Gordon Jackson played Ishmael. Joan Plowright, the present Lady Olivier, played the cabin boy. It was a version of his stage play, which I wasn't in, but it was mostly done in mime, drinking from non-existent cups, throwing non-existent harpoons. The notion was that of a play within a play, where the actors step in and out of their roles, in the story of MOBY DICK. I remember one of the first lines in the film. Orson came up to me and said, "If we touch land, Mr. Flask, for God's sake, no fornication!"

Orson was most encouraging, very helpful, appreciative and very, very funny. It's amazing we ever got any filming done, because most of the time Orson would be telling us stories about John Barrymore or Errol Flynn, people like that. He'd also talk all through your scenes, so of course they would have to be looped. We did MOBY DICK at two theater's in London, The Hackney-Empire and The Scala. Another time, there was a scene where I had to say to Patrick McGoohan, "There's bad news from that ship," when the Pequod is approaching The Rachel. Suddenly, Orson voice came from behind the camera, "There's bad news from that ship - mark my words." Well, I looked at Patrick, and Patrick looked at me, because we didn't quite know what was going on. We both wondered why Orson was repeating our lines. Then, on another occasion Orson came down the center aisle of the theater while the cast and crew were all waiting on the stage, turned to the cameraman and said "action," and the cameraman said, "Mr. Welles, I haven't got a set-up yet," and Orson said to him, "find one and surprise me."

Welles was one of the very few people in the history of the cinema to whom the word "genius" could appropriately be applied. He was a great, great filmmaker. I've seen his OTHELLO, and I've seen the other one, his Scottish play, the name of which I won't mention.

LAWRENCE FRENCH: You mean MACBETH?

CHRISTOPHER LEE: Yes. In British theatrical tradition, the unluckiest thing an actor can possibly do, is to mention it, or ever quote from it, except when you are actually playing it. That's why we refer to it as "the Scottish play."

LAWRENCE FRENCH: And I've just mentioned it!

CHRISTOPHER LEE: You can say it, but I can't. In fact, in THE DRESSER, there's a scene where Albert Finney forgets what play he's in. He forgets he doing KING LEAR, and starts to quote some of the lines from the Scottish play, which causes Tom Courtney, as the dresser, to have a bout of hysteria. The man on whom that part is based —"Sir" as he's called — the part played by Albert Finney, is supposed to be based on the late Sir Donald Wolfit. He was a remarkable actor, and when I was an actor in the beginning of my career, I worked in Wolfit's company. He took companies all around Britain during the war and after the war, and he was quite an extraordinary man. I have actually seen him say, in rehearsal to the electricians, "The spotlight goes HERE!…and don't move it!" All that sort of thing. In THE DRESSER, when Albert Finney comes off the stage, after everyone is trying to create the storm for KING LEAR, with the wind machine and noises you could hear for miles away, he says, "Where was the storm?!" Well, Wolfit was like that. He was either way up there, like that, or else (whispers), right down here. I introduced him to J.R.R. Tolkien, for which he was always eternally grateful. I gave him THE HOBBIT to read, and I've still got the letter he wrote to me, saying, "Thank you, dear Christopher for showing me an enchanted world." I met Tolkien and I still think THE LORD OF THE RINGS is the greatest literary achievement in my lifetime. I also knew T. H. White who wrote THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING. I like fantasy, too!

People who dream know that the real glory of dreams lies in their atmosphere of unlimited freedom… the freedom of the artist.

—Karen Blixen, Out of Africa

Karen Blixen published her first stories in 1934 under the name of Isak Dinesen, the same year Orson Welles made his first amateur movie, HEARTS OF AGE.

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If I know a song of Africa…

Of the giraffe
and the African new moon lying on her back

Of the plows in the fields
and the sweaty faces of the coffee pickers

Does Africa know a song of me?

Will the air over the plain quiver
with a colour that I have had on?

Or will the children invent a game
in which my name was…

Or the full moon throw a shadow over
the gravel of the drive that was like me?

Or will the eagles of the
Ngong hills look out for me?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=MluSQnod-Ck&feature=related

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The time you won your town the race
We chaired you through the market-place;
Man and boy stood cheering by,
And home we brought you shoulder-high.

To-day, the road all runners come,
Shoulder-high we bring you home,
And set you at your threshold down,
Townsman of a stiller town.

Smart lad, to slip betimes away
From fields where glory does not stay
And early though the laurel grows
It withers quicker than the rose.

Eyes the shady night has shut
Cannot see the record cut,
And silence sounds no worse than cheers
After earth has stopped the ears:

Now you will not swell the rout
Of lads that wore their honours out,
Runners whom renown outran
And the name died before the man.

So set, before its echoes fade,
The fleet foot on the sill of shade,
And hold to the low lintel up
The still-defended challenge-cup.

And round that early-laurelled head
Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead,
And find unwithered on its curls
The garland briefer than a girl's.

—A. E. Housman

(Read by Meryl Streep over Denys Fitch-Hatton's grave in the Ngong Hills of Kenya, in Sydney Pollack’s Out of Africa )

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Having visited Spain twice in the last two years and had the most wonderful time there, my comments here may be considered a bit biased, because I imagine if you haven't actually been to Spain, you probably will not be quite so excited about Orson Welles wonderful documentary, In the Land of Don Quixote.

The first episode, "Andalusian Itinerary" was posted on You Tube, but was removed after only a week.

However, having never seen this television show by Welles, I quite enjoyed getting to see the Spanish locations for several of Orson Welles films.  Of course, Welles loved Spain and I must say, so do I.  One of the most magical spots I've ever been to, was Tossa Del Mar, a short drive north of Barcelona, on the Costa Brava.  It was the location for the Ava Gardner-James Mason movie, Pandora and the Flying Dutchman, shot in gorgeous Technicolor by Jack Cardiff.  Well, believe me, when I say even Jack Cardiff's cinematography can't do the town of Tossa Del Mar photographic justice. The light there, the castle, the ocean... it's all simply enchanting.

Anyway, to get back to the topic at hand, after seeing the first episode of Welles masterful In the Land of Don Quixote, I think it is quite possibly the best travel documentary I've ever seen!

It's certainly far better than the two segments of Welles previous documentary TV show set in Spain, Around the World with Orson Welles, made in 1955.

Here we get to see brief shots of Welles, his wife, Paola Mori and Welles 9-year old daughter, Beatrice, as they tour Spain in a black Mercedes, but all of these shots are quite brief. What we get to see much more of, is the Spanish landscape, which has been so important to so many of Welles own films. There are many shots of windmills, which Welles himself might have wanted to include in his film of Don Quixote. And since the Jess Franco version of Don Quixote used some of the footage from In the Land of Don Quixote, we can now actually see just how badly he screwed-up! From just seeing the 30 minutes available for viewing here, it is quite evident that any competent film editor could make a far better version of Don Quixote than what Jess Franco assembled for his truly awful version of the film. Why any Welles fan would want to see that shameful version released is quite beyond me!

In any case, Welles also visits many other famous Spanish locations, several that he would end up using for his upcoming films shot in Spain, such as the the walled city of Avila, that appeared in Chimes at Midnight. There are also shots of many locations Welles had already used in Spain, such as the imposing "Arkadin Castle" at Segovia, and the Roman aqueduct in Segovia that was also featured in Mr. Arkadin. Then, most prophetically, Welles shows us shots of the magnificent cliffs and streets of Ronda, the town in Spain where bullfighting was born, and where he would eventually be buried.

Although In the Land of Don Quixote is essential a travel documentary about Spain, it's done by a film artist, and as such, I think it's one of the best and most poetic documentaries I've yet to see on any country. Seeing it today, years later, it still seems quite unique. So ironically, it's no surprise that it was never widely seen in 1964, except on Italian TV, and they insisted on adding a narration over the images.

Unfortunately, nothing could be worse then hearing a voice-over against these simple but powerful images, even if it was the voice of Orson Welles (and it wasn't). The score here is also quite wonderful... a simple Spanish guitar theme, by Juan Serrano, without any distracting narration serves the material just fine. But the editing of the images it where the poetry of the film comes into full flower. I think it would be quite enough to carry this wonderful portrait of Spain, even if there were no score at all!

The film apparently didn't get shown in America until 1986, as part of the AFI's National video festival, which offered a comprehensive survey of most of the work Welles made for television. Kevin Thomas who reviewed it for The L A Times had this to say:

"In The Land of Don Quixote should not be confused with Welles Don Quixote, a film he worked on for 30 years and came close to completing before his death last year. In The Land of Don Quixote is essentially a travelogue of Spain, in which Welles, his wife and daughter occasionally appear in a dark Mercedes. It was never intended to be seen all in one sitting, and in this format it frankly grows tedious (There are 9 episodes of about 25 minutes each.)

Yet how stunningly everything has been shot, in a high-contrast black and white, punctuated with recurring shots of the windmills with which Welles himself tilted as nobly as Quixote. It's quite likely that no one has caught the danger and excitment of the running of the bulls at Pamplona so vividly; Welles viewed the bullfights themselves as rituals of life and death and not at all romantically, sparing us none of the blood. (There's a busy Italian narration, which hasn't been translated because Welles disavowed it.)

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RELATED: See Jeff's review of the Jess Franco Don Quixote DVD here, including frame grabs of the Spanish windmills Franco used, which look far better in Welles own documentary:

http://www.wellesnet.com/quixotedvd.htm

The ORSON WELLES SHOW, featuring Orson Welles with his guests, Burt Reynolds, Angie Dickinson, The Muppets and their creators, Jim Henson and Frank Oz was shot by Welles in the fall of 1978. After it was edited and completely finished by Welles, it was shown to the heads of the three major networks, where it was apparently deemed too intellectual and turned down by ABC, CBS and NBC. Whether PBS was also offered the show is unknown, but it has never been seen on television, even after the advent of cable, with it's 57 plus channels (and nothing on). It's a rather sad comment that an artist like Orson Welles, attempting to adapt his work downward to accommodate the medium of television, would find that it would be  misunderstood and totally rejected.

Ironically, in his introduction to the show, Welles probably is giving his own true thoughts about the medium to a questioner from the studio audience, who asks him "I've read that you think television is a lot of stale junk food."

Naturally, expecting that his TV pilot would be picked up for an eventual network showing, Welles praises the medium, saying, "Television... isn’t it everything good and bad everybody ever said about it? ...I’m all for it, of course, because here I am with a show of my own!"

Little did Welles know at the time that nobody would ever see his TV show! And what a terrible shame, because it's such a great crowd pleaser.  So check it out on YouTube, with many thanks to Deconstuctionist909 for providing it for the world to finally see... 30 years after it was made!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmWWo1LCBi4

Further information on THE ORSON WELLES SHOW at Wellesnet can be found here:

 http://www.wellesnet.com/ow_show.htm

Daniel Johnson sent along a link to his FILM BABBLE BLOG, reminding me it was Orson Welles birthday this week. He also has posted a nice rundown on the various actors who have played Welles to date, including Christian McKay who will play Welles in Richard Linklater’s upcoming Me and Orson Welles.

His site can be accessed here:
http://filmbabble.blogspot.com/2008/05/birthday-tribute-to-orson-welles-with.html

Meanwhile, David Cairns SHADOWPLAY Blog contains several interesting posts relating to Orson Welles, including a just added piece that talks about Beatrice Welles.

It can be accessed here:

http://dcairns.wordpress.com/2008/05/07/bea-negative/

Mr. Cairns also has posts on several other great film artists who I also admire, and several of them have connections to Orson Welles, so check it out.  Among the other film people discussed are:

Lindsay Anderson, Mario Bava, Jules Dassin, Hitchcock, Kubrick, Fritz Lang, Christopher Lee (great frame grabs from Dracula), David Lynch, Michael Powell, Preminger, Sturges, Walsh, Wilder, etc. etc.

Finally, here's a site that is devoted to Shakespeare's HAMLET. According to Robert Carringer in his book on The Magnificent Ambersons, Welles never played Hamlet.  Please go to the back of the class, Mr. Carringer, because your research is obviously quite shoddy!

Stuart Ian Burns at his THE HAMLET WEBLOG notes that Welles did play Hamlet, and also has a great picture of Welles at the microphone that I had never seen:

http://thehamletweblog.blogspot.com/2007/10/eighteen.html

The Criterion Collection, purveyors of high class DVDs, today announced that they were entering the Blu-ray field with a spate of fall releases, one of which is Carol Reed's classic The Third Man, featuring Welles in one of his most iconic roles as Harry Lime. This was announced via their newsletter, and it doesn't appear to be on their site yet, but visit any decent DVD forum and people will no doubt be frothing with excitement about it, as well they should. Now, how long until we get F FOR FAKE and MR. ARKADIN on Blu?

In other DVD news, Universal is releasing a 50th anniversary edition of TOUCH OF EVIL this summer, but no details have been announced. Rumor has it that this release will see all three versions of the film included, but that remains speculative at this point. We can live in hope. Also announced was Image Entertainment's release of DON QUIXOTE, which will almost certainly be the Franco abomination rather than anything more worthwhile (and frankly, a blank disc might be a better option).

To celebrate the 93rd birthday of ORSON WELLES - May 6, 1915 - here are some fond memories from members of the cast and crew of CITIZEN KANE.

I'm sure they all would be wishing Orson a very happy birthday today...

PAUL STEWART - Raymond, the butler

The telephone rang and I heard the unmistakable voice of Orson Welles, speaking from California.

“I want you to come out and do a part for me in my picture,” he said. “Have you got an agent?”
“Yes,” I said. “But what’s the part?”
“Never mind. Just come out.”

Well, when Orson said he had a part for you, you went. So I left New York to play my first role in a picture at $500 a week, three weeks guarantee. I was on CITIZEN KANE 11 weeks. For the first three or four weeks, I didn’t work at all.

Naturally I stood around the set, watching. And I was amazed at the way Orson worked. In those days we had an 8 o’clock call on set – Orson had to report at 5 a.m. when he was wearing the old-man make up.

The first hour on the set, nothing happened. Orson gave Gregg Toland the setup, then everyone became anecdotal. We just sat around telling stories about radio, the theater, etc. After awhile Orson began to rehearse. He had a man who walked through his scenes for him, and we rehearsed with this fellow while Orson directed. Then he stepped in and shot the scene with himself in it. Sometimes we didn’t get a shot until 3 in the afternoon. Of course lighting was very difficult because of the depth of focus. Eastman Kodak had developed its fastest film for Gregg, but it was still not what we have today.

It wasn’t uncommon for Orson to shoot 84, 93, 55 takes of one scene. During the Senate hearing with George Coulouris, Orson did more than a hundred takes. One day he shot a hundred takes and exposed 10,000 feet–without a single print!

I’ll never forget the day Orson shot the burning of the sled. One of the stages at the Selznick studio had been made into the warehouse with a working furnace. The scene had to be just right because the audience had to see the sled go in and the word “Rosebud” consumed in flames.

When the ninth take had been shot, the doors of the stage flew open and in marched the Culver City Fire Department in full fire-fighting regalia. The furnace had grown so hot that the flue had caught fire. Orson was delighted with the commotion.

After the fire had been extinguished, one of the firemen asked me, “What’s going on here?”
“Mr. Welles is making a picture here,” I said.

Orson’s WAR OF THE WORLD'S scare was still a vivid memory, and the fireman nodded and murmured, “It figures.”

My first shot was a close-up in which Orson wanted a special smoke effect from my cigarette. I was rigged with tube that went under my clothes and down my finger to the cigarette, but somehow the contraption wouldn’t exude smoke.

“I want long cigarettes–the Russian kind!” Orson ordered. Everyone waited while the prop man fetched some Russian cigarettes.

Just before the scene, Orson Welles warned me: “Your head is going to fill the screen at the Radio City Music Hall”– at that time CITIZEN KANE was booked for the Music Hall. Then he said in his gruff manner, “Turn ‘em.” But just before I started, he added quietly in his warm voice, “Good luck.”

I blew the first take. It was 30-40 takes before I completed a shot that Orson liked–and I had only one line. That was almost 30 years ago, but even today I have people repeat it to me, including young students. The line was: “Rosebud... I’ll tell you about rosebud...”

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