Wellesnet: The Orson Welles Web Resource

Here lies the noble fearless knight,
Whose valor rose to such a height;
When Death at last did strike him down,
His was the victory and renown.

He reck’d the world of little prize,
And was a bugbear in men’s eyes;
But had the fortune in his age
To live a fool and die a sage.

—Inscription by Sansón Carrasco on the tomb of Don Quixote

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Juan Cobos delightful history of the trials and tribulations Orson Welles faced while making his movie version of Miguel de Cervantes Don Quixote, provides us with some truly fascinating insights on why Welles never actually finished the film. In 1981, Welles gave his own simple explanation, in Filming The Trial, saying: “Don Quixote was a private exercise of mine, and it will be finished as an author would finish it—in my own good time, when I feel like it. It is not unfinished because of financial reasons. And when it is released, its title is going to be When are you Going to Finish Don Quixote?”

Of course, that was only part of the story, as Welles told Juan Cobos in 1964, he felt very “nervous” about releasing Don Quixote. ”I know the film will please no one,” explained Welles. “It will be an execrated film. I need a big success before putting it into circulation.” Of course, that success never came, and finally in March of 1969, Francisco Reiguera died in Mexico, which made any additional shooting or dubbing with him impossible. Then, in 1972, Akim Tamiroff also passed away.

In 1965, Akim Tamiroff spoke to the American Military Newspaper, Stars and Stripes in Naples, Italy and revealed his great admiration for Welles and his hope that the film would be finished later that same year. “I’ve been at work for four years on Don Quixote with Orson,” said Tamiroff. “He gets a little money, we shoot some more, he runs out, he stops and does something else. Now he's got the money and we're going to finish it this fall. What a movie! What talent that man has. An unlimited imagination! With Welles I'm a better actor than I actually am; I become hypnotized by his admiration. With him I always jump higher. Sancho is my greatest part ever. And you know one of the reasons Welles is so great? He's also one of the greatest photographers alive. He opens actors up, just like (Vittorio) De Sica does. He concentrates on images; he doesn't talk too much, which is no good in films. I just hope he finishes it this fall before something goes wrong."

Many thanks to Juan Cobos for revising his article for Wellesnet, which originally appeared in the wonderful Spanish film magazine Juan edited, Nickel Odeon. Thanks also to Lucy who provided the English translation which Juan corrected. Let’s hope that Juan Cobos finishes his book on working with Orson Welles soon, and that it is eventually translated into English!

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...Please understand that Don Quixote has now, for me, much greater importance. I must be able to finish it at all cost, and with the utmost care. If not, you may understand very seriously that I will go and leave forever directing movies.

—Orson Welles in a letter to Akim Tamiroff

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UNFORTUNATE STORIES ABOUT A NOBLEMAN FROM WISCONSIN
(Historias Desafortunadas de un Hidalgo de Wisconsin)

By JUAN COBOS

Having been asked the question so many times by journalists, Orson Welles decided as a kind of joke to nickname his unfinished work, When Are You Going to Finish Don Quixote? Yet of all his unfinished films, this is without doubt the one that his public—that discerning minority inside the great multitude that decides what succeeds or flops in the movie business—would have actually loved to have seen. In reality, it was always due in great measure to Welles uncompromising nature, that this other public remained so elusive. From the 1960’s on, those of us who were in touch with Welles daily knew that there was one fundamental premise by which Don Quixote would make it to movie screens: that another film of his would be a great success, of the kind that Welles had never known as a director and above all, that its success would happen in the country where he most desired it: The United States.

Of course, there were the usual economic problems, although the money needed for actually completing Don Quixote was perfectly accessible to him by just acting in three or four bad roles in usually nonsensical films, as Orson once mentioned at a business lunch I had arranged on his behalf with Alessandro Tasca and the Spanish producers Jose Vicuña, Paco Molero and myself attending.

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Coming across an interview with Jean Renoir from the Summer, 1954 issue of Sight and Sound, I was astonished to read that Renoir had only the highest praise for RKO executive Charles Koerner, who after all was the man that fired Orson Welles from RKO after the double fiasco of The Magnificent Ambersons and It's All True. RKO's mounting losses and the problems of those two high profile films led to President George Schaefer's resignation in June, 1942.  Koerner took over as head of production and like any incoming studio chief, he fired all of the old regimes mistakes, which in Koerner's case meant first and foremost, Orson Welles and his Mercury unit.

Jean Renoir's comments, below, however led me to re-consider Koerner as the so-called "villain" in the rise and fall of Welles at RKO. Given the circumstances, no matter who replaced Schaefer, it seems fair to assume Welles and his Mercury players were going to be kicked off the RKO lot. Koerner, after all was not the man who ordered the drastic cuts in The Magnificent Ambersons, but George Schaefer, who was supposed to be Welles "supporter" at the studio. It was also Schaefer who had hired Welles to bring artistic movies to RKO in the first place, and when Welles delivered the biggest art movie of all time, he trembled at the threats of W. R. Hearst, but finally stood by Welles.  What else could he do after he had given Welles a contract with such carte blanche?

However, by the time of Ambersons, Schaefer was in a near panic about the mounting studio losses, which could hardly be blamed solely on Welles, since he had only made two films for RKO, which together had cost only a little over $2 million. But Schaefer wasn't ready to support a second Welles "artistic" masterpiece, and after the supposedly "poor" previews (Kane had no previews), he quickly agreed to cut the film down in order to "save" it.

What is clear, is Schaefer was making decisions out of fear, mostly about losing his job, and as his letters to Welles show, he was a very frightened man after the bad Amberson's previews.

Given what Renoir says in his interview with Francois Truffaut and Jacques Rivette, it seems likely that if Charles Koerner had hired Welles, and there had been a bad preview of Amberson's, he might have at least given Welles the chance to edit the film himself, even if he was in South America. As Renoir states, he got the chance to do that, even after his film Woman on the Beach was badly received in Santa Barbara.

This is, of course, merely a theory, but it seems to me, it's a far more plausible one, than the writers who place all the blame on the re-editing of The Magnificent Ambersons squarely at the feet of Orson Welles, claiming RKO was only acting in their best interests. I think that argument holds absolutely no validity. While Welles didn't always make the best decisions during this period, it's still safe to say if a 120-minute version of Ambersons had been released instead of the studio version of 88-minutes, it would have probably done just about the same (or possibly even better) at the box-office. It certainly would have gotten better reviews!

What's ironic, is that both the essays contained in the published scripts for Welles's first two RKO films suggest that: A) He was not the author of Citizen Kane, and: B) He was himself largely responsible for the fiasco that led to the re-editing of The Magnificent Ambersons.

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JEAN RENOIR on working at RKO

Interviewed by Jacques Rivette and Francois Truffaut

(From Sight and Sound, Summer - 1954)

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Here's an oddity: it's subtitled "A wildly fictional account of how Orson Welles learned everthing about the Art of Cinematography in half an hour. Or was it a weekend?" Ostensibly a book about learning cinematography, the blurb says :"...this graphic textbook deftly merges a fictionalized account of an Orson Welles and Gregg Toland brainstorming weekend in hollywod with the ABCs of cinematography...if it didn't happen this way, it should have." The book was published Sept 1st.

http://www.amazon.com/Citizen-Kane-Crash-Course-Cinematography/dp/1932907467

Also of tardy note: The April 2008 issue of Sight and Sound (perhaps you can find it at your local library) has a very nicely written review of 3 books on Welles: the Berthome and Thomas, the Rosenbaum and the Tonguette. The review was written by another author of yet another Welles book, Ben Walters.

Tony

One of the highlight's of Gary Graver's memoir, Making Movies with ORSON WELLES is the inside view it gives us on the making of The Other Side of the Wind. Perhaps the book may finally help to sweep aside the last remaining obstacles and get the Showtime deal to finish the movie back on track.

Here's how Gary Graver sums up The Other Side of the Wind in his book:

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Orson viewed The Other Side of the Wind as a bookend to Citizen Kane. It's an interesting film that needs to be completed so it can be viewed alongside Orson's classic films. I think it will shed new light on Orson's artistic legacy. It's quite different from anything else he ever did. It's a marvelous film. Its structure--the movie-within-a-movie--and all of Orson's ideas were so fresh. The dialogue and the visuals are terrific.

I think it's Orson's finest film since Touch of Evil, and I think the public deserves the opportunity to see the film and decide for themselves where it ranks in the canon of Welles films. I think it will enjoy a long shelf life and make millions for whoever ends up finishing it. Today Orson is bigger than ever. He has fans in countries all around the world. What bigger market could you want for such a film?

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The book also offers us a true insider's portrait of Orson Welles, which could only be written by somebody who worked with Welles intimately over a period of 15 years. We even get a sense of the despair Welles must have felt when, by 1977, it became apparent that The Other Side of the Wind was doomed to join the ranks of Welles other unfinished projects.

In a poignant hand-written note reproduced in the book, dated Aug. 24, 1977, Welles writes the following plea to Graver:

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Gary:

This is a real cry for help -- Please, please call me!

Orson

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That same year, Welles stopped active work on The Other Side of the Wind, for reasons that are explained in this excerpt from an 11-page letter Welles wrote in 1977 to Mehdi Boushehri, the primary Iranian backer of The Other Side of the Wind:

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To celebrate Gary Graver's wonderful new memoir, Making Movies with ORSON WELLES, I thought I'd offer a sample of the delights it has to offer.

To start, here is the text for an incredibly detailed memo Welles wrote to Gary Graver which appears to have been written around 1972, when Welles was in the midst of editing F For Fake at the Antigor studios in Paris. As Graver explains it below, Welles sent him to Seville to shoot some second-unit scenes for Don Quixote during the holy week processions, similar to those we see in Mr. Arkadin. At this point Graver had only been working with Welles for two or three years, but it appears that Welles already had total confidence in Gary's abilities. Of course, Welles also gave him extremely detailed instructions, which seemingly take every possibility into account. Even more amazingly, this memo concerns only Gary's travel plans from Paris to Seville! One only wonders what kind of instructions Welles wrote for what he actually wanted him to photograph during the holy week festivities!

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GARY GRAVER: I first read about Orson making Don Quixote when I was in High School, and I ended up doing second-unit on it. It was quite a time span. But as time went on, Orson kept getting new ideas on how he could finish Don Quixote. I shot some material for the film, but it was never actually put into the picture, because it was stolen. I shot a holy week procession in Seville and some inserts of windmills, second-unit things like that. Orson's idea was to shoot wraparound color segments to finish the picture, because he always intended to finish it, its just that he kept coming up with new angles on how to wrap it all up.

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I can hardly be called an unbiased reviewer when it comes to this book, since I contributed an interview with Gary Graver and Oja Kodar that serves as an afterward, but I must say in all candor, I was absolutely delighted when I received a copy of it today. First of all, having talked with Gary Graver extensively, I was wondering what more I could possibly find out about Gary's work with Welles in a volume devoted to that subject.

Well, as it turns out, quite a bit!

I'll offer some more detailed comments about the book after I've read it through completely, but just from my first impressions, this is obviously a must-have book for anyone with even the slightest interest in Welles later career (1970- 1985), and especially The Other Side of The Wind. I happen to think this is when Welles did some of his greatest work.

If you are interested in ordering a copy, it should be shipping shortly, as it has been printed and is on its way to retail outlets. Barnes and Noble appears to have the current lowest price for it on the Net, at $28.00.

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Making Movies with ORSON WELLES: A Memoir
By Gary Graver with Andrew J. Rausch
Foreword by Joseph McBride
Afterword (an Interview with Gary Graver and Oja Kodar) by Lawrence French

The Scarecrow Press
Pub Date: September 30, 2008
192 pages, Hardcover
List Price: $35.00

In 1958, Gary Graver moved from his hometown of Portland, Oregon to Los Angeles, California with dreams of an acting career in Hollywood. Soon after his arrival, he caught a double bill in a small theater on Hollywood Boulevard, the lower half of which was the recently released Touch of Evil. Upon viewing this noir classic, Graver decided he wanted to be a director and spent many years honing his craft, as both a cinematographer and a director, not to mention writer, actor, and producer--much like his idol, Orson Welles.

In 1970, when Graver learned that Welles was in town, he impulsively called up the director and offered him his services as a cameraman. It was only the second time in Welles' career that he had received such an offer from a cinematographer, the other time being from Gregg Toland, who worked on one of the greatest films ever made, Citizen Kane.

In Making Movies with Orson Welles, Gary Graver recounts the highs and lows of the moviemaking business as he and one of the most important and influential directors of all time struggled to get films produced. The two men collaborated on more than a dozen projects, including F for Fake, Filming Othello, Moby Dick-Rehearsed, The Dreamers and their magnum opus, the still unreleased The Other Side of the Wind. Their close friendship and creative filmmaking partnership would endure for 15 years, until Welles' death in October, 1985.

The book also includes an extensive filmography of Welles and Graver's work together, much of which remains unavailable for viewing, along with 20 rare photos from Gary Graver's personal collection. This fascinating memoir recalls what it was like to work with the legendary Orson Welles and offers advice and tales of caution for future filmmakers.

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Gary Graver, one of Orson Welles’ closest collaborators, has written a superb book on Welles. It is a captivating and insightful look at their extraordinary relationship, a must-have for Welles fans and academians alike.

—Frank Marshall, Producer, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

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About the authors

Gary Graver (1938-2006) was a respected cinematographer who worked on nearly 200 films. He served as cameraman on films by such diverse filmmakers as Paul Bartel, Budd Boetticher, John Cassavetes, Ron Howard, Steven Spielberg, and Orson Welles.

Andrew J. Rausch is the author of several books on film including Turning Points in Film History and Fifty Filmmakers: Conversations with Directors from Roger Avary to Steven Zaillian.

My real interest in life is education. I want to be a teacher. All this experience I've been piling up is equipping me for that future ...I shall know how to dramatize the art of imparting knowledge.

One day I shall leave all this behind me, go back (to Todd School) and give full rein to my ideas. That's when life will really begin for me.

--Orson Welles, The Los Angeles Times, October 28, 1945

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Simon Callow has undoubtedly written more about Orson Welles and the happy times he spent at Todd School in Woodstock, Illinois, then any other Welles biographer. So I'm quite pleased to announce that Mr. Callow has sent along this message of support for all the citizens and politicians of Woodstock, who are now attempting to save Grace Hall from it's slated demolition: (more...)

September 4 The Chicago Tribune reported about "The Historic dorm for boys at the Todd school attended by Orson Welles, in Woodstock that faces demolition."

Going back nearly 75 years to the summer of 1934, we find that the Chicago Tribune was also reporting on Welles and the Todd School. They were there - to quote Mr. Bernstein - "before the beginning." Charles Collins, the Tribune's astute drama critic, wrote about the upcoming "First ever summer drama colony in Chicagoland."

Below is Charles Collins' report on the Todd Summer theater festival of 1934, followed by a long and fascinating excerpt from the noted Irish stage actor Micheal MacLiammmoir's autobiography, ALL FOR HECUBA. Mr. MacLiammoir starred in a memorable production of HAMLET on the stage of the Woodstock Opera House in 1934, directed by his longtime partner Hilton Edwards, in which Welles played King Claudius.

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Having heard from several concerned citizens in Woodstock, Illinois, who have expressed their concern about the proposed demolition of Grace Hall, I thought I'd try to bolster their case before the city council by highlighting some of the remarkable achievements Orson Welles made in Woodstock.

To begin, here is an overview of Welles relationship with the town of Woodstock, as reported in these excerpts from a profile of Welles taken from The New Yorker, from October, 1938 - just a scant four years after Welles had triumphed mightily on the stage of the historic Woodstock Opera House. (more...)

This weekend a new documentary Prodigal Sons, about Orson Welles grandson, Marc McKerrow Welles, was screened at the Telluride Film Festival. I haven't seen the film yet, but based on the synopsis from the press kit, it can probably be best described in the same terms as Orson Welles's first movie: "It's Sensational."

In fact, even if Prodigal Sons turns out to be a disappointment, I would have to say just on the basis I've what I've read and heard so far, it has to be seen by anyone remotely interested in the life and work of Orson Welles. (more...)