Wellesnet: The Orson Welles Web Resource

There are pictures of me made about three hours after the broadcast looking as much as I could like an early Christian saint. As if I didn't know what I was doing... but I'm afraid it was about as hypocritical as anyone could possibly get!

—Orson Welles (to Tom Snyder - 1975)

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Press conference transcript from RADIO GUIDE Magazine, 1938

No more interesting interview was ever given than that granted to the press on Monday Oct. 31, 1938 - the day after The War of the Worlds hoax broadcast by Orson Welles, who played Professor Pierson, adapted the novel to radio, and who directs the Mercury Theater. He entered the interview room unshaven since Saturday, eyes red from lack of sleep. Welles read this prepared statement:

MR. WELLES: Despite my deep regret over any misapprehension that our broadcast might have created among some listeners, I am even more bewildered over this misunderstanding in the light of an analysis of the broadcast itself.

It seems to me that they’re our four factors, which should have in any event maintained the illusion of fiction in the broadcast. The first was that the broadcast was performed as if occurring in the future, and as if it were then related by a survivor of a past occurrence. The date of this fanciful invasion of this planet by Martians was clearly given as 1939 and was so announced at the outset of the broadcast.

The second element was the fact that the broadcast took place at our weekly Mercury Theatre period and had been so announced in all the papers. For seventeen consecutive weeks we have been broadcasting radio sixteen of these seventeen broadcasts have been fiction and have been presented as such. Only one in the series was a true story, the broadcast of Hell on Ice by Commander Ellsberg, and was identified as a true story in the framework of radio drama.

The third element was the fact that at the very outset of the broadcast, and twice during its enactment, listeners were told that this was a play that it was an adaptation of an old novel by H. G. Wells. Furthermore, at the conclusion, a detailed statement to this effect was made.

The fourth factor seems to me to have been the most pertinent of all. That is the familiarity of the fable, within the American idiom, of Mars and the Martians.

For many decades “The Man From Mars” has been almost a synonym for fantasy. In very old morgues of many newspapers there will be found a series of grotesque cartoons that ran daily, which gave this fantasy imaginary form. As a matter of fact, the fantasy as such has been used in radio programs many times. In these broadcasts, conflict between citizens of Mars and other planets been a familiarly accepted fairy-tale. The same make-believe is familiar to newspaper readers through a comic strip that uses the same device.

Mr. Welles then answered questions from reporters.

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The N. Y. Daily News has posted their complete original coverage from 1938 on the panic caused by the broadcast of The War of the Worlds. There is also a wonderful gallery of pictures featuring Welles in the studio, along with a Martian's eye viewpoint of Grovers Mill, New Jersey. Here are some excerpts and a link:

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/2008/10/30/2008-10-30_war_of_the_worlds_terrified_the_nation_7-2.html

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FAKE RADIO "WAR" STIRS TERROR THROUGH U. S.

By GEORGE DIXON

This article originally ran in the October 31, 1938 edition of the New York Daily News.

A radio dramatization of H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds" - which thousands of people misunderstood as a news broadcast of a current catastrophe in New Jersey - created almost unbelievable scenes of terror in New York, New Jersey, the South and as far west as San Francisco between 8 and 9 o'clock last night.

At 10 P.M., WABC sent out the following explanation of its "War of the Worlds" broadcast:

"For those listeners who tuned in to Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre on the Air broadcast from 8 to 9 P,M tonight, and did not realize that the program was merely a radio adaptation of H.G. Wells' famous novel, 'War of the Worlds,' we are repeating the fact, which was made clear four times on the program, that the entire content of the play was entirely fictitious."

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Early in June, 1970 Orson Welles appeared as a guest on The David Frost Show and gave the comments below to Sir David about his 1938 War of the Worlds broadcast.

Later that same month, Welles was a guest host on the Frost Show and talked to (among others) these famous luminaries: Duke ELLINGTON, Louis ARMSTRONG, Norman MAILER and Darryl F. ZANUCK.

Now, it seems to me, Ron Howard's upcoming FROST/NIXON movie should have a sequel. Michael Sheen should play David Frost and Vincent D' Onofrio could play Orson Welles. But wouldn't you think a FROST/WELLES movie would make a far better story than a FROST/NIXON film?

Meanwhile, here is a link to the excellent 1988 radio documentary with comments from both John Houseman and Howard Koch about their memories of The War of the Worlds broadcast:

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The Making of THE WAR OF THE WORLDS

Featuring John Houseman and Howard Koch

http://www.prx.org/pieces/28807

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Orson Welles' Sketchbook
Episode 5: The Martian Invasion - May 21, 1955

Hear online here: Orson Welles' Sketchbook

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ORSON WELLES on DAVID FROST (1970)

DAVID FROST: What memories do you have of that radio program that had such a great impact?

ORSON WELLES: You mean the scandal?

DAVID FROST: Yes. The War of the Worlds. That was in what year?

ORSON WELLES: I know no dates. Just after the invention of the electric light, I know that. I have memories of it. The thing that confuses it in my mind is that we had our own radio show with actors and at the same time we had our own theater, the Mercury Theater. And the night after the program I had an opening on Broadway. So when the police came into the control room and traffic stopped and the world came to an end, we were all saying, "Yes, but have you got the light cue for the second act right?" It didn't quite penetrate until the play had opened that I'd replaced Benedict Arnold as an American villain, and that was because the newspapers, who'd been griping about radio taking away the advertising, finally found somebody to blame. Then they found out that everybody was laughing and thought it was a joke, so in a few days I was suddenly a great fellow, and that's how I got a sponsor.

DAVID FROST: What was the part of The War of the Worlds that really terrified people?

ORSON WELLES: I don't know. Many things, probably. We had an actor who did Roosevelt's voice terribly well, and we brought him on to assure everybody that there was no cause for alarm. I think that's when they really ran out on the streets. We also had a ham radio voice that would come in, identifying himself and trying to talk to other people while this awful thing was happening. We established him, and then we went to a CBS announcer who was describing the arrival of the Martians. And then the announcer began to cough; he couldn't go on and stopped, and then this dead silence. The real trick we did was to hold dead silence on a full network, with no sound at all, and then you'd hear the microphone drop, and then more silence, and then this one little voice, the amateur radio operator, saying, "This is so-and-so. Isn’t there anybody out there—" And that is, I guess, when they put the towels on their heads and ran out of the house. I don't know why they put towels on their heads, but they did. I don't know what they thought that was going to do. A sort of anti-Martian thing. Then there were all these traffic cops. It was Sunday night and all these guys out in Jersey on their motorcycles waiting, and the people in the cars, driving, had the radio, but the cops didn't. Suddenly everybody started driving at 125 miles an hour. "Pull over!" "No, I'm going to the hills!"

DAVID FROST: And if you wanted to terrify people today, how would you do it?

ORSON WELLES: I don't. I didn't want to then.

DAVID FROST: No, of course. But if somebody wanted to terrify people today, how should they do it?

ORSON WELLES: Well, I would say unlimited air-time to Spiro Agnew.

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Here is Wellesnet member Ray Kelly's article recalling The War of the Worlds radio broadcast, from the Springfield, Mass. Republican. There are additional pictures and sound clips at this link:

http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/10/70_years_ago_war_of_the_worlds.html

To introduce Ray's piece, here is Welles's famous closing speech from the broadcast:

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ORSON WELLES: This is Orson Welles, ladies and gentlemen, out of character to assure you that "The War of The Worlds" has no further significance than as the holiday offering it was intended to be. The Mercury Theatre's own radio version of dressing up in a sheet and jumping out of a bush and saying Boo! Starting now, we couldn't soap all your windows and steal all your garden gates by tomorrow night ...so we did the best next thing. We annihiliated the world before your very ears, and utterly destroyed the Columbia Broadcasting System. You will be relieved, I hope, to learn that we didn't mean it, and that both institutions are still open for business. So goodbye everybody, and remember the terrible lesson you learned tonight. That grinning, glowing, globular invader of your living room is an inhabitant of the pumpkin patch, and if your doorbell rings and nobody's there, that was no Martian ...it's Halloween!

ANNOUNCER: Tonight the Columbia Broadcasting System and its affiliated stations coast-to-coast have brought you "The War of the Worlds," by H.G. Wells, the seventeenth in its weekly series of dramatic broadcasts featuring Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre on the Air. Next week we present a dramatization of three famous short stories. This is the Columbia Broadcasting System.

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WAR OF THE WORLDS EFFECT LINGERS

By RAY KELLY

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On Halloween eve 1938, the monsters arrived early.

An Agawam woman collapsed after hearing a radio report that marauding Martians had landed in Grover's Mill, N.J., and were advancing on New York City.

Switchboards at newspapers and police stations buzzed from Springfield to San Francisco with calls from panicked listeners who feared incineration from the Martian death rays.

One Massachusetts man scraped together $3.25 for a railway ticket - only to learn 60 miles later that he and thousands of others had been duped by a CBS radio dramatization of H. G. Wells's science fiction novel, "War of the Worlds."

(more...)

October 30th, 2008 marks the 70th Anniversary of Orson Welles famed CBS radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds, and to celebrate, Wellesnet will be reprinting or providing links to some of the best of the anniversary articles that will be appearing around the nation and world this week.

However, to begin our coverage, let's start with the opening scene from Howard Koch's radio play, along with the cast and credits for the show, followed by Orson Welles own memories on the hysteria the show caused, taken from his his 1955 British TV show, Orson Welles Sketchbook.

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Orson Welles and The Mercury Theater On The Air
present

H. G. WELLS THE WAR OF THE WORLDS

Sunday October 30, 1938 - 8:00 to 9:00 p.m.

CBS Radio Network. Produced & directed by Orson Welles. Adapted for radio by Howard Koch, Paul Stewart and John Houseman. Associate producer: Paul Stewart. CBS production supervisor: Davidson Taylor. Music by Bernard Herrmann. Sound effects: Ora Nichols, Ray Kremer and Jim Rogan. Sound engineer: John Dietz. Announcer: Dan Seymour.

The Cast

Professor Richard Pierson - ORSON WELLES
Studio announcer - PAUL STEWART
Reporter Carl Phillips - FRANK READICK
Second studio announcer - CARL FRANK
Farmer Wilmuth - RAY COLLINS
Policeman at farm - KENNY DELMAR
Meridian room announcer - WILLIAM ALLAND
Harry McDonald, radio VP - RAY COLLINS
Brig. General Montgomery - RICHARD WILSON
Captain Lansing - KENNY DELMAR
Third Studio Announcer - PAUL STEWART
Secretary of the Interior - KENNY DELMAR
Rooftop radio announcer - RAY COLLINS
Officer 22nd Field Artillery - RICHARD WILSON
Field artillery gunner - WILLIAM ALLAND
Field artillery observer - STEFAN SCHNABEL
Bomber Lt. Voght - HOWARD SMITH
Bayonne radio operator - KENNY DELMAR
Langham Field - RICHARD WILSON
Newark radio operator - WILLIAM HERZ
Radio operator 2X2L - FRANK READICK
Radio operator 8X3R - WILLIAM HERZ
Fascist stranger - CARL FRANK

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ANNOUNCER: The Columbia Broadcasting System and it's affiliated stations present Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre on the Air in a radio play by Howard Koch suggested by the H.G. Wells Novel "The War of the Worlds."

ANNOUNCER: Ladies and gentlemen: the director of the Mercury Theater and star of these broadcasts, Orson Welles...

ORSON WELLES: We know now that in the early years of the twentieth century this world was being watched closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own. We know now that as human beings busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinized and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinize the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacence people went to and fro over the earth about their little affairs, serene in the assurance of their dominion over this small spinning fragment of solar driftwood which by chance or design man has inherited out of the dark mystery of Time and Space. Yet across an immense ethereal gulf, minds that are to our minds as ours are to the beasts in the jungle, intellects vast, cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes and slowly and surely drew their plans against us. In the thirty-ninth year of the twentieth century came the great disillusionment.

It was near the end of October. Business was better. The war scare was over. More men were back at work. Sales were picking up. On this particular evening, October 30, the Crossley service estimated that thirty-two million people were listening in on radios.

ANNOUNCER: …for the next twenty-four hours not much change in temperature. A slight atmospheric disturbance of undetermined origin is reported over Nova Scotia, causing a low pressure area to move down rather rapidly over the northeastern states, bringing a forecast of rain, accompanied by winds of light gale force. Maximum temperature 66; minimum 48. This weather report comes to you from the Government Weather Bureau… We now take you to the Meridian Room in the Hotel Park Plaza in downtown New York, where you will be entertained by the music of Ramon Raquello and his orchestra.

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(more...)

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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An Interview with

RICK SCHMIDLIN

The re-edit producer of ORSON WELLES' masterpiece TOUCH OF EVIL

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The following interview with Rick Schmidlin took place shortly after the re-edited version of the film debuted in 1998. Since that time I've not spoken with Rick, although I was quite happy that he posted many comments about his work on the Touch of Evil re-edit right here at the Wellesnet message board.

Now, I'm pleased to report that Rick has returned to the Wellesnet messageboard, and I'm sure he'll be willing to answer any questions about the new Touch of Evil DVD that readers may have for him. I'll also be speaking to him about the new Touch of Evil DVD shortly, so there will be an update to add to this interview in the near future.

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There are scenes in TOUCH OF EVIL I neither wrote nor directed, about which I know absolutely nothing. I’ve been working since I was 17, I’ve directed 8 films, and I’ve been able to edit only three of them myself: CITIZEN KANE, OTHELLO and DON QUIXOTE—in 17 years! They always tear the film out of my hands—violently. For my style, for my vision of the cinema, editing is not simply one aspect: it’s the aspect. The only time one is able to exercise control over the film is in the editing.

—Orson Welles, in a 1958 interview with Cahiers du Cinema

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LAWRENCE FRENCH: How did the re-editing and restoration of TOUCH OF EVIL come about?

RICK SCHMIDLIN: What happened was about four years ago I was trying to get a laserdisc done on TOUCH OF EVIL. I thought it would be a good idea, to do a laserdisc, the way other discs have been done on different Welles films. There could be commentary to document the different versions of the film. I then talked to a friend, Allen Daviau, (the cinematographer of E.T.) and asked him if he knew anything about TOUCH OF EVIL. He told me that there had been a recent article in Film Quarterly, that excerpted a memo from Orson Welles to Universal about the editing of the film, and I should talk to Jonathan Rosenbaum. So I talked to Jonathan, and looked at the short version of the memo, and found out there was a complete 58-page memo written by Welles, that still existed—indicating the editorial changes he wanted to make before the release of the film. So I met with my friend Louis Feola, the President of Universal Home video, and they decided it was a great idea, and then they decided to re–issue TOUCH OF EVIL theatrically.

LAWRENCE FRENCH: How did you find Welles 58-page memo?

RICK SCHMIDLIN: What happened was once we got the go-ahead, the project was put in the hands of Jim Waters and Bob O’Neil at Universal, and they put in a request to Lew Wasserman (the former chairman of Universal Studios) to see if they could find the memo. Within 48 hours Lew Wasserman had produced an copy of the original memo for us. Jonathan Rosenbaum and I are doing a book on TOUCH OF EVIL, for the UC Press, which will include the 58-page memo, as well as Orson Welles’ original screenplay. The book will have all the documents we worked with, because I want people to understand what we did (Due to rights issues the screenplay was unable to be included in the book and it never appeared.)

(more...)

Vargas: You framed that boy, Captain. Framed him!

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Firstly, Universal Home Entertainment must be greatly commended for finally releasing all three versions of Orson Welles's Touch of Evil on DVD. This is, in itself, a rather historic milestone and one which Criterion helped paved the way for, with it's own groundbreaking three-disc set for Mr. Arkadin. Perhaps now, Warner Home Video will step up to the plate and deliver worthy deluxe editions of Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons.

Ironically, this new 50th Anniversary edition of Touch of Evil was made possible by Beatrice Welles, whose earlier objections stopped much of the material on this new DVD from appearing on the first release in 2000.  Even if the extras had appeared on the earlier version, that DVD would not have contained the two earlier versions of the film, which is undoubtedly the most exciting aspect of this new release.

Looking back at Universal's original press release for the 2000 DVD of Touch of Evil, here is what it was supposed to contain:

* Reconstructing Evil: The Making of Touch of Evil - The 57 minute behind the scenes documentary, featuring interviews with stars Charlton Heston and Janet Leigh, and noted filmmkakes George Lucas, Robert Wise, Curtis Hanson and Peter Bogdanovich. Featuring in-depth explanation of the re-edits by the restored version's producer Rick Schmidlin and editor Walter Murch.

* The 58 page memo Orson Welles wrote to Universal Pictures, requesting changes to the 1958 theatrical release.

* An interview with Beatrice Welles (Orson Welles daughter).

* Never before seen outtakes.

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(more...)

Orson is primarily an artist — a great one.

—Albert Zugsmith

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One of the great unsung heroes behind the making of Touch of Evil has to be Universal staff producer Albert Zugsmith. As can be seen in Zugsmith's comments below, he and Welles had a wonderful working relationship on the two pictures they made together and it was most probably due to Zugsmith that Welles got to shoot Touch of Evil with so little studio interference.

Unfortunately, Zugsmith had left Universal and moved over to MGM by the time Welles began editing Touch of Evil, so Zugsmith was no longer around to protect Welles from the meddling of studio executives. In fact, given Welles own comments about how much he looked forward to continue making films at Universal, one wonders if he may have been thinking about his talks with Zugsmith, who probably represented Universal to him. For his own part, Zugsmith was eager to continue making films with Welles.

The following interview with Zugsmith is taken from Todd McCarthy and Charles Flynn's wonderful 1975 book King of the Bs.

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ALBERT ZUGSMITH: The story on Orson is: I became sort of a troubleshooter and a script doctor at Universal. They’d throw me all the properties they were having difficulties with. There were also certain people I could handle, and work with. Jeff Chandler was becoming a bit difficult and he was their second biggest star at that time. I guess one of the reasons he was difficult was that he was the biggest, and then Rock Hudson came along! So they had me make some pictures with Jeff. They also had me make Westerns, which I'd kind of duck and avoid; they even made Ross Hunter make a Western, which was a terrible flop! It was the last picture Ann Sheridan ever made!

(more...)

Now that we can compare all three versions of Orson Welles’s Touch of Evil on DVD, here are the last twelve pages from Welles's original script, so we can see just how much Welles concept evolved during the actual shooting of the film. This script includes Welles changes up until February 16, 1957, two days before he actually started shooting the film on February 18, 1957.

As can be seen from these script pages, Welles took important dialogue sequences that he had originally crammed into the climax, and wisely transposed them to places earlier in the film. The two most notable being Quinlan’s clash with Vargas over how a policeman should conduct his job ("a policeman's job is only easy in a police state"), and Quinlan’s nostalgic, Bernstein-like remembrance of his young wife’s murder, which he still thinks about every day, as told to his long time friend and partner of 18 years, Pete Menzies.

Welles decision to move both of these scenes clearly helped the overall structure of the movie, by giving us important information on the characters' background earlier in the film, while keeping audiences from becoming too overloaded with information during the picture's climax.

The first transposed scene establishes Quinlan’s antagonistic attitude towards Vargas right off the bat, when they first meet during the investigation of Rudy Linnekar's car exploding. The second scene gives us the reason for Quinlan’s obsession with strapping murderers to the electric chair, explaining how the killer of Quinlan's young wife got away scot-free when Quinlan was just a rookie detective.

Of course, that is a device Welles claimed to have greatly abhorred in Citizen Kane – dollar book Freud he called it – but in reality, it works quite well in both Kane and in Touch of Evil.  After all, how else can you explain a great man's life in such a short period of time?  Likewise, how can we understand the reasons for Quinlan's actions, without a case history...  As a screenwriter, this is a very quick and effective device for explaining Quinlan's "compulsion" to frame his murder suspects.

There is also a wonderful bit when Quinlan asks Menzies if he recalls one of their past cases,  where Mr. Burger killed Mrs. Burger with an axe in the basement, chopping her into bloody bits.  While it didn’t make it into the film, it certainly gives the movie one more “touch” of Hitchcock, right before Janet Leigh made Psycho in a very similar California motel only a year later.

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The script excerpt below begins as Menzies approaches Tanya's to get the drunken Quinlan out of her establishment, so he can tape Quinlan's confession without the pianola music ruining the recording. But in this version of the script Tanya has not yet been fully developed; instead she is called "Mother Lupe" and it is easy to imagine Welles using Katina Paxtinou for the part of "Mother Lupe," if Dietrich should have turned him down. It is also significant that Welles includes almost no indication of any of the visual stylistics or camera shots he was to actually use in the climax of his movie. Clearly, the elaborate camera work he would eventually employ was to be based almost entirely on the locations that he had found in Venice, CA, so there was no need to include camera instructions that would be dictated by the locations - other then a vague suggestion of what Welles might want to accomplish in the scene.

Welles told Andre Bazin some of the reasons why he shot the scene as he did, in these interview comments from Cahiers du Cinema in 1958:

ORSON WELLES: Vargas has to go through this labyrinth, among the derricks, because he is the intruder; it's a scene where there is no place for him. Two old friends are talking; if they saw Heston, nothing would happen. I therefore thought he ought to look as though he was having a hard time of it, laboring, as one labors to dig up gold, climbing, like one climbs a mountain. This kind of job doesn't suit him and he detests it, as he says to Menzies: at this moment Vargas loses his integrity. He is therefore thrown into a world in which he does not morally belong; he becomes the low kind of person who listens at doors and he isn't able to do it. I've therefore tried to make it as though the machine were leading him, so that he is the victim of that, rather than of his own curiosity. He isn't very familiar with how to use the recording machine, and he just follows it and obeys it, because this thing doesn't belong to him; he's not a spy, he isn't even a cop.

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(more...)

To introduce Mercedes McCambridge's comments about her one day of work with Orson Welles on Touch of Evil, I think it's interesting to note that although she had won an Academy Award, she was not deemed worthy enough by Universal to be listed alongside Marlene Dietrich and and Zsa Zsa Gabor as one of the guest stars in the picture.

It's also clear that both Dietrich and McCambridge agreed to appear in the film without any studio deal in place, or even any kind of payment. They just showed up for a day, or a night of filming, after Welles asked them to appear in the film as a favor to him. The studio had no knowledge of their participation, nor, we can assume, did the actresses agents, since if they did, they would have probably scotched their appearance without a firm contract in place.

Of course, this was back in 1957, when actors weren't under such strict control by their agents and managers. By 1982, no major actor would agree to appear in The Big Brass Ring, written and to be directed by Welles, even if they wanted to work with him, since their agents would certainly have "advised" them to turn down the "paltry" $2 million fee. After all this was a time when Jack Nicholson was being offered $4 million or more to make more "commercial" films.

Unfortunately, the 10% difference between what Welles could offer a leading actor in 1982 and what those top actor's agents could get, would amount to a difference of at least $200,000. So it's not very surprising to see why The Big Brass Ring never got made.

Which is why it is so refreshing to read Mercedes McCambridge's comments, below.  She wasn't interested in what kind of money she would get in her "deal" since there wasn't one. Nor were Dietrich, Janet Leigh, or Charlton Heston. They all simply wanted to work with Welles as their director. Today such a concept seems almost beyond belief! Of course, Welles himself agreed to work as director on Touch of Evil essentially for free, since he was already being paid as an actor. Sadly, by 1982, deal making in Hollywood had changed to such a degree, a Orson Welles project on the level of Touch of Evil, like The Big Brass Ring, was simply no longer a viable proposition.

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MERCEDES McCAMBRIDGE on making TOUCH OF EVIL

One day in Hollywood, when I was minding whatever was my own business, of the moment, the phone rang, and it was Orson Welles. He was filming Touch of Evil in the late fifties, and he wanted to know if I could come out to the set in time for lunch. Sure I could. Did I have a pair of black slacks and a black sweater? Sure I had. Did I have a black leather jacket? I said I wouldn't be caught dead in a black leather jacket. He said never mind, come anyhow. I went.

(more...)

As Marlene Dietrich reports in her autobiography, MARLENE, the Academy Awards have had a long history of embarrassing mistakes.

A prime example of this occurred in 1933, when a movie called CALVACADE won best picture. Does any movie goer alive actually remember this forgotten film? That same year a little picture called KING KONG received NO nominations whatsoever! Has any movie goer alive NOT forgotten KING KONG?

Of course, it's quite understandable why most of the greatest icons of the cinema, like Alfred Hitchcock, Marlene Dietrich, Cary Grant, Greta Garbo, Marilyn Monroe and Orson Welles never actually won competitive Oscars when they were in their prime: Envy. The Academy Awards were (and still are) examples of politics and popularity within the rather insular world of Hollywood. They are a collective vote, so to suggest they have any individual measure of real lasting artistic worth or merit is absurd. Which is why I'm always astonished when someone is surprised by who hasn't been included in the nominations. Let's face it, based on their respective Academy Award nominations, Orson Welles career would have been over in 1942, and Marlene Dietrich's in 1931!

So here is Ms. Dietrich's own take on the Academy Awards, followed by her memories of working with her great friend Orson Welles in 1957, on TOUCH OF EVIL:

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What must one do to receive an Oscar?

MARLENE DIETRICH: Play biblical characters, priests, and victims of sad and tragic disabilities, such as blindness, deafness, muteness or different varieties thereof, or alcoholism, insanity, schizophrenia, and other mental disorders, which have already been seen in successful films. The more tragic the disability, the greater the chance of grabbing an Oscar.

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