Wellesnet: The Orson Welles Web Resource

Richard France, who Wellesnet readers will know as the author of two excellent books on Welles, The Theater of Orson Welles and Orson Welles on Shakespeare (that contains the text for Welles's playscripts of Macbeth, Julius Caesar and Five Kings), has sent along this letter he recently wrote in response to the Time Magazine cover story about Glenn Beck.

Here is the relevant paragraph from the Time Magazine article:

Mad Man: Is Glenn Beck Bad for America?

By David Von Drehle

…Beck describes his performances as "the fusion of entertainment and enlightenment" — and the entertainment comes first. "Like Limbaugh, Glenn Beck is a former Top 40 DJ," radio historian Marc Fisher explains, "first and foremost an entertainer, who happens to have stumbled into a position of political prominence." Unlike Limbaugh, however, Beck is a "radio nostalgic," in love with the storytelling power of a man with a microphone. He started in radio at age 13, inspired by a recording of golden-age broadcasts given to him by his mother — who later committed suicide, leaving the young Beck deeply traumatized. "He loves radio," says his longtime producer and on-air sidekick Stu Burguiere. "The way the mind becomes its own theater and the listener engages in the medium with you, drawing their own pictures in their heads." Beck once lovingly re-created the 1938 Orson Welles classic War of the Worlds for XM Satellite Radio, and he named his production company Mercury Radio Arts in homage to Welles' Mercury Theatre on the Air.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now, since it appears that Mr. Beck is a great fan of Orson Welles radio work, I presume he might have visited Wellesnet or The Museum of Orson Welles, which probably has the best audio and video collection of Orson Welles shows on the Internet. If that is the case, Mr. Beck is heartily encouraged to sent us any reply he may care to make to Mr. France's comments, below:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Orson Welles would be turning over in his grave – his ashes are in a well in Ronda, Spain – to learn that a demagogue like Glenn Beck has co-opted the name of his cherished Mercury Theatre on the Air from which to spew his daily dose of rabble-rousing bigotry and venom (“Mad Man: Is Glenn Beck Bad for America?”, Time cover story, Sept. 17). Beck represents EVERYTHING that Welles despised – the same sort of sanctimonious intolerance that forced him, in November 1947, to board the plane that sent him into a nearly decade-long exile in Europe.

(more...)

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.

Màscares (Masks)

Masks directed by Elisabet Cabeza and Welles's scholar Esteve Riambau, will screen at at the San Sebastian Film festival in the "New Directors" section on September 22, 23 and 24. Anyone in Spain who sees it is encouraged to send us a report.

You can see the trailer, in Spanish HERE.

The program notes from the Festival can be seen HERE.

Actors, like magicians, never reveal their tricks. The accomplished Spanish stage actor José María Pou has made an exception in allowing the camera to film him preparing a stage performance in which he takes on the part of the great movie magician, Orson Welles.

The action of Màscares unfolds backstage, in a place hidden from the eyes of the audience where the actor begins to become the part that will invoke his character. Magic, with tricks, but magic nevertheless.

From the directors of La doble vida del faquir (2005).

The basis for Màscares (Masks) is Richard France's play Obediently Yours, Orson Welles, which has been translated into German, Dutch, Portuguese, Catalan and Spanish. It is an original work by the playwright, scholar and narrator Richard France, who established himself as a leading authority on the life and works of Orson Welles, with the publication of “The Theatre of Orson Welles” and “Orson Welles on Shakespeare.”

The extraordinary Spanish actor, José María Pou, takes on the challenge of playing the artistic genius who was Orson Welles. José María Pou has throughout his career, played great men, including King Lear, the architect in The Goat and the like-able professor in The History Boys, all of which have been performed at the Arriaga Theater.

Wellesnet contributor Leslie Weisman gave this report about Welles's scholar Esteve Riambau's "masterfully detailed PowerPoint presentation" of Don Quixote that was shown at the Locarno Film Festival tribute to Orson Welles:

Esteve Riambau provided a scene-by-scene reconstruction of Don Quixote, contextualizing it within the temporal framework of Welles' other projects (Mr. Arkadin, Touch of Evil, Around the World in 80 Days) and world events. Riambau drew telling parallels between "Quixote" and Welles' other films, including a fondness for chimerical ambitions; Sancho Panza as the Spanish equivalent of Sir John Falstaff; film itself as a hall of mirrors; and Welles' love for Spain, and found that Welles had reinterpreted the Don's windmills as the cinema screen.

The novel that became the basis for the Orson Welles movie, The Lady From Shanghai was written by Sherwood King in 1938.

Welles claimed he saw it in a drug store in Boston in 1946, and that he called Harry Cohn before the opening of AROUND THE WORLD and asked Cohn to send him $40,000. and also to buy the book, so he could make it into a movie for Columbia.

While this is a great story, as every Welles Scholar knows, it is also one that it totally FAKE.

The book by Sherwood King had already been brought to Columbia by William Castle years before. But in any case, the novel provided Welles with the one and only chance he had to work with his wife at the time, Rita Hayworth.

See shots of Rita and Orson at the Wellesnet Facebook page HERE.

Here is the first page of the Sherwood King book:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
IF I DIE BEFORE I WAKE

By Sherwood King

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Sure," I said, "I would commit murder. If I had to, of course, or if it was worth my while," I said this as though I meant it too. I didn't mean it. I didn't mean it at all.

"The way I figure it," I said, "a man's got to die some time. All murder does is hurry it up. What more is there to it?" You know—talk. What any young fellow might say, just to show he's not afraid of anything.

There had been a murder out our way. On Long Island. Some society woman had shot her husband. He hadn't been doing anything, just raiding the icebox for a midnight snack. But (she said) she'd thought he was a burglar… five bullets worth. The police were holding her- some insurance angle.

Anyway, that's what started Grisby talking about murder. I'd been driving him down to the railroad station every other day or so, whenever he'd come out to see my boss, Bannister, the lawyer. They were partners, only Bannister didn't get down to the office much. He had a twisted leg—something he'd got in the War. It made him walk funny… you could hardly get him outside, except to appear in court, and then only when he had to. But it didn't matter. He could work just as well at home, provided Grisby kept him in touch and came out often, and he did.

So this time driving down to the station we were talking about murder and Grisby asked me what I thought and I told him. Afterwards I remembered he'd been building up to it from the very first. Nothing definite. Just letting me know one way and another that he thought I was too good to stay chauffeur to a man like Bannister for long. That he thought I was too smart not to have my eye on the main chance.

And there I was, taking it all in, trying to talk and act up to the role he'd given me and all the time not meaning a word of it, not a word.