Wellesnet: The Orson Welles Web Resource

You can read an interview with David Thomson by John Carvill  Here.  It' s an interesting but at the same time quite an idiotic interview. Why? Not because of the questions asked, which is usually the case, but because of the answers given, by Mr. Thomson.

I think the interview makes a very nice piece to discredit David Thomson as any kind of authority on Orson Welles, or for any one else in the cinema, for that matter.

Mr. Thomson’s answers to Mr. Carvill's questions on Orson Welles, which come at the very end of the long interview, seem to me to be very condescending.  That Mr. Thomson prefers  the 93-minute original cut of TOUCH OF EVIL,  which Welles himself detested, is obviously very revealing. It shows us where to place Mr. Thomson on the level of Orson Welles scholars.  Namely, way below Pauline Kael.  Obviously anyone who loves Welles work and the cinema would wish these people had never existed!

As Webmaster of Wellesnet, I don’t know anyone who would give David Thomson’s book ROSEBUD, anything less than an “F” except my good friend,  "Glenn Anders."  I'm sure Glenn and I will be talking about our differences when next we meet, and obviously if Mr. Thomson views Wellesnet, he is invited to reply, but as far as I know, he is the only writer associated with Orson Welles and his work who does not visit this site.  Unlike  most other Welles scholars and friends, such as Joe McBride, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Simon Callow, Christopher Welles Feder and Beatrice Welles, to name only a few.  But of course, Mr. Thomson feels he knows more about Welles than all of these people, as a reading of his discredited book, ROSEBUD will show.

Actually, I find it ironic that Mr. Thomson could bring Welles two daughters, who agree about little else, together in agreeing that Thomson's ROSEBUD is a complete abortion. But beyond the fax pas Mr. Thomson committed with ROSEBUD, I must also note the superior, John Simon-like attitude Mr. Thomson projects throughout his interview with John Carvill.  The tone is that Mr. Thomson is right, and everybody else is wrong. For example, Mr. Thomson’s view of Martin Scorcese and Leonard Di Caprio’s work. Obviously, it’s fine to say their films are bad, or you don’t like them, but to suggest they have both not been recognized widely elsewhere, because you don't like them, is simply idiotic in the extreme.

I don't know how old John Carvill is, but when I first met Mr. Thomson in San Francisco, in 1981, shortly after seeing THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS for the first time, I would have told Thomson to (excuse my French) go fuck himself if he had said what he did to Mr. Carvill.  So would two directors who were friends of mine, that Thomson professes to admire, Nicholas Ray and George Cukor.

Mr. Thomson's  suggestion that Mr. Carvill is too young to "appreciate "THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS is, in my humble opinion, simply beyond the pale.  Orson Welles is obviously a far greater artist than Mr. Thomson, which I assume even Mr. Thomson would agree with (well, maybe not).  And how old was Orson Welles when he made  THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS?  26... So how does Mr. Thomson explain that?  "You are too young, Mr. Carvill."  My God, that has got to be the stupidest answer I have ever heard!  How old were Picasso and Van Gogh when they painted their earliest masterpieces on canvas?

Just imagine if in 1937,  GUERNICA had been "re-touched" by another artist who felt it needed a bit of color to dramatize the black and white and "CinemaScope" canvas Picasso had painted.  Picasso, as a true artist  would have burned the painting rather than seen it displayed in any version other than what he had intended.

Welles, as a film artist,  was in the same position five years later, except in 1942, he couldn't burn the negative of his original film.  It took the idiots at RKO to do that for him.  Ironically, they wanted to burn the negative of CITIZEN KANE,  but to destroy the artistry of THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS, they dumped it into the Pacific Ocean.

The bottom line is this:  David Thomson is no fan of Orson Welles or his legacy.

To anyone interested in Orson Welles or his works, please avoid Mr. Thomson and his trashy books like the PLAGUE!

Here is what Jonathan Rosenbaum had to say about Mr. Thomson's book  A Biographical Dictionary of Film:

"Rather than focus on its omissions and denials, which I've already done elsewhere, I'd like to raise my eyebrows at the notion that the book, whatever its merits as criticism, is any kind of reference book at all. Apart from skeletal and often incomplete filmographies, its facts are few and far between."

Read more by Jonathan Rosenbaum on David Thomson HERE.

Rich Little recently sent Wellesnet a scan of a charcoal portrait he drew of Orson Welles that can be purchased at his website Here. Rich Little worked with Welles on the still unfinished The Other Side of the Wind, before he left the production and was replaced by Peter Bogdanovich.  Here are some of Rich Little's memories of working with Orson Welles:

*****

In the early seventies, I first worked with Orson Welles on the ABC-TV show called The Kopycats, filmed in England. He was one of the guests and we really hit it off. We spent a lot of time talking and getting to know each other. Orson was a really fascinating guy, and he’d already started shooting on The Other Side Of The Wind in Spain (then titled, The Sacred Beasts). This was three years before I came aboard. Orson didn’t have any studio backing, so he was paying for The Other Side of the Wind out of his own pocket. When he ran out of money, he'd go and put on a fake nose and play in some Italian epic to make the money to come back and try to finish his movie. When I met him, Orson had already abandoned the project and had decided to pick it up again.  He had to recast some of the parts, and he asked me if  I wanted to be in the movie. I said, “Of course!” So I went to Phoenix, where they were shooting the picture and worked for about five weeks.

Orson had rented a big estate in Cave Creek, outside of Phoenix and had told the landlord he was going to write his memoirs there. Then he brought in a film crew in and tore down walls and ripped up the swimming pool. When the owner came back from Europe, he got quite a shock. I played Brooks Otterlake, a young film director and John Huston played Jake Hannaford, an older film director. There were so many great actors in the picture—Edmond O’Brien, Mercedes McCambridge, Susan Strasberg, and many more. It was a movie about Jake Hannaford, a movie director. People were following him around, shooting his life, and that was what we were going to see on the screen.

I don’t know how Orson could keep everything in his head like that, because there were incredibly complicated sequences. But he was a genius. He knew everything that he wanted to do. He was obsessed with the project while he was doing it. And my God, he worked hard! I don’t think he ever slept. I mean, how could he? Orson probably couldn’t lie down without suffocating. More likely, he’d prop himself up with two pillows and then rewrite the next days scenes!

Unfortunately, I never finished my part, and Orson never finished the movie. I had other commitments so I had to leave. Orson was so upset. I remember he was shooting me going to the airport from in back of the car. I said: “Orson, what are you shooting?” He said: “I’ll find a way to put this in the picture!” The shooting was very open-ended, and after I left Peter Bogdanovich took over my part.

I never worked with Orson on a movie again, but did a couple of Dean Martin celebrity roasts with him. A couple of years after I left The Other Side of the Wind I got a lovely letter from Orson. Whenever I was on a talk show, I’d tell some of the funny things that happened with Orson on the set. So Orson wrote me a long letter explaining why some of the things that happened were so bizarre. He wrote, “everyone enjoys a good joke, but don’t make me look like a buffoon.” I still have that incredible letter Orson wrote to me.

When we were shooting, it was hard to figure out what The Other Side of the Wind was about, and sometimes I don’t think even Orson knew. He was rewriting scenes all the time, even on the set. He’d stay up all night and rewrite scenes, giving us the new pages in the morning. We had to learn all our new lines on the spot, while the crew was waiting. I’d see the new lines and say: “What the hell is this?” Orson would say: “Just do it!” He did offer to let us read the new dialogue from cue cards, but I said, “No, that will look bad. I’ll learn it.”

As an actor, Orson was extremely easy to work with. He had a wonderful sense of humor and took suggestions from anybody. He was not difficult at all. It was just that he was so heavy, that sometimes he couldn’t get out of a chair without assistance. Whenever he wanted to get up to show us how to do something, we’d yell: “No, don’t get up!” We were afraid he’d have a heart attack! Orson couldn’t even bend over to tie his shoelaces.

Later on, Orson was coming up to Las Vegas to talk to me about another project. He phoned me from Los Angeles and I said, “Orson, aren’t you here? I thought we were going to get together.” He said, “I couldn’t fit into the God damned airplane seat! Western Airlines does not accommodate me. I don’t think they could have got the damn plane off the runway if I was on board!” And I said, “Well, you’ll have to drive up.” So he did.

I truly miss this great man.

I will always remember Orson as a tremendous talent and terrific friend.

Warm Regards,

Rich Little

www.RichLittle.com

*****

Here is an excerpt of  Rich Little's scene as BROOKS OTTERLAKE from the script for The Other Side of the Wind.

As a reading of the script excerpt shows, Welles clearly wrote the script with Rich Little in mind, as  Brooks Otterlake is a vocal mimic, who is able to imitate many famous people, rapidly changing his voice from such political leaders as President Richard Nixon and California Gov. Ronald Reagan, along with many other celebrities, including General Patton.

This excerpt takes place outside of JAKE HANNAFORD'S ranch house on the night of his birthday party, after a fireworks display has been set off and all hell has broken loose.

The major characters in the scene are BROOKS OTTERLAKE, film journalists MR. PISTER (Joseph McBride) and JULIETTE RICHE (based on Pauline Kael), along with AL, one of director JAKE HANNAFORD’s many personal assistants.  The scene calls for Rich Little to rapidly go from several different celebrity voices and  provides delightful Wellsian comment on many of the (then) current film trends, with references to Marlon Brando, Bertolucci, Antonioni, The New Wave, Neo-Realism, Otto Preminger, John Wayne and Jane Fonda!

There was a report on Wellesnet in August of last year,  in connection with the Dax Foundation screening of  Falstaff, that Beatrice Welles had lost the rights to Othello. I recently spoke with a representative of The Estate of Orson Welles who called to tell me that this information was in error and that Beatrice Welles does indeed still own the rights to Othello and will apparently be re-issuing the film on DVD and Blu-Ray sometime in the future.

Here is the statement regarding the rights to Othello the Welles Estate has asked me to post:

"Speculation that Beatrice Welles “apparently” sold Othello is incorrect. Othello is owned by the Estate of Orson Welles.  It is not for sale, and never has been.  The Estate retains all rights throughout the world, and intends to commercially re-release Othello in the foreseeable future."

*****

Hopefully, a new DVD release of  Othello might include all three variant versions of the film, such as has been done with great success for the critically hailed release of both Criterion's Mr. Arkadin and Universal's Touch of Evil.  Since I have a vast wealth of original promotional material on Othello, I am hoping to work with the Welles Estate in providing some interesting extras for the planned re-release of  Othello on DVD and Blu-Ray.

Even after RKO drastically cut THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS, I would have to say that based on the impressive ads I've recently come across, AMBERSONS actually must have had quite a bit of effort placed behind its initial release. This two-page trade ad certainly attests that RKO had quite a marketing campaign lined up for the film.

There's also the fact that even in it's truncated version, THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS received many excellent reviews and eventually was nominated for four Academy Awards:

Best Picture - Orson Welles
Best Supporting Actress - Agnes Moorehead
Best Cinematography - Stanley Cortez
Best Art Decoration -  Mark Lee Kirk

The nominations for AMBERSONS were certainly no easy task for a film that was released in July of the awards year, especially if the film had been "dumped" by RKO.

However, it is widely perceived that AMBERSONS was orphaned by it's studio, partially because Welles was fired at the time of the pictures release by Charles Koerner and because the studios new motto, "Showmanship in place of genius" was a clearly meant as a slap in Welles face.

However, at least initially, RKO gave AMBERSONS an impressive campaign, with full page ads appearing in many national publications, such as LIFE, LOOK and  GOOD  HOUSEKEEPING. According to Joseph McBride, AMBERSONS box-office returns for major cities also boded very well for the films prospects when it opened in July, 1942.  "It was holding up beyond expectations in LA, doing sensationally in San Francisco, nice in New York and Baltimore, good in Denver and Omaha, and not bad in Boston and Philly." (taken from reports in VARIETY).

Yet most accounts on the release of AMBERSONS follow the the short and sweet version similar to the one David Kamp describes in his VANITY FAIR article:

"...The  Koerner regime, lacking any confidence in The Magnificent Ambersons, opened it without fanfare in two theaters in Los Angeles, on a double bill with the Lupe Velez comedy Mexican Spitfire Sees a Ghost."

That AMBERSONS opened on a double-bill with MEXICAN SPITFIRE SEES A GHOST was actually standard practice in 1942, so it in no way indicates that RKO was dumping the picture, which seems to be the implication.  AMBERSONS was the A-picture and SPITFIRE was the B-picture. Just as CASABLANCA played with a B-picture when it opened (and initially didn't do that well, either.)  SPITFIRE isn't even mentioned in the full pages ads RKO took out promoting AMBERSONS release at the Pantages and RKO Hillstreet theatres in Los Angeles.

However, RKO may have pulled the plug just a bit too quickly when AMBERSONS didn't perform as well as they would have liked, although it still apparently grossed over $500,000, which means it did fairly well for 1942 (during the start of WWII)  and it could hardly make even that much money if it had been dumped on the market.  The movie was always going to be a difficult sell and had it been made for it's original budget of $850,000 it might even have had a chance of breaking even!

It's also important to realize that at the time, no RKO film costing over $1,000,000 (such as THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME) had made a profit for the studio.  In short, THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS  actually had quite an  honorable release, especially compared to later Welles's films such as OTHELLO, CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT and MR. ARKADIN.  Those independent Welles's productions really were movies that got "dumped" on the market.

GEORGE ORSON WELLES

May 6, 1915 — October 10, 1985

25 years ago the great artist and poet of the cinema, George Orson Welles met the end of his adventure on Earth.

But not really--if you listen to what Ray Bradbury told the American Society of Cinematographers in 1967.  Strangely enough Mr. Bradbury made these comments in Hollywood, while Orson Welles was making his adaptation of Isak Dinesen's The Immortal Story in Madrid, Spain. 

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

ORSON WELLES: Let us—Let us raise our cups then standing, as some of us do, on opposite ends of the river and drink together to what really matters to us all—to our crazy and beloved profession.

To the movies—to good movies—to every possible kind.

–AFI tribute to Orson Welles, February, 1975

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

RAY BRADBURY: I had a wonderful experience three or four weeks ago that I want to tell you about. I went to the Los Feliz Theatre to see a revival of George Cukor’s Dinner at Eight. My wife and I just wandered into the theatre by accident because we couldn’t get into various other shows around town. I said, “I haven’t seen this film since I was 12 years old. Let’s go in and see it again.” We went in and sat there with a bunch of teenage kids and guys and girls in their twenties, who didn’t know Marie Dressier from the side of a barn, who hadn’t seen Lionel Barrymore or John Barrymore, or Billie Burke in their heydays.

I was in tears by the end of the evening, because, when Billie Burke finished the great scene where she’s mad at the whole world—upset because the food hasn’t been prepared right for the dinner that night, when she finishes her big tirade which ran two minutes in the middle of the film—this audience of teenagers—to a person—broke into applause for this tour-de-force. My hair stood up on the back of my head, and I thought “A thousand years from tonight, the work you people did and that she did and all the people in this industry do will be immortal.” You are all immortal. You have beat death at the game because that scene is going to be repeated a thousand years from tonight and ten thousand years from tonight—and there’ ll be other teenagers who don’t know any of you from Adam, but they’re going to break into applause because of something excellent you did once in your life, maybe—or twice, or three times when you had the breaks, and you had a good director, and you had the decent script, and you had these actors working for you and that magical thing happened.

So I sat there and I broke into tears. I thought: “everyone in that film has been dead for 20 or 30 years. Marie Dressier died in 1934—but she is still alive!”

This is the science-fictional business you are all tied into. You’re really tacked onto the future—like it or not—so you’re going to be changing people 100 years from tonight and 500 years from tonight and a thousand years from tomorrow noon. That’s the kind of business you’re in and I’d like to remind you of that, because you’ve been downgraded so often. I’ve been downgraded because of my love for what you do—but I won’t have it because it does work even once in a while—and we all know the moments when it works. So my evening at the Los Feliz was great—we came out and all those people were living that we had seen!

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