As Amir Labaki, founder of Brazil’s esteemed It’s All True International Documentary Film Festival, recently noted there was a wealth of Orson Welles-related news to celebrate in 2023.
Sadly, there have also been losses to mourn during the past 12 months. Keith Baxter, who starred on stage and screen as Prince Hal opposite Welles’ Falstaff in Chimes at Midnight, passed away at age 90. He was a close friend of the Welles family and was a contender to star in Sacred Beasts, which later evolved into The Other Side of the Wind. Respected scholar Robert Carringer (The Making of Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons: A Reconstruction) also left us far too soon. Closer to home, Leslie Weisman died this fall. She was a frequent contributor and tipster to Wellesnet, as well as a researcher for Richard France (The Theater of Orson Welles, Orson Welles of Shakespeare). All three are much missed.
On a cheerier note, here are some Wellesian headlines from 2023:
• The Trial, beautifully restored by Studiocanal, played in theaters throughout the U.S. courtesy of Rialto Pictures. It was subsequently released on Blu-ray and 4K UHD by the Criterion Collection in typically fine fashion.
• The Third Man had a 35mm screening at Film Forum in New York City in recent days. Further showings are planned in the months ahead nationwide as the movie marks its 75th anniversary. Like The Trial, fans can thank Studiocanal and Rialto for bringing this back to the big screen.
• The missing Wedlles-penned Masquerade screenplay was found in Europe. Italian actor Emiliano Campagnola found the script based on Luigi Pirandello play. The find and an analysis was first reported by Albert Anile in his revised edition of Orson Welles in Italia.
• Lady from Shanghai stock footage surfaced online. More than 90 minutes of stock footage and rushes from the 1947 Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth can now be found on YouTube and the Internet Archive.
• Danny Wu’s documentary American: An Odyssey to 1947, which premiered in late 2022, made the festival rounds and debuted on DVD and streaming services in recent months.
• Following the death of actress Gina Lollobrigida on January 16, the 1958 Welles short Portrait of Gina was screened at the Venice International Film Festival in Italy and Doclisboa’23 in Portugal..
• Published in 2023, Warren Buckland’s Who Wrote Citizen Kane? – Statistical Analysis of Disputed Co-Authorship used statistical methods to scrutinize the language of the script to determine the individual contributions made by Welles and Herman Mankiewicz.
• Paramount Pictures began a 4K scan of all of the footage Welles and Norman Foster shot in Brazil and Mexico for the ill-fated It’s All True project in 1942. First reported on Twitter by Catherine Benamou, the scans include previously unseen footage of the Ouro Preto Easter festivities. Those scenes will be included in the upcoming documentary Orson Welles in the Land of Silence.
• The Orson Welles: Warrior of the Worlds comic book from Milton Lawson and artist Erik Whalen was published. In the imaginative tale, the War of the Worlds radio broadcast was not a prank and it led the maverick filmmaker to battle invading aliens when he was not busy making movies.
• RKO’s heavy handed recutting of The Magnificent Ambersons inspired animator and editor Brian Rose to reconstruct Welles’ lost, longer cut using animation and voice actors. He recently completed work on his nearly five-year endeavor. Meanwhile, documentarian Joshua Grossberg and his team resumed their search for a lost copy of Welles’ rough cut in Brazil. The team made an initial six-week trek to South America in late 2021 and returned there last spring.
• The Free Library of Philadelphia hosted a seven-part lecture series, Orson Welles & The Golden Age of Hollywood, between April and October. As one of the guest speakers, I was grateful to not only discuss Welles’ downfall in Hollywood but preview some of Brian Rose’s work on The Magnificent Ambersons.
Farewell 2023, we can only hope that the next 12 months brings us more cinematic finds, fabulous books and renewed public interest in the work of Orson Welles.
Best wishes for a happy and healthy New Year to all.
(Postscript: Wellesnet welcomed 329,068 visitors in 2023. The website recorded 585,117 visits, resulting in 3,368,754 page views and 8,855,532 hits. Visitors were reported from six continents, though the vast majority are from North America and Europe.)
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