By RAY KELLY
Voters now know where one of the two U.S. presidential candidates stands on the all-important issue of Orson Welles’ legacy.
While Democrat Hillary Clinton has been silent (so far), the GOP’s Donald Trump has weighed in. He repeated his oft-mentioned affection for Welles and Citizen Kane, but described the filmmaker as a difficult, self-destructive spendthrift.
This puts Trump in the Charles Higham and David Thomson school of thought, as opposed to the Jonathan Rosenbaum and Joseph McBride camp of Welles scholars.
“I loved Orson Welles. He was totally f–ked up. He was a total mess. But think of his wives. Think of his hits,” Trump said. “He was like this great genius that after 26, never did it. He became totally impossible. He thought everybody was a moron, everybody was this, everybody was that; if he had a budget he’d exceed it by 20 times and destroy everything. He became impossible. I loved that.”
It goes without saying that Trump’s view of Welles’ later years is completely off the mark.
The GOP presumptive nominee gave his assessment in a June 9 article from Bloomberg, ‘Mr. Trump Is Ready for His Close-Up. Always.’ It was adapted from a new introduction to the book TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald.
Trump also commented on actor-director Clint Eastwood (“the greatest star ever…. Nobody was cooler’) and the James Bond villain Auric Goldfinger (“the best of all the characters. Semi-believable.”)
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