Orson Welles and Jeanne Moreau in a scene from The Deep.
By RAY KELLY
Pirated videos and bootlegged films are plentiful on the web, but a recent slew of Orson Welles titles should set off warning bells for fans and collectors.
Several China-based websites are offering downloads of a trio of tantalizing Welles titles: The lost 1956 TV pilot Orson Welles and People (aka Camille, the Naked Lady and the Musketeers), the restored 1969 production of The Merchant of Venice and the workprint of the unfinished late 1960s thriller The Deep. The latter two would have to been leaked from the Munich Film Museum.
Too good to be true? In this case, the answer (sadly) is a resounding yes. The downloads I examined were nothing more than scams or attempts to spread malware and viruses.
File these three under F For Fake.
Of course, sometimes treasures are real, which was the case several years ago when a Russian torrent site posted Welles’ 40-minute workprint of The Other Side of the Wind.
As always, it is best to exercise extreme caution when downloading files; and there is the whole question of legality to be remembered.
I will keep this public service message brief — I have to look into this full version of The Magnificent Ambersons advertised on a website in eastern Mongolia.
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