Callow Vol 2 Released in UK

As the title says, the second volume of Simon Callow's biography of Welles has been released in the UK; the American release looks to be pushed back to August, according to Amazon.com; reviews are starting to be published:
the Times
the Telegraph
The Observer

I am not sure how long those links will remain active, so read them while you can. If you want to pick up the UK edition of the book, ordering it through this link will support Wellesnet.

Improvements to the site are coming soon, something I've been planning for what seems like years (now that I think about it, it has been years), hopefully making this a much easier site to get around. So much material is hidden away that no one knows it's there. And I'll hopefully have a review of Callow's book myself, once it arrives, along with some much needed updates to several site pages.

From the Archives...

Ages ago (okay, early last year) I picked up a bunch of film magazines that were being thrown out. I had intended to somehow use them on the site, but put them in a box and consequently forgot about them. I stumbled over them again recently, and seeing as how I hadn’t posted in a while, I thought I might throw up the odd thing from them. Here then is Films in Review’s review of Touch of Evil, from their April 1958 issue. As you will see, it is not especially flattering…

“The subject matter of Touch of Evil is so banal and its story-line is so confusing, that, as crime melodrama, it is fit only for theatres which grind out “Bs” fifteen or more hours a day. However, in addition to “action fans,” as, pathetically, they are called in the trade, quite a few professional filmmakers – directors, photographers, and actors, but no writers or editors – will also go to see Touch of Evil. Reason: Orson Welles has furbished it with photographic, directorial and acting “touches” which compensate for the irrationality of the picture itself.

Welles played one of the leads, wrote the script, directed, and induced some talented friends to appear in a farrago which ordinarily would be beneath their dignity. Marlene Dietrich plays a gypsy madam, Charlton Heston a Mexican narcotics agent, Janet Leigh his American wife, Akim Tamiroff the corrupt boss of a Mexican border town, Joseph Calleia a double-crossing police sergeant, and Welles a Mexican-hating and criminal-framing American police captain. The face of Joseph Cotten is momentarily on view, and other good performers, not so well known, put it brief appearances.

The role Welles wrote for himself is interesting for a reason extraneous to this film. It is a synthetic assemblage of negative characteristics which appeal to Welles, one surmises, for private rather than professional reasons. Indeed, one suspects that the reason Welles was sufficiently interested to write the part of such an implausible character, to act it, direct it, and surround it, with cinematic talent, is because such a character seems to him to make a mockery of the moral values of the background from which Welles himself came – values which Welles must again embrace if he is ever to be the artist he could be.” --- Jeremy Browne

A Few Words on the Arkadin Set

I received my review copy of the Criterion Complete Mr. Arkadin set last week, and after a cursory walkthrough, I can say it’s pretty much everything we hoped it would be. While it isn’t absolutely “Complete” (something that has to be a bit of a gag on their part, given the project at hand here), it’s about as complete as most of us would want it to be. Including three different versions of the film and a copious selection of extras, this really stacks up as the single best Welles DVD release out there, moving past the French Macbeth set for the top spot. The only black mark I can assign it so far is Criterion’s misguided used of window-boxing on the image, done to alleviate overscan for the masses. It cuts down resolution, and it’s just a bad idea. Anyway, with the possibility of a North American Macbeth release this year, in addition to Jane Eyre, this is shaping up as a good year for Welles on DVD. My full length review will be appearing on digitally Obsessed, so I don’t want to get into too much detail here, but if you were at all on the fence about this release, don’t be. It’s a must have. If you'd like to order a copy and support this site (c'mon man, you know you wanna), just make with the clicking on the link below...

Buy The Complete Mr. Arkadin at Amazon.com

Arkadin Extravaganza on Italian TV

Sent to me today was this rather exciting bit of news regarding the Italian TV channel RAI, which is planning a Mr. Arkadin fest on April 1; the translation from their Web site, as provided to me: "Among the films completed by Orson Welles, this is certainly the work that's presented in the largest number of different versions known to international audiences (we can count seven of them). It is also one of the most documented films in the entire history of cinema for the incredible quantity of rushes and outtakes, that we presented in "Fuori Orario" since the end of '80s. Waiting for the latest restored version on DVD announced for the end of April, we'll try to perform the impossible task of making the film last for the entire night, in the longest possible version, adding every existing variation and alternate shots to the scenes from the regular versions."

I can't imagine how that will play out, but it sounds quite fascinating nevertheless. More as we hear about it, and watch the message board for more as well.

Furor! DVDs! Anniversary!

As you'll have seen if you peruse the message board, a post linking to Tim Lucas' Video Watchblog column about the new Criterion Collection Mr. Arkadin DVD set resulted in some less than adulatory (but hardly vicious) words being written about Lucas, which in turn resulted in him ripping those of us who dared to question his ways (without dignifying us with a link, of course). Frankly, it all seems to me to be much ado about nothing; not being able to take some fairly tame criticism on an out of the way message board simply makes him look like a nut. Whatever. It any event, as Lucas clearly stated in his follow-up blog entry (you'll find the link in this thread), it's none of our business commenting on his personal (yet published) writings, even if they are read by thousands, as he is keen to remind us. You can comment on my writings though, I'm not that much of a maniac. Yet. [You can't hear it, but I'm laughing insanely right now] Let’s change the subject, lest I receive another stern keyboard-lashing.

So what else is happening? Err...not much. A couple DVD announcements; one is the UK Ambersons release, which we mentioned here some time ago, is finally up for pre-order, at least at Play.com. Note the pretty lame cover. How it will look is anyone's guess, given Warner's never-ending search for usable elements. Street date is May 29. Also, the Mercury radio version of Ambersons is also available, though I would bet that whenever Warner gets around to releasing the film here, that will be included. So I personally wouldn't spend $15 on a CD of it, but that's just me.

The other DVD announcement is also from the UK, where the fine people at the Masters of Cinema collection have announced F for Fake as an upcoming part of their collection. An early list of features only includes an HD progressive transfer, the trailer, an interview with Jonathan Rosenbaum, and "Hearts of Age." "More" is also promised, but we'll have to see what that might entail. No date or cover art yet.

I originally intended, when I replaced the old News page with this blog format, that I would update more frequently, if not with actual news (of which there isn't a whole lot, frankly), with new features on the site, and what have you. Needless to say, judging by the number of posts I've made, that hasn't exactly worked out. I have often had plans for this site that either fizzled out or simply didn't come to fruition, and that's just how it goes, given time and inclination and so on. I have wanted to begin updating the various sections of the site, because many pages could use a good overhaul, but it has come to seem like a rather onerous task that I haven't wanted to deal with.

It occurred to me a week or two ago that this month marks the fifth anniversary of the site, believe it or not. That is a long time to be doing something like this, I thought, and I have to admit there was a niggling thought of "do I really want to keep doing this?" Given the amount of work put into the site over the years, as well as the message board, I would find it hard to simply give it up, or even turn it over to someone else. I am sticking around, no worries there (I'm sure plenty of brows are being wiped in relief as this is read), and I will even try to get some work done on the site. I've had some projects I've wanted to work on for a while, and just maybe I can make some of them happen in The Glorious Sixth Year of the site. Or, next March, there will be another post from me saying "It's been six years, and I haven't done squat since last year!" We shall see. As always, send me your news and notes, love letters and hate mail, and I'll be back soon with some initial impressions of the Criterion Arkadin set, once I get it.

Addendum: I have finally figured out why the Archive links were not working. All of them should be working and available, if you want to see anything you may have missed.

No Good News From Warner Home Video

At the Home Theater Forum chat with Warner Home Video tonight, the usual "when is Ambersons coming out" question was posed to the Warner reps present; the answer was the same old "we're still looking for materials" bit, which is rather frustrating, to say the least. How long, exactly, does this process take? Surely there aren't loads of Ambersons elements in the world to need to hunt down? Or is there more to this than what they're letting on? In any event, they also stated that the DVD release of Journey Into Fear is going to be tied to any Ambersons release. At this point, I think it's safe to say that Ambersons wouldn't be coming out until 2007 regardless of the "materials" situation, given that next year will mark the 65th anniversary of the film, making for an easy marketing angle. Another person asked about The Stranger, given the previous release from Turner Home Video, but Warner stated that they do not own the film, the holders being MGM.

Compulsion Coming to DVD

Per DVD Times, Richard Fleischer's Compulsion, which featured Welles as a Clarence Darrow-type attorney defending a pair of Leopold & Loeb style murderers, will be making its DVD debut on May 23, in an anamorphic widescreen transfer. Extras are basically nil, but for those who want the film, this is good news.