WELLESNET MESSAGE BOARD

Last week we visited the Smokey Mountain BBQ in West Jefferson, NC, where their motto is "We will serve no swine before its time." That is, before it's been properly and leisurely cooked in their BBQ smoker... We're at a point now where a minority of their customers would be old enough to ...

I'm sorry to report that currently when you follow that link to youtube,
you are informed that the video is "private, unavailable."

Thanks for the comment. Eugene's report concerning the reconciliation at the hospital now comes across, to a major degree, as his wishful thinking. There's nothing he wants more than to feel close to Isabel, hovering over them in the next world. In the novel, we witness the spiritual communion in th...

Specifically, Cotten's comparison of the original ending of Ambersons to Checkov refers to the extraordinary, low-key, sotto voce, life-goes-on, creaking rocking chairs ending of Uncle Vanya. Was this an inspiration for Welles? It is not as bleak as the Amberson ending, since it does not involve Fan...

Well, maybe it will turn up in a library in Italy, like the lost footage from Too Much Johnson....?

At NECSUS, I found an instructive video essay on Welles's "montage":

"The Strange Streets of a Strange City: The Ambersons Montage"
by Patrick Keating

https://necsus-ejms.org/the-strange-str ... s-montage/

I gather that this production also included segments on film.
Was this footage saved? If so, can it be seen? Where is it?

"Just askin'..."-- as they say.

Do we know where Welles shot the documentary footage for George's "last walk home"? I'm assuming that it's in the LA area, since Ambersons was shot in Hollywood. Yes? I'm guessing that the factories we see are anachronistic, inconsistent with the time period of the movie. This could add to...

Apparently DT was "obsessed" with this scene long before he lost the election:

https://twitter.com/katehawkings/status ... 7419232256

I don't know if this was noted in O'Brien's book, TrumpNation.

Very late in the game, I just came upon this vid of Trump's review of CK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeQOJZ-QzBk It's remarkable in that, for once!, Trump allows that wealth and fame do not necessarily make for happiness, and furthermore they can come with marital collapse and being removed fro...

"Pauline Kael even offered a later retraction of sorts in her book 5001 NIGHTS AT THE MOVIES when she indicated in her CITIZEN KANE writeup that the script was "written by Herman Mankiewicz and Orson Welles." Thanks for that factoid! It's notable that "Raising Kane' was not conta...

We can now find the original of "A Poco No," performed by the composer, Pepe Guizar, here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJz7dgBCLrc

This would be the version that Welles heard in Mexico, I assume.

In his essay on "Mank" (found here) Joseph McBride refers to "the parallel draft of the script Welles was working on in Beverly Hills at the same time Mank was writing his long draft in Victorville." Did this simultaneous first draft survive? If so, where is it? Did it have a tit...

Thanks for the tip re Fifth Avenue Girl, M. Le Chifre. The following from a "TCM Diary" brief survey of Holt's career underlines the continuity: "Early on, Holt did work his way into larger parts, such as the spoiled son learning responsibility, and falling in love, when Ginger Rogers...

In interview with Bogdanovich, Welles says "we ran all kind of six-day movies Tim had made before we were absolutely certain. It was a lucky decision." Did Welles ever identify any particular role(s) that Holt acted in that convinced him that he'd be the kind of George Minafer he was looki...