WELLESNET MESSAGE BOARD

Well, I contributed to the IndieGoGo campaign just to see the movie completed, which it was. I got a digital download and a poster (but not the Blu-ray or the coffee table book, obviously), but I only would have been disappointed if the film itself was left incomplete. As it is, the campaign didn't ...

It's a pretty impressive imitation of old Hollywood Black and White, but of course, the aspect ratio is wrong... For the most part, yes, but perhaps it's an homage to the early John Wayne film The Big Trail (1930) which I was startled to discover was originally exhibited in a 70mm widescreen versio...

Wow... that was really unexpected. Very similar to the kind of music hall number that Monty Python would start exploiting seven or eight years later with decidedly bawdier, but funnier, lyrics. Assuming the entire track is pre-recorded, Welles lip-synchs this quite effectively.

IT''S ALL TRUE is streaming now on CBS All Access https://www.cbs.com/movies/its-all-true-trailer/trailer/AN6_XL_zuelZ_ivK7g0y5b_QKJRrJGs8/ Ugh, that trailer looks like it was from a second or third generation VHS tape. I hope the film itself looks at least as good as the DVD (although, it really s...

Also, we know about Welles' sense of guilt over his father's death because he told us. I tend to think that Welles was usually honest when he did discuss personal emotions, but his decision to reveal his feelings regarding the death of his father publicly may have been motivated by the same thing th...

Is that Welles, in the dark jacket and open-collar white shirt, behind the car on the right? It looks like him from 20 years before. If it is . . . what a masterful transformation into Hank Quinlan! Yep, that's Welles, dressed in his own clothes since he wouldn't be required to be in costume or mak...

I believe the alternate film titles were how Kane , Ambersons , and Journey into Fear were identified when released in Italy. For example, here's an Italian movie poster for The Fourth Estate ... https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/592504894695698822/ Given how poorly film titles have been translated ov...

The "What's on Netflix" site has released an info sheet on "Mank": https://www.whats-on-netflix.com/news/david-finchers-mank-movie-preview-release-date-cast-plot-what-to-expect-07-2020/ The reason for the R rating would be because of Mankiewicz’s history of alcoholism. Welles (a...

I would agree that the term "restoration" was the wrong one to use on the Kino packaging. However, the Kino release is the first time we've been able to see a print struck from the original elements, albeit a very battered print. I have no doubt the Library of Congress print had made its r...

Yeah, that was something I noticed upon seeing the trailer as well. I'm sure the scene in the finished film was re-edited to tone down the violence of the act out of concern that the character of O'Hara would lose some audience sympathy. Did Welles agree to the change? I don't know. Shanghai suffere...

Ray - were The Goodies well known in the USA? I would have to say that The Goodies were not well-known in the US. As far as British comedy from the 50s/60s/70s goes, Monty Python had the biggest cultural breakthrough, although that didn't happen until the mid-to-late 70s when public television bega...

In a post- Kane airing on TCM last week, a three-way conversation between Ben Mankiewicz, Joseph Mankiewicz's daughter Alex and Mankiewicz biographer Sydney Ladensohn Stern established that Joseph was so disdainful of his brother Herman's accomplishments that he refused to allow a joint tribute to b...

August 30, 1970 Peter Bogdanovich, "Is It True What They Say About Orson?": https://www.nytimes.com/1970/08/30/archives/is-it-true-what-they-say-about-orson-is-it-true-about-orson.html?fbclid=IwAR3PIo1Z9fXoEk_YID-aPjf0AAeqzGh8SFAeqWgf_ieGdd2_dIU-7v_cyXI "A year ago, when some of the ...

Herrmann's music makes the "No News" routine sound like a horror story, which is the power of music cues to color the content of a scene. Of course, in the original edit, the "Elegy" cue led into the closing boarding house scene (where the "No News" recording was heard ...

...Eventually, we'll be able to re-create the narration from the lost reels of "Ambersons" with technology like this. Despite my disappointment in this example (and, to be fair, the samples found here using a non-celebrity voice are significantly better), I immediately thought of Amberson...