Rosenbaum interviews Oja

[Wellesnet]

Video of "An Evening with Oja Kodar", held at the 2015 Welles centennial celebration at Woodstock is linked at Jonathon Rosenbaum's website:
http://www.jonathanrosenbaum.net/2018/0 ... odar-2015/

[tonyw]

Such a touching interview and thanks to Jonathan and others for posting it. It is very poignant towards the end and explains why I have always been perplexed by SAINT JACK with the different direction its referential director took. Now I know why. Orson would have also directed a much better film especially if he had Gazzara and Denholm Elliot on board.

[Le Chiffre]

As I remember it, Bogdanovich and Hugh Hefner had originally lined up Jack Nicholson for the lead but then at the last minute, Welles decided he wanted Dean Martin instead. That's when the trouble started.

Real nice interview with Oja. I was at this event in 2015, so it's nice to see it again (from what I hear, the Third Man Museum in Vienna has been using it for about a year). Unless she writes a book, this may be, along with SEARCHING FOR ORSON and ONE MAN BAND, the fullest and most open testament we're likely to get from Oja.

[tonyw]

Maybe, Orson could have brought out the best of Dino as Hawks did in RIO BRAVO?

[Le Chiffre]

Yes, he probably could have. Plus, Welles may have felt that he owed Martin, after those appearances on Martin's show in the late 60s, which helped Welles reintroduce himself to American audiences. BTW, Oja's version of the story begins around the 1:11:00 mark of the interview video.