TOO MUCH JOHNSON Found!

[Wellesnet]

From Wellesnet Facebook, Michael Koenig writes:
If anyone wants to read the original play that the film was intended to accompany, it's available online as well. (It's helpful when watching this to look at a brief plot summary at least, since this was intended to be shown in three between-act segments).

http://books.google.com/books?id=2lo2AQ ... te&f=false

[Roger Ryan]

Thanks to Greg Boozell on Facebook. Joseph McBride writing for Bright Lights on TMJ. A great in-depth article, McBride does an amazing job of showing how seminal this little film was for the great Welles projects to come:

http://brightlightsfilm.com/too-much-jo ... 0W3iqgo63t

Joseph McBride has updated his "Bright Lights Film Journal" article (same link) with new information including a little more research into that house fire outside Madrid. Essential reading on the TOO MUCH JOHNSON saga.

[Wellesnet]

Thanks Roger. That's a valuable piece by McBride.

[jbrooks]

Regarding F Gwynplaine MacIntyre, it seems to me that he did describe the scene at the dock at least somewhat accurately. It is true that the characters are supposed to be boarding the gangway to large cruise ship but there (pretty obviously) is no actual cruise ship there and the gangway we see is probably too low to lead to a large ship. (Later we see an actual cruise ship -- but it's only in the reverse shot -- and never in the same short as the pier). Given that, I'd guess he did see a portion of the film -- or at least stills.

[Colmena]

A good blog essay on TMJ:
Too Much Johnson Is Never Enough Orson: The ‘Lost Film’ of Orson Welles

http://lokkeheiss.wordpress.com/2014/02 ... on-welles/

[Wellesnet]

Only 77 years late:
http://www.wellesnet.com/too-much-johns ... ve-actors/

[Wellesnet]

Thanks to Masimiliano Studer for this:

Formacinema proudly presents an exclusive interview with "Rosabella" co-director Ciro Giorgini, the man who identified Too Much Johnson (1938) by Orson Welles.

Mr Giorgini has given several interviews in Italy in Italian language. This is the first time English spoken readers/scholars/viewers can know everything about the story behind the discovery and identification of this Welles’ lost film.

Massimiliano and Filippo Biagianti made this interview in February 2014. We edited and translated this work only now.

You can find our work following the link: all the material is in English language, especially the English subtitles in Vimeo video:

http://www.formacinema.it/index.php/for ... son-welles

[dmolson]

Watched it on TCM tonite. Although the unfinished elements made a storyline difficult to follow, there appeared so many Wellesian camera moves, or was that projection on my part? I was also amazed at what for the most part was a pristine copy. My biggest problem was the modern tacked-on sound track. Unbearable to this viewer.

[Roger Ryan]

Watched it on TCM tonite...

Reading the reviews posted on TCM's site, I'm confused by what version they actually broadcasted. One reviewer referred to the running time being 40 minutes, which would seem to be the 34 minute compilation edit done by Scott Simmons, but there are references to multiple takes of the same action and a lousy electronic score. It sounds like they showed the whole 66 minute work print and slapped on some random music which, to my mind, would be a poor way of presenting this material.

The Scott Simmons edit...

http://www.filmpreservation.org/preserv ... reimagined

...edits all the best takes together in an attempt to present the film as it may have been used in conjunction with the stage play in 1938 (complete with period appropriate music and inter-titles). The 66 minute work print is really just a collection of rushes with little concern for continuity. Done with live piano accompaniment and commentary as I saw it last week at Indiana University, it makes for an interesting study in early Welles film-making, but a TCM audience would be much better served by seeing the best takes edited together as in the Simmons piece.

[Sir Bygber Brown]

Managed to see this tonight. Definitely has the Wellesian touch in places. Can see him falling in love with the medium. He's listed as having a small part as a keystone kop but I couldn't find him in the 40 minute version, where is he?

[jbrooks]

Roger,

To answer your question, TCM did not play the Simmons edit. It played the full 66 minute version with multiple takes and a ridiculously inappropriate modern score. The score did not seem in any way correlated with the film itself. It was like they were playing some random recording of strange music. It was certainly not a score fit for a comedy! Indeed, the score would have been more fit for a Ingmar Bergman drama. The presentation also lacked any titles to explain any of the set-up or missing plot points. There wasn't even an introduction from one of TCM's hosts to explain the context of what the heck the whole thing was. There was just an introductory title card labeling it a workprint. Terrible, terrible presentation.

The Simmons edit is vastly better. It's well-paced, charming, fun and (mostly) comprehensible.

[Sir Bygber Brown]

Watched it on TCM tonite. Although the unfinished elements made a storyline difficult to follow, there appeared so many Wellesian camera moves, or was that projection on my part? I was also amazed at what for the most part was a pristine copy. My biggest problem was the modern tacked-on sound track. Unbearable to this viewer.

All silent movies have "tacked on" soundtracks... Unfortunately, they didn't pay the accompanists enough to wait in the film cans for 100 years.

[magadizer]

Richard Brody's review of a MOMA showing of TOO MUCH JOHNSON:
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richa ... all-welles

Which leads me to ask the following questions to you good folks:

1. Is this any different than the material on the Mr. Bongo Bluray released overseas?
2. Is the Mr. Bongo Bluray Region locked or is it playable on a US region player?

[magadizer]

A representative from Mr. Bongo emailed me back to say that all their Blurays are Region free. So I will probably try ordering the TOO MUCH JOHNSON disc at some point.

[RayKelly]

Massimiliano Studer has published a new book in Italian on Too Much Johnson.
I interviewed him for Wellesnet. See http://www.wellesnet.com/orson-welles-too-much-johnson-studer/
Among his findings:
* Thirteen trunks with 600 reels (!) of footage from various Welles projects are now in Gemona.
* The untagged trunks almost went from a Roiatti warehouse to a landfill.
* Vintage Spanish newspaper reports confirm Beatrice Welles' account that the Madrid villa fire was small in size
* Similarities between TMJ and cameraman's Harry Dunham's 1936 short Venus and Adonis
* Welles showed Too Much Johnson to RKO executives when he was hired
* He was working on TMJ footage during 1940