Too Much Johnson - Anyone seen it?

[Christopher]

I am currently researching Welles's work with the Mercury Theater and I would appreciate any information on the film he made in the summer of 1938 for a staged production of "Too Much Johnson" that was supposed to open the Mercury's second season but was dropped after its try-out in Stony Creek, Connecticut. All I know so far is that Welles filmed two reels of bridging material that would have been projected on stage during the scene changes. The film was still around in the 1960's. Has anyone actually seen this footage? Or could anyone comment on it? Thanks in advance.

[marcoshark]

Christopher,
Check the listing for the IMDB. Follow the link. Read Mr. MacIntyre's comments.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0030881/

[Christopher]

Thanks, Macroshark. I had already read Mr. MacIntyre's comments on the link you gave me before I started this topic. I was hoping that someone else on this board might have seen the filmed sequences for TOO MUCH JOHNSON or might know what eventually became of them. The only other descriptive material I've found about Welles's early directing effort in film is in Callow's biography, and it is not clear if Callow saw the footage or is simply copying from some other source. What is interesting to me is the attraction film had for Welles while he was still immersed in the theater and how he tried to incorporate a silent film into a staged work. Comments, anyone?

[R Kadin]

The most telling thing about Welles's initial public film effort was not its content but its context. The film's subject matter was decidedly bland, as was the execution, apparently; so evidently those were not what motivated Welles. Instead, what appears to have caught his interest was the innovative use that could be made of it in a dramatic (in this case, theatrical) context. Thus, when he later agreed to pursue film as a comparable channel for his talent, he was determined to make the most innovative use of it he could devise - an objective he achieved most brilliantly, as we now know.

So, in looking to Too Much Johnson for its significance to Welles's overall film career, I'd have to say that it marked the beginning of an equation that would extend throughout the rest of Welles's lifetime: film = innovation.

[andrej]

many yers ago I interwieved John Berry about Too Much Johnson. He probably was one one the few persons able to tell a first hand comment. I cannot remember quite all of his words, (only "a so great idea..") and I was a bit disappointed about it. I should have a tape or something. As soon as I find it, I will transfer that on the Forum.

[blunted by community]

the bret wood book has extensive coverage on welles before film

[Glenn Anders]

Welles was a student (in a broad sense) of Piscatore and Reinhardt. They both were experimenting with slides and movies as part of a theatrical experience.

Glenn

[Christopher]

Thanks, everyone, for your comments.

[blunted by community]

does any one know what TOO MUCH JOHNSON means? among midwestern types johnson is slang for penis. they used to sing, "hold it in your hand mrs johnson, only weighs a quarter of a pound." makes me snicker when i hear the title.

after the odd stuff i found in TOUCH OF EVIL, and the phallic symbols in OTHELLO, it would not surprise me if TOO MUCH JOHNSON means what i think it means.

[Christopher]

Blunted, The title "Too Much Johnson" comes from the play written in the 1890's by William Gillette. The story involves a businessman traveling to Cuba with his wife who discovers an incriminating letter. He tells her it was written by a nonexistent "Mr. Johnson." When the couple arrives in Cuba, they meet a man named Johnson and the wife immediately assumes he is the one who wrote the letter. So "Too Much Johnson" refers to the characters by that name in the play, but if "Johnson" was slang for "penis" in the 1890's, then there was also an intentional play on words.