Stranger (Roan) - A place to buy?

[jaime marzol]

i don't mean to degrade them, i would become a studio yess man and kiss ass in order to direct films, without a moment's thought. but that was beyond welles' abilities, so his only other road, was to finance his own work. and that is what makes him so fascinating.

[Rick Schmidlin]

.....and caused him so much pain.

[Rick Schmidlin]

Theater and studio and radio iare so different, Welles was used to yes man. In the studio system there were yes men but not for him.

[Cole]

I appreciate the comments regarding THE STRANGER. I’m slightly more tempted now to place my order, but I’m still pondering the idea, as I rest my index finger on my lips looking a bit like the picture of Orson that Jaime uses for his avatar (hmmm….to buy, or not to buy). Not a big investment, but the money could be used for a different movie. The best review I’ve found of THE STRANGER is from Dave Kehr at the Chicago Reader (where Rosenbaum himself works), and who described the movie as being “an inventive, highly enjoyable thriller…..[T]he most impressive scenes in the film may be those that depict daily life in the village; wrapped in snow, the setting has the magic hush of The Magnificent Ambersons.” He’s exaggerating things here, isn’t he?

[Obssessed_with_Orson]

cole,

i don't think he's going, "to buy or not to buy".
think it's telling us, as Mr. Welles told Mr. Heston at the end of a letter to "keep your yap shut"

if you want to understand what i mean, read the last few replies in the war of the worlds topic

[jaime marzol]

cole:
buy, buy, buy. if you are in america, or can play america tapes, trade, trade, trade. my copy looks great.

how can a welles fan resist an orson shadow film? then get james naremore's book where he list some elements that welles wrote but was not alowed to film, and mentally insert them in the movie; it's very cool.

[jaime marzol]

rick:
interesting point. in theater and radio there was no ass above welles. he was master and tyrant of the studio.

actually, houseman insulated him from that. houseman was the buffer between the money people and the storm. to bad houseman and welles didn't work out. we'd have more films to study.

[Rick Schmidlin]

Richard Wilson was Welles radio producer and the man really in charge of Kane, Ambersons ( but was with Welles in Rio), Lady,The Stranger and Macbeth. The day he lost Wilson was the worst of his life .Richard was the man he needed. They stayed friend untill the end but if Richard Wilson had been with in the 50's, 60's,and 70's we would have seen many more completed projects

[jaime marzol]

hey:
well, i'm wrong again. seems to be a hobby of mine being wrong. so all the books are wrong about houseman being the buffer, and wilson being just another mistreated friend and personal manager of sorts. i should have just came to wellesnet to get the right scoop instead of wasting my time reading all those books, and doing all that research.

[jaime marzol]

:::::::

you think richard wilson while getting ready to meet welles at the studio, looked in the mirror, adjusted his tie, and thought, "if i have to take any of his crap today i'm going to punch him in the face." he looks in the mirror and acts threatening.

after seeing some of the films wilson directed, it became obvious to me that wilson was dependent on welles for a paycheck, and had to take all of welles' crap so he could work in movies.

[jaime marzol]

::::::::::::::

richard wilson steps out of his bathroom, picks up his breifcase, and is ready for work.

as he crosses the livingroom towards the door, his wife steps in front of him.

WIFE
(sternly)
Don't you let him ridicule you today, Richard.
Stand your ground. So help me, i will leave you
if you come home today with mustard stains
from orson throwing burgers at you, or with
burn holes from orson throwing dish warmers
at you.

with a look of apprehension, wilson takes a deep breath, nods to his wife, then slowly exhales as he moves for the door.

WIFE
You have your valiums?

richard nods without looking back and exits the house.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::

join us next episode for: Richard And Orson At The Studio

*does anyone have a pic of wilson we can post for the next adventure?

[Steeler1]

You're a piece of work Jaime! Funny stuff!

It appears to me that Richard Wilson's contributions spans into the part of Orson's career when he was having difficulty in Hollywood. It is hard to judge his contribution because it is not easy to separate his efforts from Orson's. Richard Wilson might have been his radio producer, but as the story of the War of the Worlds show reveals, Orson shaped the end product.

Houseman was gone by 1942 and that is the year Welles developed the reputation that followed him the rest of his life. From everything that I have read, Houseman freed Welles from the business, coorespondance, and organizational aspects of the Mercury, allowing Orson to concentrate his creativity on production.

It is truly a shame that the Welles/Houseman Mercury team disbanded. I believe that John Houseman might have been able to buffer and calm the chaos of Ambersons/It's All True/New RKO execs for Orson, thus changing the course of Welles' career.

[Harvey Chartrand]

Let's not be knocking another old pro, eh what?
Richard Wilson directed Three in the Attic, a great picture that is emblematic of the sixties (51-year-old Wilson captured the flavor of that era while it was happening like no other director).
To find out more about Three in the Attic, read my interview with its star Christopher Jones in Summer 2000 edition of Outré Magazine.

[Rick Schmidlin]

First I take offence to blasting Richard Wilson wife. She was a wonderfull woman and very loyal to Orson. She also last time I was with was very ill. I don't think this format should lend itself to blast people they do not know, others reading may take it for fact.

As well as Wilsons contribution. I have been in his house and been through all his papers which include many orig. production notes, scripts and more. Wilson was in the background but he was the man who could smooth it over from Orson the studio exec's and he knew production, which is the job of a good producer. In regard to his directing he was a decent B director that got his mvovies made. The opening shot in Al Capone is great and was inspired by Orson. Yes the books paint his as a step n fetch it sometimes. But his personal revord which he kept ( and he kept them all) tell a different story. When you do reserch on a person and subject a bunch of books and a a few libarys will not tell the complete story.

In regard to this kind of reserch I am flying to a private home outside Paris next month to gothrough 40 boxes of documents from a very famous diector ( not Welles) that was never known to exist. There have been countless books writen about this man and no author had taken the time to find the bulk of there subjects most importent papers.

In regard to Orson Welles untill my reserch no author had seen the entire memo including Jonathan Rosenbaum. So I gues this ramble means you need hard facts to made judgement calls. Richard Wilson was a loyal and trusted friend that stayed with Orson for many years. You can see the closeness of there relaationship in the footage of the USC Welles interview on the trial.

[Steeler1]

oops!