Targets (1968) - Welles co-wrote script

[Harvey Chartrand]

I saw 'Targets' at a drive-in in '68 and of course that was the ideal venue in which to view this shattering crime thriller (which ends with a psycho shooting people from behind a drive-in screen). Does anyone know how much of the screenplay was written by Welles, who took no credit? Samuel Fuller also had an uncredited hand in writing the script, credited to Polly Platt and Peter Bogdanovich.

[Wellesnet]

50th anniversary of Bogdanovich's "Targets", released on August 15th, 1968:
http://www.cinemaretro.com/index.php?/a ... AT-50.html

[Wich2]

Does anyone know how much of the screenplay was written by Welles, who took no credit? Samuel Fuller also had an uncredited hand in writing the script

I recall reading of the Fuller connection - but is there any documentation for any writing therein by Orson?

- Craig

[Terry]

I wonder if PB having to use footage from The Terror is where Welles got the idea to do film-within-a-film. I think Wind was still Sacred Beasts at that point.

[Le Chiffre]

I recall reading of the Fuller connection - but is there any documentation for any writing therein by Orson?

Not that I know of or have found online. Sadly, Harvey passed away a few years ago, so we can't ask him for his source. Might be a good question for Bogdanovich, though.

I wonder if PB having to use footage from The Terror is where Welles got the idea to do film-within-a-film. I think Wind was still Sacred Beasts at that point.

It may have inspired the drive-in setting too. According to Joseph McBride's last Welles book, both movies were made at the same drive-in, the Reseda in California.

[Roger Ryan]

I recall reading of the Fuller connection - but is there any documentation for any writing therein by Orson?

Not that I know of or have found online. Sadly, Harvey passed away a few years ago, so we can't ask him for his source. Might be a good question for Bogdanovich, though.

In his introduction to This is Orson Welles, Bogdanovich said "I first met Orson Welles toward the end of 1968..." Since Targets was reportedly shot between November and December, 1967, I'd say Welles had no involvement with the film.

[Le Chiffre]

Thanks Roger, I would agree that probably settles it. Maybe Harvey was confusing TARGETS with NICKELODEON, which Welles did have a hand in, according to PB.

It's hard to imagine Welles didn't see Targets, though, after befriending Bogdanovich. There are a few similarities between Targets and TOSOTW that are intriguing, besides using the same drive-in, having a film-within-the-film, and having Bogdanovich as part of the cast. Both films also climax with the main protagonist's latest film projecting on the drive-in screen. Both films also feature one of the main characters going berserk with a high-powered rifle, and both films have iconic but aging leading men whose characters are also in the film industry and feel that changing times are leaving them behind.

[Roger Ryan]

...There are a few similarities between Targets and TOSOTW that are intriguing, besides using the same drive-in...

According to a Facebook post Joseph McBride posted yesterday, Bogdanovich recently told him that it was not the same drive-in used in both Targets and The Other Side of the Wind. This is a bit of a surprise, but I guess Bogdanovich would know.

I think you're right about Harvey C. mistaking Nickelodeon for Targets.

[Le Chiffre]

Yes, if Welles had co-written TARGETS, Bogdanovich would have said so by now.

Here's a good interview he did on the film in 2014:
https://thedissolve.com/features/movie- ... unfortuna/

[JMcBride]

Sam Fuller evidently did so much on the script of TARGETS
that Peter offered him a co-writing credit, but
Sam declined. He was always generous to young
writers. Among his brilliant ideas was to have
the Karloff character stop the young killer by
slapping him -- the most powerful scene in the film --
and Sam conceived of the killer's confusion between
the screen and actual Karloffs.