Peter Bogdanovich's new film on Natalie Wood - ... and other Nautical Narratives

[Harvey Chartrand]

Just read that Peter Bogdanovich's next project is 'Natasha,' a biopic of Natalie Wood, who as a child co-starred with Welles in the dreadful weepie 'Tomorrow is Forever', the first truly meretricious film that Welles deigned to appear in. Like Bogdanovich's 'The Cat's Meow', 'Natasha' is set aboard a yacht, the one that Natalie Wood was trying to flee the night she drowned in 1981.
Then there's talk that 'The Deep' may finally surface in theatres everywhere. (I can't wait to see what Laurence Harvey does with the psycho role.) And who can forget the exotic scenes on Errol Flynn's yacht in 'The Lady from Shanghai'?
Although a landlubber, Welles had a nice cameo as a Cuban dealmaker in 'Voyage of the Damned', another nautical narrative. Welles also played the white slave trader Louis of Mozambique in Tony Richardson's rarely-seen 'The Sailor from Gibraltar.'
Shortly before his death, Welles, his voice shot to pieces, narrated 'The Last Sailors', the story of the brave men and women who, with their ancient crafts, still harness the wind and the sea for their livelihood — it was almost a return to the themes of man versus the elements that preoccupied Welles on 'It's All True'. Lastly, Welles directed the minimalist 'The Immortal Story', about an old man's futile attempt to make a sailor's legend come true.

[jaime marzol]

...............

great news, harvey. wouldn't it be incredible to finally see The Deep, and at a theater. if The Deep makes the rounds and earns money, TOSOTW i bet will follow. i didn't think of Lady From Shanghai in context with The Deep, but yes, intersting point. There could be some incredible shots in The Deep. I'm one of those that does not agree with the critics that welles' talent diminished with age. i think he was a better filmmaker in later life than he was in his earlier years. it's his budget that diminished, not him.

i wonder what lawrence harvey will look like in The Deep? he looked almost near death in F-For Fake. I've only seen him in 2 films before seeing him in F-For Fake, John Wayne's The Alamo, where he was the picture of health, and in some odd film with Paul Newman called The Outrage, where again, he looked in good health. any one know how long after F-For Fake he died, and of what?

i have yet to see The Cat's Meow, it's not in any stores around here, and i don't like bogdanovich enough to buy it. i will wait till i can rent it and make myself a copy. or if any one here has a copy and would like to trade, i can fill a hole in your welles collection.

[Harvey Chartrand]

You ask about Laurence Harvey. He was a strange kind of star — often dour and unlikeable. Jane Fonda, Harvey's co-star in 'Walk on the Wild Side', told reporters that his poker-faced performance sank the picture (although this chilly disposition made him the perfect choice to play the brainwashed Korean War hero in 'The Manchurian Candidate').
Elizabeth Taylor adored Harvey, who was excellent in 'BUTterfield 8', and insisted on working with him again on 'Night Watch' (1973), when his career was on a downward arc. It was during the low cycle that followed 'Darling' (1965) that Harvey began working with Welles. They co-starred in the two-part epic 'Fight for Rome' (1968), in which Harvey was cast as Roman nobleman Cethegus and Welles as Emperor Justinian. While filming this drama of the fall of the Roman Empire in Romania, Welles and Harvey hit it off. They then traveled to Yugoslavia to film 'The Deep'. The clip of Harvey and a clean-shaven Welles that appears in 'F for Fake' was shot in a train station in Zagreb during the making of 'The Deep'. (Welles is bearded in the rest of 'F for Fake'.) Harvey's stomach cancer had not yet been diagnosed. He died in 1973 at age 45.
I recently saw Harvey's final picture — 'Welcome to Arrow Beach', a film about cannibalism released in 1974 (12 years before 'Manhunter', which introduced Hannibal [The Cannibal] Lecter). Harvey looked older and gaunt, but does not appear to be terminally ill. However, 'Welcome to Arrow Beach' — which Harvey also directed — is slapdash and just plain terrible. Imagine a horror movie with a theme song by — Lou Rawls!
In his autobiography 'Knight Errant', actor Robert Stephens speculates that Harvey's strange dietary practices did him in. Harvey sucked the juices out of meat and then spat out the meat along with the bones. His interest in cannibalism is perplexing.

[Le Chiffre]

It's too bad Bogdanovich can't direct something like Welles' screenplay for "Operation Cinderella" which he said was the best comic script he ever wrote. With his penchant for comedy, Bogdanovich would probably be perfect for it. Of course I haven't read it yet so I wouldn't know. The Natelie Wood project sounds interesting, certainly more provocative.

I have THE LAST SAILORS on tape and I think it's well worth having. There's a good 14-minute segment on the Jangadieros of Brazil that Welles must have especially enjoyed doing the narration for. In a strange way, it was as if he finally got to bring some kind of closure to IT'S ALL TRUE's "Four Men on a Raft" episode.

[Fredric]

It seems like Peter is establishing himself again, playing it safe for a little while, maybe two or three pictures. Then he's going to pull out a headscratcher, I just know it. We'll have to wait and see....

[Jeff Wilson]

I don't see why THE DEEP will come out any sooner than OSotW; they're both picture with Oja Kodar, that she was supposedly left rights to. Why would Beatrice Welles let this be released and not OSotW? I hope I'm wrong, but I doubt we'll see it anytime soon, unless something unexpected happens.

And Lawrence Harvey was great in THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, a film I just watched again the other day. That nutritional tidbit about L. Harvey mentioned by Harvey C. was...odd.

[fantomas]

as far as i understood the munich film museum is already working on a restoration of THE DEEP. the rough cut which was shown in the welles conference was announced to be the very first step of the work. they said that it will need about two years until the digital restoration will be finished. obviously beatrice's power doesn't reach to europe. maybe TOSOTW should also be done there.
in my eyes THE DEEP is not as good as DEAD CALM but completely different and much closer to the novel. laurence harvey is good in the scenes when he is threatening oja kodar and when he changes his mood within a moment. but somehow it's really strange to hear laurence harvey speaking with the voice of orson welles.

[Jeff Wilson]

It wouldn't surprise me at all to see this material get wider release in Europe, but doesn't France have some law granting family wider latitude in protecting its artistic rights? I was under the impression that was how she was able to get the screening of Touch of Evil scuttled at Cannes.

The Deep does sound interesting, and the footage on One Man Band isn't really enough to go by. I certainly wish them luck restoring it.

[jaime marzol]

Maybe one of the reasons that bea welles is allowing The Deep, and not OSOTW, is that The Deep is more of a straight forward motion picture, making it harder to ruin in the editing process, and it's not a legendary unfinished film, has none of the clout associated with OSOTW. but i'm just guesssing.

if done properly, OSOTW could redeem welles in the eyes of the non beleivers, and could be the big casino for the estate.

i've read more than a few times that The Deep was a minor effort by welles.

[Harvey Chartrand]

Even 'minor Welles' would tower over the 'major work' of most other film directors. How many of those 'major motion pictures' that are hyped up every week are remembered 2 or 3 years down the road? And here we are discussing a motion pictured filmed 35 years ago that hasn't even been released!

[jaime marzol]

....................

harvey, i've walked out of movie theaters, and 3 or 4 hours later had a hard time remembering what movie i just saw.

welles' least is more interesting then a lesser director's best.

i was offering the crit i've read on The Deep as a possible answer for the estate not filling 600 motions against the release.

[Hannaford]

Just saw the opening of Bogdanovich's "The Mystery of Natalie Wood," and just like Brooks Otterlake, he's clearly borrowing from Welles...

The film opens, like OSOTW with the drowing death of Natalie Wood, and then goes back to Wood's beginning... and also like OSOTW, it uses film clips, still photos, and of course, is a Hollywood story... so now maybe PB can get down to work on finishing OSOTW, liked he promised Orson he'd do, if something ever happened to him...

[jbrooks]

Aren't there lots of films that begin with the death of the main character and then flashback to start at the beginning? Is it fair to attribute this idea to Welles? Certainly, it didn't originate with The Other Side of the Wind. Heck, Welles used the same structure for Citizen Kane and Othello.

Sunset Blvd. also begins with the death of the main character and then flashes back.

[ToddBaesen]

I never believed the official verdict that Natalie Wood's death was an accident, as it simply made no sense to me that someone who was so afraid of water would go out by themselves on that small boat. It appears the Peter Bogdanovich film The Mystery of Natalie Wood told the real story.

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?secti ... id=8437262

[Le Chiffre]

Love that Christopher Walken impersonator calling into a radio station to discuss the case. Sounds like something out of a Welles movie.

http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlla/i ... -ap_b45919