Public Screening Rights to "Journey into Fear"

[JohnIAT]

I help run a tiny film & video franchise here in Boston Massachusetts. We would love to screen "Journey into Fear" at some point this winter, the main sticking point is we cannot identify who can grant us screening rights. We do no paid advertising and generally "four wall" a thirty one seat screening room at a local theater for our programs.
Can anyone out there direct me to some entity (preferably some person within said entity) who can grant screening rights to said movie? We wanna do this on the up and up if the fees involved aren't ruinous.

Any info will be appreciated.

John G.

[Jay]

The film was originally distributed by RKO (which has long been defunct), and I believe based on my communication with someone at Warner Bros. that they bought the North American distribution rights to it when they purchased all of the films in the RKO catalog that hadn't been sold in one-off deals to make money for the studio when it still existed. So contacting someone at WB (who, I'm not sure) is probably your best bet.

Out of curiosity--do you have an actual print of the film? Or are you planning to screen a DVD copy?

[Roger Ryan]

Right, Warner Brothers owns the North American rights to JOURNEY INTO FEAR...although I have no idea who would handle the film rental.

As you may or may not be aware of, there are two versions of the film which exist. The one most commonly seen in the U.S. is the version released in February, 1943 which Welles himself did a quick re-edit of, shooting a new ending scene and adding a narration by Joseph Cotten's character. However, an earlier version of the film (released briefly in August, 1942) has been shown in Europe which contains additional footage, no narration and a different concluding scene. Unfortunately, neither of these versions is ideal. The August '42 release is a studio bastardization of Norman Foster's initial 91 minute preview cut that wrecked havoc with the continuity. However, this version does contain a bit more comedy and includes a scene with Welles' "Col. Haki" that is not in the other extant version. Welles' "final" cut (released Feb. '43) is an attempt to refashion the Aug. '42 bastardized version with middling results.

[JohnIAT]

The "Euro-version" of Journey into Fear sounds intriguing, maybe there is some way to secure it for this notional screening. However my fears are confirmed, the film's rights is in the hands of a big studio, traditionally a small film franchise like mine has a hard time getting thru to the right person therein.
But I"ll send off a few emails hopefully something will get thru, any other suggestions or names to approach will be appreciated!

Thanks!

John G.

[JohnIAT]

This would be a DVD screening in a 31 seat video suite BTW. I"d love to screen "Journey into Fear" on film, but the cost factor tends to mount up when celluloid is involved.
Orson Welles has a strong local fan base this title hasn't screened locally since his death so I expect to do well with this one providing the rights are too dear.

John G.