Six versions of CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT?!

[mido505]

Todd:

You seem a bit heated here, so let me clarify myself because, in actuality, I agree with you.

I originally corrected a faulty memory of mteal's, who thought that Frederick Muller, the editor on CHIMES, had stated in an interview that Welles had edited the battle scene to splinters, so that no one could follow it, and wondered if perhaps the battle scene existed in a different version in one of the six variants. In fact, what Muller stated was that Welles had edited an entirely different scene to splinters, and that after the battle scene was finished, it was never touched again.

It is true that Muller stated, and I repeated, that he edited the battle scene alone after he and Welles had viewed all the rushes and discussed the sequence extensively. Muller further stated that Welles loved what he had done with the scene, and did nothing further with it.

I only mentioned the facts that were germane to the issue at hand (did CHIIMES'S battle scene exist in more than one version?); I didn't comment on Muller's somewhat grandiloquent claims, because I did not think it important. But Muller does seem pompous and full of himself and, given his feeble other credits (DR. GOLDFOOT AND THE GIRL BOMBS?), is likely hogging credit where credit is not due. He's one of those editors who love to claim that Welles knew nothing about the technique of editing, that Welles didn't like clapper boards, that he had to teach Welles how to number takes, A and B roll, make splices, etc. And it is true that there are many witnesses to the fact that Welles did not prefer to actually handle film. But that's all he needed an editor for. The actual tempo and template of the cutting was his; Welles was purposely disorganized because, unlike Hawks or Hitchcock, he shot a lot of footage and kept it all in his head, to deliberately confuse others. There is also a lot of evidence that Welles let editors, once he trusted them, do rough cuts on certain sequences, which he would then accept or reject. Of course, even if he accepted a sequence, Welles would work it further himself.

So yes, I think that Frederick Muller has a case of Saul Bassitis, but it doesn't really matter. Does anyone even know who he is?

DR. GOLDFOOT AND THE GIRL BOMBS is one of the worst pieces of crap I have ever seen. And I love Mario Bava.

[Roger Ryan]

Regardless of how true Muller's claims are, very few directors have edited their own films. We would be taking nothing away from Welles' directing achievement to say that someone else edited the film. Having said that, it's pretty obvious that Welles was always very involved in post-production (when he was allowed to be!), requesting minute changes that showed he knew what he wanted frame-by-frame. The problem is that there are too many examples of studio editors who were not simpatico with Welles' ideas and did not cut the footage appropriately (THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI is a perfect example of good footage that is poorly edited, although some of the blame can be placed on the use of studio-imposed insert shots Welles was required to shoot). So we tend to not trust any editor working with Welles' footage. But I think Welles was open to a creative editor's ideas. In his 58-page memo to Universal regarding the editing of TOUCH OF EVIL, he mentions that he found the scene of Vargas driving into town unaware of his drugged wife screaming from a hotel balcony to be superbly edited, better than what he had come up with during initial editing. I believe he is sincere in this statement as the scene plays really well.

As to the battle scene in CHIMES, one only has to look at the frenetic editing of F FOR FAKE or the rough scenes from THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND to see that Welles the director had determined it would be a collection of very quick edits. I'm sure that the rushes themselves for this scene would dictate a specific editing pattern. If Welles signed off on the scene as the director of the film then I consider it his work.