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Posted on 04/16/2015 10:18:01 AM PDT by EveningStar
1. Orson Welles was born on May 6, 1915.
2. As a filmmaker, his three greatest pictures, in order, are Touch of Evil (1958), Citizen Kane (1941) and The Magnificent Ambersons (1942).
3. Ah, yes, but Citizen Kane tops many lists as the greatest film of all time (with Welles filling the top slot on many directing lists). The fictional story of a megalomaniac newspaper magnate (loosely based on William Randolph Hearst) and innocence lost is indeed a masterpiece . . . albeit a dated one. Newspaper magnates? Not in this century, bub.
4. John Houseman wrote in his 1972 memoir Run-through that the deeper he, Welles and Herman Mankiewicz took the script into the heart of Kane, the more the identity of Welles was exposed. "Between young Kane and young Welles, there is more than a surface likeness; in the dramatized person of Charles Foster Kane, 'Champagne Charley' was finally able to realize extravagances that far exceeded anything achieved in life by Richard Welles and his precocious son," Houseman wrote.
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Their iz a California chanpain buy paul masson, inscpiered buy dat shame frencdh excellence.
I find Paul Masson pairs well with Mrs. Pell’s fishsticks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Za3EuqU385k
In the end he was a mess. I remember him from my childhood for wine commercials and the Muppet Movie.
Welles was also a master at radio. In the 30’s and 40’s he produced, directed and starred in many outstanding radio dramas and documentaries. For info go to OTRCAT.com. He was by any measure a genius.
I’ve never seen the Magnificent Ambersons. I’d always heard that the studio butchered it with editing, and the final product was far from what Welles’ had envisioned. On that basis, I always gave it a pass.
I have seen both Touch of Evil and Kane, and agree heartily they are fantastic films. The opening shot to ToE is some of the greatest camera work in film history, IMHO.
The Mercury Theatre! :)
I love the couple standing there with him. You wonder what’s going through their heads. Probably, “If this shoot runs past the meal break, we start getting double time.”
I have seen ToE numerous times. Great movie. Opening scene is unbroken footage moving through several city blocks. Lots to like. Charleton Heston. Janet Leigh. A young Dennis Weaver as the super uptight motel clerk. And Marlene Dietrick is amazing.
A friend of mine, a serious film buff, remembers his first day in L.A., driving down La Brea and seeing Orson Welles, in a motorized wheelchair with and oxygen tank and a toy poodle on his lap, sitting in front of Pink's Hot Dogs, stuffing a messy chili dog into his mouth.
Another friend of mine, a screenwriter, owned the house Welles died in until a couple years ago. He used to throw some amazing parties there.
“I’ve never seen the Magnificent Ambersons. I’d always heard that the studio butchered it with editing, and the final product was far from what Welles’ had envisioned. On that basis, I always gave it a pass”
It’s still all right.
And they couldnt change the way it was filmed. It is all Welles in that way and worth seeing.
It's well worth checking out, even with the extensive cuts and the happy ending the studio tacked on.
See post #13. :)
Great man but he made a really big mistake making powerful enemy in Hearst—that killed his career as a director. He rebuilt his career as an actor—but what other great films might he made if he had selected another topic for his film?
Is that commercial you could tell Orson was “toasted” LOL!
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