WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO ORSON WELLES? Joseph McBride

WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO ORSON WELLES? A Portrait of an Independent Career. Joseph McBride. University Press of Kentucky. 

What Ever Happened to Orson Welles? is not a biography of the famous actor and director, but rather a study of his career and an attempt to correct misconceptions about the man that have proliferated both before and after his death. McBride is often successful at this, and sometimes not, and the book -- while well-written and well-researched -- occasionally has a petulant "fan-boy" tone to it. Film buff McBride became acquainted with Welles and was even cast in The Other Side of the Wind as a nerdy film geek (a talented writer, the less said about his acting the better), and spoke and dealt with him on and off over the years. McBride argues against some of the assertions made against Welles, but at other times makes clear that these assertions are often true. Welles clearly was a narcissist, and clearly expected those under his spell to do what he wanted, come hell or highwater. However, McBride argues that Welles was not some corpulent figure of fun but an artist who not only made some successful and brilliant films, but, like a true artist, kept on working right up to the very last minute of his life. McBride dissects many of Welles's lesser-known film projects, and does make it clear that Welles's career did not begin and end with Citizen Kane. One suspects he's just too close to The Other Side of the Wind to see how really bad it is. To his credit, McBride doesn't shy away from examining Welles's flaws, and even goes into the man's ambivalent feelings about his sexuality. 

Verdict: Whatever you think of Welles, this is an interesting and thought-provoking read. ***. 

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND

John Huston as Jake Hannaford

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND (Released 2018). Filmed from 1970 - 1976. Director: Orson Welles.

"He's so crooked he has rubber pockets so he can steal soup!"

"I'm bored with the whole story."

Director Jake Hannaford (John Huston) is celebrating his 70th birthday with a large assemblage of friends, enemies, and sycophants, while bemoaning the fact that he apparently can't complete his latest movie because his leading man, John Dale (Robert Random), has run off, not to mention the usual financial difficulties. Attending his party are such people as director-acolyte Brooks Otterlake (Peter Bogdanovich); critic Julie Rich (Susan Strasberg), who asks too many questions; associate Billy Boyle (Norman Foster); cynical actress Zarah Valeski (Lilli Palmer); and other characters played by Edmund O'Brien, Cameron Mitchell, Mercedes McCambridge, Paul Stewart, Gregory Sierra, Dan Tobin, John Carroll, and others. Interspersed with scenes from the party are sections of the uncompleted film-within-a film being made by Hannaford. 

Peter Bogdanovich

As revealed in the excellent book Orson Welles's Last Movie: The Making of 'The Other Side of the Wind' by Josh Karp, Welles took years to shoot this film outside the studio system and never did complete it. After years of legal entanglements it was eventually finished by others supposedly working from Welles' notes, and then released by Netflix. Some of the material seems to have been watered down from the original intentions for one reason or another, as you only know certain things are going on because you've read about the movie in Karp's book or elsewhere. 

Robert Random and Oja Kodar

The big problem with The Other Side of the Wind is that it has no plot, no decent script, only a premise that is never developed. The party scenes are shot with hand-held cameras that give the movie a very cheap cinema verite feel but also distance the viewer from what's going on on screen. The clips from Hannaford's movie are shot in color and widescreen and these sequences are a bit more striking -- a would-be sex scene in a car between the character played by Dale and the character played by Welles' real-life mistress (and co-screenwriter) Oja Kodar, for instance, and a sequence where Kodar walks about nude in the desert -- with a very hokey phallic symbol in evidence. (Kodar does have a nice body but that's about all you can say about her acting and writing abilities.) One doesn't know who contributed the film's rare moments of quality dialogue, but we can guess. 

Hannaford celebrates his birthday with a cake

We've been told by Welles' chroniclers that in this film Hannaford is a macho closet case who seduces his leading ladies (or the wives of his leading men) when he really wants to bed the leading men, and that he is obsessed with his current (or vanished) star John Dale. The evidence for this consists only of Hannaford keeping many life-size dummies of Dale around his residence, and some remarks made by Strasberg near the end of the film that don't cut quite close enough to make all of this a certainty. ("Have a go at the dummy, Jake," McCambridge says when someone starts shooting at them, "they bleed even more easily than people.") If Welles had finished his film, everything might have been made more explicit or at least more comprehensible, but I'm not sure that it would have made an especially good movie in any case, and the sexually-conflicted Welles, who had some old-fashioned ideas about homosexuality, probably wasn't the best person for this project in the first place. One of the longest scenes has to do with Jake going on about "faggots" to an English professor (Dan Tobin, who is excellent) who once had Dale in his class.

Lilli Palmer

John Huston might seem like perfect casting for Jake Hannaford but he only hits the mark in a couple of scenes, and is not that effective throughout most of the movie. Bogdanovich, although a trifle amateurish at times, suggests that he might have had a major career as an actor had he chosen that route instead of directing (of course he did amass 57 acting credits!!). Strasberg is a cast stand-out, and there are nice vignettes from Palmer, O'Brian, Sierra, Stewart, McCambridge, Mitchell, and others. The Other Side of the Wind truly shows desperation when Welles calls in a bunch of midgets to cause mischief, and although, as mentioned, there is some good dialogue lost in the mess, the movie is more often than not simply pretentious. The film is so briskly edited that you aren't bored, at least until it becomes painfully apparent that there isn't any real storyline. Michel Legrand's nice score does its best to smooth over the rough edges but it's a losing battle. 

Verdict: What a shame! An Orson Welles Home Movie. **. 

ROBERT WISE: THE MOTION PICTURES

ROBERT WISE: THE MOTION PICTURES. J. R. Jordan. Newly Revised and Updated. BearManor; 2020.

Although Hitchcock, John Ford, Billy Wilder and William Wyler, among others, may get the lion's share of the attention and critical kudos, the fact remains that Robert Wise was not only a solid and highly-skilled director who worked in many genres, but the architect of many successful and famous motion pictures. Beginning as an editor -- Wise worked on Welles' Citizen Kane and Magnificent Ambersons, among others -- his first professional directorial credit was for producer Val Lewton's Curse of the Cat People. (He returned to the horror genre with The Body Snatchers and the marvelous Haunting). Although today Wise is probably best remembered for directing the box office blockbusters The Sound of Music and West Side Story, in his younger days he helmed such gritty film noir-type pictures as Born to Kill, Odds Against Tomorrow and The Set-Up. Wise also did two major science fiction films, The Day the Earth Stood Still and The Andromeda Strain. He also helmed Star Trek: The Motion Picture and the unfortunate Star!, among others. Some of his other notable films include Three Secrets and Tribute to a Bad Man, and there was the very occasional stinker, such as Executive Suite.

J. R. Jordan's well-written tome finally gives Wise his due with an illustrated book that covers all of his motion pictures. Each essay gives a background to the film, why Wise chose the project, his working methods on the set, synopses, important highlights of each picture, and lengthy quotes from people, including crew and cast members, who worked with Wise. Aside from one man who claims Wise was unsympathetic when he was injured on the set, everyone's recollections are positive. Wise was no martinet, a la Otto Preminger, but a reasonable and well-adjusted craftsman and artist who didn't need to scream at or belittle people to get what he wanted from them. Like Hitchcock, he was always fully prepared for each scene, choose his actors with great care, and only gave them direction when it was required. Wise left behind an impressive body of work and this well-researched tome will remind readers of the director's long and distinguished career. This is by no means a gossipy book, but Janette Scott's comments on Rossana Podesta when they were working together on Helen of Troy are amusing.

 Verdict: For Wise fans and film enthusiasts in general. ***1/2.

Addendum
The book is dedicated to the author's father. Joseph C. Jordan Jr. suddenly passed a short time following the publication of this article. In Robert Wise: The Motion Pictures the author wrote, "Those I interviewed for this book generally described Robert Wise as noble, patient, validating, and a class act. Such words, in short, apply to Dad."

Mr. Jordan's wife, Rosetta, preceded him in death by 37 years (see photo). He missed her terribly and never remarried. The author was fortunately afforded the opportunity to be at his father's bedside on the day of the passing. Prior to the moment of death, the author faced his father and said, "This is a special day. You're going to be with Mom again." Mr. Jordan's face lit up, as his excitement was clearly apparent. He passed a short time later.

CONFIDENTIAL REPORT/ MR. ARKADIN

Orson Welles and Robert Arden 

MR. ARKADIN (aka Confidential Report/1955). Written and directed by Orson Welles.

"You imagine it's pleasant to be ashamed of something you can't remember?" -- Arkadin.

A dying murdered man named Bracco (Gregoire Aslan) tells Guy Van Stratten (Robert Arden) and his girlfriend, Mily (Patricia Medina), that he can make a lot of money by looking into a mysterious millionaire named Gregory Arkadin (Orson Welles). As Mily tries to ingratiate herself into Arkadin's social set so that she can get to know him, Guy makes the acquaintance of -- and falls for -- Arkadin's daughter, Raina (Paola Mori). Just when he's expecting Arkadin -- " a cipher of an age of dissolution and crises," as one man puts it -- to buy him off to keep him away from his daughter, Guy is surprised to discover that Arkadin wants to pay him to investigate his past origins, which he says have been lost due to amnesia. But as Guy runs around Europe interviewing people who once knew or were somehow involved with Arkadin, these same individuals start dying ... Mr Arkadin was never properly finished by Welles, so it's impossible to tell what might have emerged had he not been locked out of the editing room. What finally came out is not a great movie, but it is an interesting one featuring some excellent performances. As the Machiavellian Arkadin, Welles is effective and sinister, although he doesn't quite exude a strong sense of menace, this despite the fact that the photography (Jean Bourgoin) often makes him appear to be a giant. Robert Arden's work in the film was criticized at the time of the film's release, but I think he gives a very good and convincing performance as an essentially decent man who is horrified by what is happening around him and fears for his own life as well. Paola Mori, who married Welles the same year the film came out, is fine, although her voice was entirely dubbed by British actress Billie Whitelaw. Small roles are essayed by everyone from Peter van Eyck to Mischa Auer (who runs a flea circus and is dubbed by Welles), but the stand-out character roles are played by Katina Paxinou [Uncle Silas] as Arkadin's shady ex-lover, Sophie; Suzanne Flon as the equally shady Baroness Nagel; Michael Redgrave [The Browning Version] in a bizarre, nearly unrecognizable turn as shop owner Burgomil Trebitsch; and especially Akim Tamiroff [After the Fox] as Jakob Zouk, who has been marked for death but only wants Guy to bring him a goose liver dinner as if it were his last meal. The film has more than its share of humor, both in the character of Zouk, and an odd scene between Arkadin and Mily on the former's boat as the latter gets increasingly drunk, the see-sawing photography mirroring both the motion of the water as well as the unsteadiness of her inebriation. The under-rated Patricia Medina also scores (in an under-written role) as the ill-fated Mily. There is a lot of obvious over-dubbing in the film because Welles rewrote the script even after some scenes had been shot, and one scene when Guy and Raina are talking about her father is abruptly cut off in mid-sentence.

Verdict: Unconventionally handsome Arden makes a compelling lead and there are some other excellent performances in this unusual if imperfect film of intrigue. ***. 

ORSON WELLES'S LAST MOVIE: The Making of "The Other Side of the Wind"

ORSON WELLES'S LAST MOVIE: The Making of The Other Side of the Wind. Josh Karp. St. Martin's Press; 2015.

"Orson Welles's Last Movie" pretty much begins with a meant-to-be-funny-but-isn't anecdote in which Welles is confronted by a homophobic Ernest Hemingway and reacts by acting like a "faggot" in front of him, leading to a battle and then the two collapsing into laughter. The anecdote may be apocryphal but it does somewhat figure in this convoluted story of Orson Welles and his attempts to finish -- or not finish -- The Other Side of the Wind. The book almost unfolds like a mystery as the reader wonders why few people have ever seen the completed footage of the film despite the fact that there is quite a lot of it. Disgusted with interference from studios who took final cut away from him for The Magnificent Ambersons and other films, Welles decided to go the independent route, and hired several people to help him who were devoted to the charismatic actor/director and willing to work insanely long hours for a comparative pittance. (Meanwhile Welles continued to live quite well and indulge his enormous appetite.) The plot of The Other Side of the Wind deals with a film director who, much like Welles, is making what he believes will be his final film while his world falls apart around him. Welles reportedly based the lead character on "macho men" like Hemingway and director John Huston, who plays the lead in Welles' movie. The Big Reveal at the end is that the director, who has affairs with most of his leading ladies, is actually more attracted to his leading men, and in love with the latest male star who has, apparently, only been using him. The big butch guy who is secretly gay and kills himself was a stereotype even in the seventies -- even The Sergeant came out earlier -- so Welles may not have been as ahead of his time as he thought he was. How self-revealing Welles was being with his screenplay (which was mostly in his head) is also open to debate. In any case, due to legal entanglements and the fact that the owners of the film won't release the rights (without a huge pay out, one suspects), it is unlikely the general public or film enthusiasts will ever see any of the movie. Those who have seen the footage claim that certain sequences have the same remarkable imagery and camera work of Citizen Kane, but whether it's as good a movie is another question [one suspects it has moments of brilliance but may not have added up to a whole even if it was finished; and the gay angle sounds awkward]. Author Karp isn't a film scholar, but Orson Welles's Last Movie is well-written and well-reported, and is a completely absorbing look at a gifted, difficult artist trying to make a movie outside of the studio system and putting it together like a patchwork quilt.

Verdict: Very good read with interesting details and a "cast" of dozens really pulls you along. ***1/2.

BUTTERFLY

Pia Zadora and Orson Welles -- in the same movie!

BUTTERFLY (1982). Director: Matt Cimber.

In 1937 at the Arizona-Nevada border Kady Tyler (Pia Zadora) comes to live with the father she never knew, a man named Jess (Stacy Keach), who is the caretaker for an abandoned silver mine. Despite their biological connection, Kady and Jess are drawn to one another, something which bothers Jess but doesn't seem to bother the much too free-spirited Kady. Kady's dying mother, Belle (Lois Nettleton), comes calling, along with the man Belle ran off with, Moke Blue (James Franciscus). Then there's Wash Gillespie (Edward Albert), the son of the owner of the mine, and the father of Kady's baby and her fiance. How far will Jess go to get Kady for himself -- and is she really his daughter? Butterfly certainly holds the attention with its intriguing if bizarre situations, as well as some very good acting. Keach takes top honors, with Nettleton a close second, and Franciscus [Youngblood Hawke] also scores in some emotional scenes inside the mine. Pia Zadora [Hairspray] is not bad at all, although one couldn't necessarily call her a great actress -- her pouty looks and attitude fit the part. Orson Welles, of all people, shows up as a judge at two separate trials involving Kady and Jess, and is very effective and amusing. Edward Albert [Galaxy of Terror] is fine as Kady's boyfriend, and in one brief scene June Lockhart and Ed McMahon [!] play his parents -- McMahon is no actor. Stuart Whitman, however, makes his mark as a preacher. This forgotten movie is based on a novel by James M. Cain.

Verdict: Twisted, but interesting, love story. ***.

THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS

THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS (1942). Writer/director: Orson Welles.

Orson Welles' follow-up to Citizen Kane was based on Booth Tarkington's brilliant novel, which was not only a trenchant small-town family drama but a look at the changes wrought in American society after the turn of the century and its effects on several citizens. Welles' film was cut by the studio, stripped down to bare basics, but still emerges as a creditable movie with some fine performances. Tim Holt probably never did anything better than his performance as spoiled young George Minafer, whom the whole town is hoping will eventually get his comeuppance. Eugene (Joseph Cotten) had been in love with George's mother, Isabel (Delores Costello,) but she married another man. Now she is a widow, and Eugene is a widower with a grown daughter, Lucy (Anne Baxter). A complication is that George's Aunt Fanny (Agnes Moorehead) has always been carrying a torch for Eugene. "Just being an aunt isn't really the great career it may seem to be," she tells George. A bigger complication is that George is vehemently opposed to any romantic union between his mother and Eugene. [George and Fanny have a number of scenes together which Welles almost always films in long takes.] Eugene is also planning on manufacturing motor cars, which upsets the more genteel members of the Minafer family. As the film progresses there are dramatic developments and the fortunes of the Minafers take a turn for the worse, leading to a situation wherein George has to really prove what kind of person he is. The cast, including Ray Collins [Lt. Tragg on Perry Mason] as Uncle Jack, is excellent, although I fear that Agnes Moorehead is perhaps a bit more odd and semi-hysterical than she needed to be as the desperate and lonely Fanny [she received a supporting Oscar nomination, however]. The movie is handsomely produced and looks great [the art direction and Stanley Cortez' cinematography were also nominated].

Verdict: Nearly a masterpiece. ***1/2.

VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED

VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED (1976). Director: Stuart Rosenberg.

In 1939 Nazi Germany allowed about one thousand Jews to depart the country on a ship bound for Cuba, the SS St. Louis. This alleged "humanitarian" gesture was strictly a propaganda act, a smokescreen, as one character puts it, as it was never intended for the passengers to disembark in Cuba or anywhere else. Turned away by several nations, including, shamefully, the U.S., some of the passengers wold prefer death or mutiny to returning to Hamburg and certain execution in concentration camps. You would imagine that a movie on this subject would be very powerful -- and you can't help but be moved by the passengers' plight and the horrendous persecution and emotional devastation they were undergoing -- but Voyage of the Damned, unfortunately, plays like a lesser Movie of the Week with an almost-all-star, international, Movie of the Week-type cast [with some exceptions], "acting" up a storm at times but nonetheless seeming once-removed throughout it all -- in other words, the acting and direction are fairly perfunctory. Sequences that should have had great impact are pretty much frittered away by Rosenberg, and the movie is about 45 minutes too long, slack and lacking in needed tension. I mean, when you consider the situation these people were in! Some of the lesser known actors, such as Victor Spinetti as Dr. Strauss, who works in Cuba and desperately wants to get his small children off the ship, are more effective than the bigger names, although James Mason and Nehemiah Persoff are solid as usual. Sadly, Voyage of the Damned is blah when it should have been a masterpiece.The very large cast includes everyone from Lee Grant, Faye Dunaway and Ben Gazzara to Max von Sydow [as the captain], Wendy Hiller, Malcolm McDowell and even Orson Welles. Although they all have their moments, these could not be considered one of the better performances of any of them.

Verdict: Watch Judgment at Nuremberg instead. **1/2.

THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI

Welles and Hayworth in the famous funhouse finale

THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI (1947). Director: Orson Welles.

"Is this what you people do in the evenings? Sit around toasting marshmallows and calling each other names?"

Michael O'Hara (Orson Welles) is hired by Elsa Bannister (Rita Hayworth) and her husband Arthur (Everett Sloane) to help run their boat, but he winds up smack dab in the middle of a convoluted murder plot -- but who's trying to kill whom? It would be criminal to give away any of the twists and turns for those who may never have seen the film; suffice it to say this is a smooth suspense thriller with flavorful characters and fine performances from a stellar cast; arguably Hayworth as the femme fatale has never been better or better-cast. Glenn Anders is also notable as Bannister's weird business partner and Ted de Corsia scores as the sinister Broome. The fascinating picture leads up to a highly memorable sequence in an amusement park with the exciting climax taking place in a mirror maze. One could argue that Welles isn't quite on Hitchcock's level and some scenes -- such as a courtroom scene -- are perhaps a little too busy, but Lady from Shanghai is nonetheless audacious and compelling. Welles, directing himself, is outstanding in the lead role. You can't look at the plot -- or some of the events -- with close scrutiny [O'Hara not being recognized by a policeman at one point!] -- the movie has its absurd moments -- but it all moves too fast for you to care. Beautifully photographed by Charles Lawton Jr. and some uncredited associates. William Castle was one of the producers of this classic.

Verdict: Film Noir par excellance! ***1/2.

I LOVE THE ILLUSION: THE LIFE AND CAREER OF AGNES MOOREHEAD

I LOVE THE ILLUSION: The Life and Career of AGNES MOOREHEAD. Charles Tranberg. BearManor Media; 2007.

In this excellent biography by the author of Fred MacMurray: A Biography, the life and career of talented actress Agnes Moorehead is thoroughly examined and scrupulously researched. Moorehead had a successful radio career -- "Sorry, Wrong Number" on Suspense was one of her career highlights -- and also benefited [and vice versa] from her association with Orson Welles, with such films as Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons. Moorehead toured with Shaw's "Don Juan in Hell," appeared in many movies [including Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte] and eventually landed a gig as Endora on Bewitched that made her a household name for the boob tube generation. Tranberg looks at Moorehead's marriages, her conservative politics and religious attitudes, and her relationships with her famous co-players.

Tranberg is to be congratulated for handling a sensitive area with class.Some biographers, when faced with rumors that their subject might be gay, react in a homophobic fashion, denying with outrage as if being gay were in a class with being a terrorist or child molester. Tranberg investigated the rumors, doesn't seem to give a damn if Moorehead were a lesbian or not, but simply could not come up with enough solid evidence to definitely say she was gay or bisexual. Apparently the rumors only got started because of a silly remark made by comedian Paul Lynde. Sure, Moorehead could have been a repressed lesbian restricted by her religious and conservative attitudes, but without solid proof one can't say so and no one will  ever know for sure [about Moorehead and many others]. Besides, her sexuality isn't the question or the point, but rather her talent, which Tranberg illustrates adeptly on virtually every page. The book also includes a list of especially memorable Bewitched episodes and is generously illustrated as well.

Verdict: Outstanding biography of a noteworthy figure. ****.

THE STRANGER

Powerhouse combo: Welles and Robinson

THE STRANGER (1946). Director: Orson Welles.

Wilson (Edward G. Robinson), who works for an Allied commission that brings war criminals to justice, is after the notorious Franz Kindler, who is hiding out in the small town of Harper as a teacher named Charles Rankin (Orson Welles). Rankin is just about to get married to judge's daughter Mary Longstreet (Loretta Young), when another Nazi from Kindler's past shows up, leading Wilson to his door. First Wilson must confirm his suspicions (the audience is clued in pretty early) and keep Kindler from removing any other obstacles in his path, including people  -- and even his wife. Considering the talent involved and the story line, one would think The Stranger would be a much stronger picture, but it certainly isn't bad. Of the three leads, Robinson comes off best, although Welles is a close second and Young has her moments. The excellent supporting cast includes Martha Wentworth as a housekeeper, and Billy House as a drug store owner. Philip Merivale doesn't seem to summon up the proper concern as Mary's father (the script doesn't help here), and Richard Long is a bit perfunctory as her brother, Noah; Red the Irish Setter, is on top of things, however. One of the best scenes has Wilson interrogating Mary even as he shows her footage (mostly unseen) of concentration camp atrocities. The movie has gaps in logic and Welles seems only sporadically interested in the material; the movie picks up as it goes along and has a fairly exciting climax in a clock tower.

Verdict: Some very good moments but lacks greatness. ***. 

GREAT OLD MOVIES -- EXTRA # 2

 THE WAR OF THE WORLDS

H. G. Wells' brilliant novel of interplanetary war, The War of the Worlds, was published in 1898. Decades later, Orson Welles presented a version on radio and panicked everyone in the country who thought it was for real. The two best film versions were made by George Pal in 1953 and Steven Spielberg in 2005. You can read about the novel and some subsequent film versions below.

CITIZEN KANE BLU-RAY 2011 ULTIMATE COLLECTOR'S EDITION

CITIZEN KANE BLU-RAY 2011 ULTIMATE COLLECTOR'S EDITION. 

Here it is! Beautifully restored and remastered in a special edition 70th anniversary blu-ray collection.

"Citizen Kane, Orson Welles’ tour de force which the American Film Institute (AFI) chose as the #1 film of all time[i], celebrates its 70th Anniversary with an all new 1080p hi-definition restoration from original nitrate elements in stunning 4K resolution and revitalized digital audio. Warner Home Video will bring the iconic masterwork to a new generation with their new Blu-ray™ 70th Anniversary Ultimate Collector’s Edition, complete with more than three hours of bonus content and an array of rare and collectible premiums including a 48-page collector’s book filled with photos and behind-the-scene details, 20-page reproduction of the original 1941 souvenir program, lobby cards, and reproductions of rare production memos." 

 In this collector's edition you get:

"Disc 1

·         Commentary by Peter Bogdanovich

·         Commentary by Roger Ebert

• Opening: World Premier of Citizen Kane Vintage Featurettes
• Interview with Ruth Warrick
• Interview with Robert Wise
• Storyboards
• Call Sheets
• Still Photography with Commentary by Roger Ebert
• Deleted Scenes
• Ad Campaign
• Press Book
• Opening Night
• Theatrical Trailer

Disc 2

·         The Battle over Citizen Kane Documentary

Disc 3

·         RKO 281 (HBO Feature)"

"Here are links to the Official Facebook page as well as trailers and clips:

         Official Facebook:

o    www.facebook.com/CitizenKaneMovie

·         Trailer:

o    http://youtu.be/GwN9Vwr-jRw

·         Film Clip:

o    http://youtu.be/Rrj9-MfXJys

o    http://youtu.be/fgd1ZgGalA4

o    http://youtu.be/qf0zghq-WoM

·         Images:

o    http://warnervideo.com/art"

 Click here to read my review of the masterpiece Citizen Kane. 

Verdict: This is one collector's edition to own. ****. 

FOLLOW THE BOYS

FOLLOW THE BOYS (1944). Director/co-writer: A. Edward Sutherland.

"Little things that one man may not even notice can be irresistibly alluring to another."

Ex-vaudevillian Tony West (George Raft) hooks up with a movie star Gloria Vance (Vera Zorina) and becomes her partner in movies and life, but trouble ensues when he's judged 4-F when war breaks out and decides to do his bit by organizing camp shows full of celebrities entertaining "the boys." He can't understand why Gloria won't join him on his travels and the two nearly break up, all of which could have been avoided had Gloria only told the fellow she was pregnant. Obviously the framing story for this variety propaganda film is piss poor, but there are some entertaining moments in its nearly two hour running time: an amazing canine trapeze act; Orson Welles and Marlene Dietrich doing a comical magic act; the Andrews Sisters; Louis Jordan and his band; the all-black Delta Rhythm Boys singing "The House I Live In." When Jeanette MacDonald does "Beyond the Blue Horizon" the line "my life has only begun" has a certain irony when many of the very young soldiers she's singing to won't make it back from the war. The film's low-point is Peggy Ryan and Donald O'Connor doing a lousy hep cat number. As usual, star George Raft makes little impression, although he does do a creditable dance number to "Sweet Georgia Brown" in a rainstorm. Vera Zorina means so little today -- she also makes little impression in the film -- that it's Marlene Dietrich who's featured on the VHS cover and not Zorina. It's significant -- and admirable -- that the film includes black entertainers, although these sequences were probably deleted in prints sent to southern theaters. What doesn't make sense is why a film that's meant to boost wartime morale should have such a downbeat ending. Other cast members/entertainers include W. C. Fields, Dinah Shore, Ted Lewis of Hold That Ghost, George MacReady of Gilda, and Elizabeth Patterson, Mrs. Trimble of I Love Lucy.
Verdict: Hit or miss, but well-meaning one supposes. **1/2.

BLACK MAGIC (1949)

BLACK MAGIC (1949). Director: Gregory Ratoff.

Alexander Dumas Sr. is working on a book about Cagliostro and trying to get a handle on him when he relates the story that forms this film to his son. Black Magic is a mix of fiction and history, and can best be described as a somewhat entertaining potboiler. Young Joseph Balsamo is whipped and forced to watch his gypsy parents being hanged upon the orders of the cruel Viscount DeMontagne (Stephen Bekassy) -- fiction. When he grows up, Balsamo has turned into the famed mysticist Count Cagliostro (fact), and eventually marries a young woman named Lorenza (fact) who is the spitting image of Marie Antoinette (fiction). The two of them get mixed up in a plot to turn the French public against Antoinette involving a piece of jewelry (part fiction, part fact). Then, of course, Cagliostro must get his revenge against DeMontagne, although this aspect of the story doesn't get nearly enough dramatic attention. Orson Welles gives another wonderful performance as Cagliostro, although the movie is certainly no Citizen Kane. Nancy Guild makes the most of her dual role as the sweet and innocent Lorenza and a rather bitchy Marie Antoinette, and Margot Grahame scores as Mme. DuBarry. Akim Tamiroff is fine, as always, as a friend of Cagliostro's. After awhile the muddled proceedings begin to grow wearisome, however, although there's an eye-opening sword fight high above on the roofs of Paris at the end that is quite striking and cinematic. Another memorable sequence has a crowd of supposed cripples and sick people gathering in front of the King, who orders Cagliostro to cure them en masse -- with amusing results.

Verdict: Has its moments, but you can also see why it's been forgotten. **1/2.

CITIZEN KANE

CITIZEN KANE (1941). Director: Orson Welles.

Wrested away from his parents at a young age against his will, Charles Foster Kane (Orson Welles) spends the rest of his life trying to retain complete control of every aspect of, and every person in, his life. Employing flashbacks, first person narratives, and inventive camera work, Citizen Kane examines the life of the great Kane upon the event of his death at his castle Xanadu, where he mutters the word "Rosebud" (a reminder of the time when he felt fully loved and content). Sixty-seven years after its original release Welles' fascinating masterpiece seems, if possible, even greater. Welles offers a terrific performance as he goes from young newspaper magnate to aged tycoon, but he is matched by a fine cast that includes Joseph Cotten as his friend and associate Jed Leland, Dorothy Comingore as his second wife and hopeless opera singer Susan, Everett Sloane as the assistant he always calls Mr. Bernstein, Ray Collins as Kane's political opponent Jim Gettys, and others.

The film has a rich visual look due to the art direction by Van Nest Polglase and the cinematography of Gregg Toland. William Alland, who plays the reporter asking questions about Kane (and who later became a producer) is always seen in shadow. The marriage-by-breakfast sequences that show Kane's first marriage disintegrating at the breakfast table is just one of many memorably creative aspects of the picture. Bernard Herrmann's score is, as usual, excellent. [It should be noted that -- while Modest Musorgsky wrote an opera entitled Salammbo -- the Salammbo (or at least the aria from it) heard in Citizen Kane was actually composed by Herrmann. Too bad he didn't do the whole opera (Herrmann did compose a fine operatic version of Wuthering Heights, however.)]

There are some imperfect aspects to Citizen Kane. The whole business with the boy being sent away by his mother (Agnes Moorehead) to become the ward of the prickly old lawyer, Thatcher (George Coulouris), supposedly to get him away from his drunk, physically abusive father (Harry Shannon), seems contrived. The newly-rich Mrs. Kane could have paid off the father and taken the boy with her to live somewhere else. Yet later Leland tells us that Kane remained close to the mother who sent him away -- but why would he (we never again see the two together)? It's also interesting that while we hear in passing how Kane's first wife (Ruth Warren) and child are killed in an automobile accident, we are never shown Kane's reaction to the death of his son, certainly a pivotal moment in any man's life. Yet perhaps that's the point: that the self-absorbed Kane would not have been all that affected by the tragedy, as we see earlier that he doesn't take into account the effect that a disclosure of his affair with Susan might have on the child. Still, when you consider how great this film is, these are mere quibbles. Written by Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz and edited by Robert Wise.

Verdict: A certified masterpiece on virtually every level. ****.

A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS

A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS (1966) Director: Fred Zinnemann.

King Henry VIII (Robert Shaw) wants the Pope to allow him to divorce wife Catharine so that he can marry Anne Boleyn (Vanessa Redgrave). If you disagree with the King you're considered a traitor, but one man -- the Chancellor, Sir Thomas More (Paul Scofield) -- thinks that the Pope's, God's law, overrules the King's, and refuses to take an oath of loyalty on the matter. This study of a man of principle, who adheres to private conscience over public duty, is absorbing, well-acted, literately scripted (by Richard Bolt from his play), and expertly photographed by Ted Moore, with a nice musical background by Georges Delerue. Orson Welles offers one of the best performances as Cardinal Wolsey, but Leo McKern as Cromwell, Shaw as King Henry, Nigel Davenport as Norfolk, and John Hurt as Richard Rich are all quite excellent as well. Vanessa Redgrave's brother, Corin Redgrave, also makes an impression as More's son-in-law William Roper, as does Susannah York as his daughter. Wendy Hiller seems to play her role as More's wife, Lady Alice, in only one note throughout, and Scofield, although he won the Best Actor Oscar, is overly cool and theatrical, as if he had toned down his stage performance a bit too much. At times he seems perfunctory instead of impassioned, busy speaking lines instead of feeling the emotions. And the question remains: was More a principled man of courage or a self-destructive religious fool (or fanatic) who cared more for the Church than for his wife and family? The film also won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Costumes, and Best Screenplay.

Verdict: Even if you grow impatient with the the central character, the film is well-made and compelling.***.

A HEART AT FIRE'S CENTER

A HEART AT FIRE'S CENTER: The Life and Music of Bernard Herrmann. Steven C. Smith. University of California Press. 2002.

Even when I was a child, the music of Bernard Herrmann that I heard during such films as Mysterious Island, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Psycho and Vertigo reverberated in my memory. This is a superb, highly-recommended biography of the late, great film and concert/opera composer that is scrupulously researched and highly detailed while always remaining immensely readable. Herrmann, who was actually of Russian descent and not German, is depicted as an essentially decent, very talented composer who became increasingly irrational and bitter as he got older; a difficult person to deal with even if his emotional heart was sound. Smith looks at his early life and compositions; his work on Citizen Kane with Welles; his association with Alfred Hitchcock, which led to some of his greatest scores and an unfortunate break-up; his three somewhat volatile marriages; and his increasing disenchantment as he attempted to get his beautiful opera Wuthering Heights mounted in a venue he felt worthy of it. Smith examines Herrmann's musicianship and style as well as his “comeback” of sorts with Brian de Palma's Sisters and other thrillers, leading to his work on his final score for Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver. Herrmann may not always have been an easy man to take, but he had convictions and he stuck to them, no matter whose feathers got ruffled. A fascinating book of a fascinating figure. Herrmann always felt that film music should work with and bolster the visuals and never call attention to itself; ironically, Herrmann's music riveted the attention because of its sheer excellence.

Verdict: Great Biography. ****