Wellesnet: The Orson Welles Web Resource

Here’s a letter Orson Welles wrote to his good friend Joseph Cotten asking him to consider appearing in his forthcoming production of The Immortal Story, that Welles was scheduled to start shooing in September of 1966. Cotten, was at the time, apparently staying near Welles’s house outside of Madrid while filming his role in Sergio Corbucci’s western, The Hellbenders.

It appears that Welles wanted Cotten to play Mr. Clay’s head clerk, Elishama Levinsky, a part that eventually went to actor Roger Coggio. As Welles notes, he would have enjoyed working with Cotten again, and casting Cotten as Mr. Clay’s clerk would have given the film more star power, as well as better balancing the film between its four principal actors.

Sadly, after reading this letter, one also realizes just how frustrated Welles was in simply trying to cast his movies, since even when he actually had the backing to make a film, he still had to essentially ask his friends to work for nothing and then hope whoever he wanted to use might actually agree.

Presumably, after Welles gave Joseph Cotten a copy of the script, Cotten didn’t especially take a liking to the screenplay or to his part - so in this letter Welles tries to convince “Jo” that while the film is obviously not “commercial” the role is still worth doing. Of course, Cotten did not do the role, and instead he went back to America to be directed by another old friend (Norman Foster), in Brighty of Grand Canyon - a sort of variation on the story of a boy and his burrow that was perhaps inspired by Foster’s and Welles’s My Friend Bonita episode of It’s All True.

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10th August, 1966

Dearest Jo,

That remark of yours about a “radio show” has brought me down with a mild case of alarm and despondency. I know there’s a staggering amount of talk in that script I sent you, but I did think there was enough story to keep it moving (admittedly at it’s own rather curious and crab-like gait). Not a film for the drive-ins, certainly — but, I’d fondly hoped, worth making all the same. If you should be tempted to comfort me by agreeing to this, you should realize that you’d be trapping yourself into ten day’s hard work for almost no money. So, I’m writing this by way of fair warning.

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Thanks to Sir Bygber Brown for posting the letters Orson Welles wrote that are currently for sale at www.abebooks.com

You can visit the site to see more details about buying the letters, but since they are selling for $2,000 and up, I don’t imagine many people can afford them! However, because they are all quite interesting, I thought I’d post some excerpts from them below.

Several of the letters are written to Leonard Lyons, an early champion of Orson Welles, whose career as a journalist was nearly wrecked by William Randolph Hearst in 1941 - (see the Time Magazine article, below). After being blackballed by Mr. Hearst, Lyons became the entertainment writer for The New York Post (pre-Rupert Murdoch, of course) and Welles became his good friend, writing frequent letters to him, giving him inside information, in hopes of getting news about his projects before American producers and readers.

In this first letter (circa 1960), Welles talks about his plan to follow bullfighters in Spain, especially Antonio Ordonez, the great matador and friend of Welles, whose farm outside Ronda is where Welles ashes were eventually interred. Ordonez also provided the germ for the idea that became Welles’s script for The Sacred Beasts. That screenplay, in turn, morphed into The Other Side of The Wind. In this letter, Welles also mentions a play he’s written, Brittle Glory, which I’ve never heard any mention of. Could it still exist somewhere among Welles’s many papers?

Hotel Esplanade
Zagreb, Yugoslavia

Dearest Lennie:

Here’s our news: Paola, Beatrice and Rebecca are in the Austrian Alps. As soon as I’m done with this dreadful picture (probably THE TARTARS), we’re joining up for a few weeks in Spain. We’ll be following Ordonez (the bull fighter), which means the south for the first ten days of September. I was in Valencia for the feria and for a few more of Antonio’s dates after that. After Spain–? Probably London. Somebody sent me a really good play from America called “The Guide” and I expect to be producing it in London either before or just after the pantomime season. Also, there’s a play of my own called “Brittle Glory.” If I can cast it right, I’ll be doing that, too. For the past few months I’ve been in a light but lingering sulk over your repeated references to Olivier’s “Rhinoceros.” (no mention of your obedient servant.) Well, now you can fix all that: (Leo) Kerz has offered me the job of directing his N.Y. production (which eventually featured Zero Mostel, Eli Wallach and Morris Carnovsky and was directed by Joseph Anthony), and in mentioning that I’ve turned it down you can right a great wrong, and finally associate me with this play!

Much love to all of you always,

Orson

___________________________

Welles was understandable upset that he wasn’t given much credit for directing Eugene Ionesco’s RHINOCEROS. But check out the program for Orson Welles’ staging of the production of RHINOCEROS when it moved to the Strand Theater, London, after opening at the Royal Court Theater:

http://www.wellesnet.com/Rhino%20program.htm

The cast list alone is astonishing. Besides Sir Laurence Oliver, Welles directed Maggie Smith - later to appear in Oliver’s version of OTHELLO, along with a host of interesting British actors, who would later become well know in hit films, such as Michael Gough (BATMAN, DRACULA), Miles Malleson (Michael Powell’s THE THIEF OF BAGDAD and Terence Fisher’s THE BRIDES OF DRACULA), Michael Bates (Kubrick’s A CLOCKWORK ORANGE), Peter Sallis (TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA), etc, etc. And strangely enough, notice how many actors in the Orson Welles production of RHINOCEROS also appeared in DRACULA movies! They include Lord Olivier (Van Helsing), Michael Gough (Arthur Holmwood), Miles Malleson, Peter Sallis and of course, Welles himself in his own famous Mercury Theater on the air radio production. Plus, Christopher Lee, who Welles directed in MOBY DICK, had a flat on Cadogan Square, only a few minutes away from The Royal Court Theater (as did Boris Karloff, who lived next door to Christopher Lee on Cadogan Square, and would soon play a vampire for the first time in Mario Bava’s BLACK SABBATH!)

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American Movie Classics blogger Christine Fall talked to Wellesnet’s webmaster Jeff Wilson for an article posted at her AMC blog that lists Wellesnet as an AMC Website of the Week!

http://blogs.amctv.com/future-of-classic/2008/07/orson-welles-wellesnet.php

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On the odd chance you haven’t already seen the news elsewhere, Universal finally announced the rumored Touch of Evil special edition DVD, one that will include all three versions of the film, namely the preview version, the release version, and the 1998 “memo restoration” version. As per the Universal press release, the set will include:

Disc 1:

1998 “Restored to Orson Welles memo” version
1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
English DD 2.0 Mono
English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles
Bringing Evil to Life
Evil Lost & Found
Audio Commentary featuring Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh and Restoration Producer Rick Schmidlin
Audio Commentary featuring Restoration Producer Rick Schmidlin
Theatrical Trailer

Disc 2:

Original 1958 release version (93 minutes)
Early 1958 preview version (found in 1975 - 108 minutes)
1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
English DD 2.0 Mono
English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles
Theatrical Version: Audio Commentary featuring F. X. Feeney
Preview Version: Audio Commentary featuring Welles scholars Joanthan Rosenbaum and James Naremore.

Plus, the complete text of Welles 58 page memo to Edward I. Muhl, Universal studios head of production in 1958:

http://www.wellesnet.com/touch_memo1.htm

The question remains about the aspect ratios of course, as both sides (academy vs. 1.85) have their arguments for and against, and will no doubt continue long after the set is released. Whether the extras on the first disc derive from the “Restoring Evil” documentary is unknown as well. Still four commentary tracks is pretty impressive, and I have to say I never expected this film to get such a lavish release. Now if we can get a Blu-Ray version, I’ll be even happier.

In celebration of TOUCH OF EVIL’s 50th Anniversary release on DVD, Wellesnet will soon be publishing an interview with Bob O’ Neill, Univeral’s head of restoration, who  talks exclusively to  Wellesnet about the  problems he encountered in restoring Orson Welles’s TOUCH OF EVIL.

Introduction

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Although In the Land of Don Quixote is essentially a travelogue about Spain, it’s done by a film artist, and as such, it is possibly one of the most poetic documentaries I’ve yet to see on any country. Seeing it today, years later, it still seems quite unique. Unfortunately, like most of Welles work, it’s no real surprise that it has never been widely seen. It was first broadcast on RAI, the Italian TV station in 1964, and afterwards seems to have disappeared almost entirely. As far as I can tell it was never shown in America until 1986, when it appeared as part of the AFI’s National video festival, which offered a comprehensive survey on most of the work Orson Welles had made for television.

However, back in 1964, RAI supposedly felt that using Welles own voice as the narrator would be too “American” so they added a new narration, written by the Italian playwright Gian Paolo Callegari with the assistance of Antonio Navarro Linares. It was spoken by the actor Arnoldo Foa, who had appeared in The Trial. Naturally, Welles had wanted to either use his own narration, or else have none at all! Based on seeing the first episode, I think having no narration at all works quite beautifully.

Recently RAI restored the series closer to Welles original intentions, by re-working the soundtrack so that the offending voice-over track was eliminated and the music and effects tracks are now much closer to the plan indicated by Welles. Hopefully, some enterprising DVD company will attempt to buy the rights to this series for an eventually DVD release in America. It would certainly be a welcome addition to the Welles oeuvre!

Meanwhile, to fill in the gaps on this seldom seen Welles documentary, I asked Juan Cobos, the assistant director to Orson Welles on Chimes at Midnight, to provide Wellesnet with some details. Juan wrote back in great detail, both before and after he viewed his own sub-standard video copy of In The Land of Don Quixote, that he had recorded from Italian TV (with the offending narration intact.)

Below is Juan’s report. Also, there is a link to Juan Cobo’s article THE SAD STORIES OF A NOBLEMAN FROM WISCONSIN. The article follows the efforts of Orson Welles to make his film version of DON QUIXOTE from 1956 in Mexico until the last days of his life in Hollywood. Juan tells me he gathered all the facts about DON QUIXOTE from the very best sources, including letters Welles wrote to his leading players Akim Tamiroff and Francisco Reiguera. Unfortunately, the article is entirely in Spanish  -  So if anyone out there is fluent in Spanish and would like to help translate the article, please get in touch with me at: (lrfrench@yahoo.com ), as Juan would like to add a few corrections and additions to the piece, if someone can help us translate the piece for posting at Wellesnet in English! The article also has many rare pictures from Welles’s Don Quixote:

www.cervantesvirtual.com/servlet/SirveObras/67925171981246129343457/p0000001.htm

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IN THE LAND OF DON QUIXOTE

By JUAN COBOS

_________________________________

In the Land of Don Quixote is nearer in approach to Welles first trip to Spain as a young man in the early thirties, than to the present day Spain, but some of the things in the series are very nice. It was produced by RAI (Italian State TV) but was never shown in Spain. Welles always liked to visit many places in Spain, which I discovered after he sent me looking for locations he could use for Chimes at Midnight. However, Andalucia (in the south of Spain) was undoubtedly his favorite destination. In the beginning, Welles thought of In the Land of Don Quixote as a visit to Spain by an American family, which explains the presence of (his wife) Paola and (daughter) Beatrice in many of the shots. It also shows Orson’s proud regard for little Beatrice, who was only six years old.

The first time I asked Welles about the series, he said to me, “Juan, it’s just a travelogue.” I agree and I cannot imagine that he ever approved the final cut that was shown on RAI-TV in 1964. I think he only partially cut the series, and he certainly didn’t want the spoken narration that was used.

It seems the main reason he made In the Land of Don Quixote was to get help and travel expenses for financing the making of his film version of Don Quixote. In fact, there was a whole episode with Akim Tamiroff that Welles filmed twice for Don Quixote, first in Mexico in 1957 and then again in Spain, in the early sixties at the festivities of San Fermin in Pamplona (that Hemingway made famous with his novel The Sun Also Rises).

I included some explanations about it in my book, Orson Welles: España Como Obsession, published in 1992 by the Filmoteca de España. Unhappily, I only have a rather poor video copy of In the Land of Don Quixote, taped from Italian TV. It has never been for sale in Spain in any format, including DVD.

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