"Camera Three" - 1967 Welles Documentary

[PT Caffey]

I've run across mention of the following 1967 documentary on Welles. Facets Video lists it as available "in several weeks." Perhaps. Has anyone seen it?

Orson Welles [videorecording] / [presented by Camera Three]. Kent, CT . IL : distributed by Facets Video], c1997. 1 videocassette (60 min.) : sd., b&w ; 1/2 in. Welles was still alive and trying to get his stalled career going again when this 1967 documentary was produced. It traces his life and creativity, with emphasis on his high ideals, the literary influences on his enthusiasms, radio productions like War of the Worlds, his years with the Work Projects Administration and John Houseman, experiments for the theater with colleagues like Peter Brook, and his budget struggles to go his own way in an entertainment business grown steadily more wary of his unconventional methods. With a wealth of photographs, and clips from some of his less well-known films, including A Man for All Seasons, Falstaff, The Trial and Touch of Evil. VHS 6110

[Jeff Wilson]

If this is what I think it is, it's really dull and basically has the host talking about Welles, interspersed with clips. I used to have a copy, but it got lost. I'd have to look at it again before I made any further comment, though.

[marcoshark]

Jeff,
I wonder if this was the docu. I saw on PBS in New York right after Welles passed away. I remember thinking at the time, "boy, the body even isn't cold yet..", not knowing about his last wishes, I guess that point is moot. At the time, It just wanted to make me go out and see more Welles movies!

Looking back at it now, I thought it was pretty good. Now, I think it would seem pretty average, even dull? Especially after seeing something like "OMB". But both docu's have the same effect: They make me want to see more Welles!

Regards,

Marc

[mteal]

The 1967 Camera Three Welles docu is OK. It's interesting to see a portrait of Welles done while he was still alive and creating, and with an air of expectation about his then latest film CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT. A couple of other good things in it: one is an audio interview with Marc Blitztien, who gives Welles credit for "unbelievable ingenuity" on the night CRADLE WILL ROCK was first performed (A definitive contradiction of Tim Robbin's film, which seemed to downplay Welles' role in the event). The other is a quote from Welles describing the Joseph K character in THE TRIAL:

"K typifies the organization man, his crime is surrendering to the system that is destroying his individuality. Yet he tries to fight it. He represents the human condition today: half alive, half dead. Conforming yet protesting, like all of us".

I don't know where that quote came from, but I think it's a good one.

There are some absurd things about the docu too, such as the price tag, which last time I checked was about $60. I think about $6 might be more reasonable.

[Glenn Anders]

Dear ptcaffey, jeff wilson, marcoshark, and mteal: If my memory is intact, Camera Three was an educational program, grounded in the Arts, sponsored by the New York School System or NEA, some institution of that sort, which played early on Saturday or Sunday mornings for decades. Very simply but solidly done, it won bushels of Emmys.

In connection with the Welles' program, I happened to notice that Camera Three did one on Bernard Herrmann, which The Bernard Herrmann Society picked up. The program is only an half hour -- must be toward the end of its tenure -- but it was narrated by another great film composer, David Raksin, who composed the score for LAURA.

Not much about Welles, but a couple of anecdotes concerning Herrmann. Here is the URL of the Transcript:

http://www.uib.no/herrmann/articles/camera_three/

While on the subject, I might also note the passing of distinguished English reporter, Alistair Cooke, who was the host of Omnibus on TV from 1951 on, for ten years or so. It was the kind of TV program that Welles tried to champion in his own early work for the medium.


Glenn