Orson books to avoid? - or, at least, not taken seriously?

[Jaime N. Christley]

From Jeff's extensive list of OW biographies and books on his films, which titles are to be avoided?

I've heard that, if you want a truthful account of his life and his work, the following should be neatly sidestepped:

Orson Welles: The Road to Xanadu (Callow)
Orson Welles, The Rise and Fall of an American Genius (Higham)
Orson Welles, A Biography (Leaming)

and especially

Rosebud: The Story of Orson Welles (Thomson)

[Obssessed_with_Orson]

any book by mr. higham should be avoided.
i got one as a gift. i took a stick that had a very long screw in it, and screwed a hole in the middle of it. and like "RKO281" banned it from my shelf.

took out the pictures, and white-outed mr. higham's name underneath each one.

i would say the same for mr. thomson too. i have not read it yet, but have seen few reviews of it.

what about the citizen kane book? wasn't that another negative towards orson? or does it just contain the screenplay?

oh well!

bye now

[jaime marzol]

MY 2 CENTS, offered at no charge to the members of wellesnet:

totally agree with jeff's list. also carringer has a way of assigning credit to the studio janitor for all of the great things in kane, and ambersons.

the maurice bessy book is interesting. focus on ck, and focus on ow are both well worth the trouble of getting from library and pirating yourself a copy because both are out of print. the rutger's CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT is excellent. the james naremore book is super excellent. the frank brady book is the only bio really.

the bret wood OW is a tremendous resource.

the houseman book, A RUN THROUGH, is a tremendous read. it said some awfull things about welles that i felt were exagerated, but hillarious, and true. this is probably, to me anyway, the 4th most interesting welles book, after frank brady, this os ow, and the naremore book.

rutger's touch of evil is a helpful book, the lebo ck book is excellent. the john russel taylor book and the james howard books are pedestrian. the mcbride book is very good. the peter cowie book is suck-ola at best, it's not mean spirited, it's just lame.

and a lot of people think the OW, SHAKESPEARE, AND POPULAR CULTURE is a great read. i have not felt like that yet. it's in my library, but so far it's been another $15 pissed away on something else taking up space.

and PUT MONEY IN THY PURSE is excellent. only it's topic i think keeps this from being considered a classic piece of writing. macliammoir's writing style in this little offering is absolutely marvelous. have read it 2 1/2 times.

[Rick Schmidlin]

I was a party last night that both Gary Graver and Joe McBride where at. It was a reception for Curtis Harrington's new short film "Usher" which was really great .Norman Lloyd among others where also there. Joe told me is is writeing a new Welles book so now you guys have a first scope on what I think will be a great read.

[sergio]

Good to know that Lloyd Nolan still gets around (I thought he died in 1985!) - just watched INTERNES CAN'T TAKE MONEY from 1937 in which he is sensational as a gangster with a heart of gold!

I wouldn't want to disagree with the man that made us all forever grateful with the wonderful new version of TOUCH OF EVIL, but on the other hand, maybe Norman Lloyd was there instead....

Incidentally, while I agree completely with Jaime that the Brady and Naremore books are very much the best overall books available on Welles and his films, I would also add VF Perkins recent book on AMBERSONS amongst my personal favourites...

..also, Thomson's book is mostly an unsympathetic look but I don't feel that it is entirely without merit - I think that Joseph McBride's book(s) on Welles are very interesting, but his book on Capra (CATASTROPHE OF SUCCESS) in absolutely spell-binding in its vitriol, as we experience McBride's own growing disenchantment on Capra the man in contrast with Capra the legend.

Thomson's book does offer some interesting insights and is worth reading for those, but once you've finished you do realise that he doesn't really like Welles at all and that therefore he tends to embrace the negative interpretation when at all possible - I don't agree with that, and I don't really recommend the book for everyone, but Thomson is a very bright guy and ROSEBUD does offer some real food for thought - it just won't be to everyone's taste (not even mine)...

Incidentally, does anyone know if Callow is ever going to do Volume 2 of his biog? He came to a lecture I gave on TOUCH OF EVIL last year but I wasn't able to grab him and ask...

[sergio]

Apologies, I just posted the same email twice...

[Jeff Wilson]

I get the impression that Callow's second volume is not coming anytime soon, if at all. And I second the opinion on the Perkins Ambersons book, it's absolutely excellent. Rosebud has very little merit for me, in part because of Thomson's clear dislike for Welles (objectivity? what's that?), and in part because it seems clear he made very little effort to do much research. Never mind the silly "conversations" between Thomson and his "publisher," and wacko theories like the one that just maybe Welles was Peter O'Toole's father, since he was in Ireland at the time of O'Toole's conception. I'm sure he meant it partially in jest (at least that's what I hope), but it's ridiculous all the same.

Glad to hear McBride is writing a new Welles book; his Capra book was fascinating, and I hope to get around to his recent John Ford book at some point.

And While I'm on the topic of books, let me recommend David Nasaw's bio of Hearst, The Chief, which includes a chapter on Kane. It's well worth reading on its own, though.

[mteal]

Where can the VP Perkins Ambersons book be ordered from? I know I asked this before, but I didn't get a chance to order it before the old Wellesnet got blown away. Thanks for any info.

[Jeff Wilson]

It can be obtained just about anywhere, I'd think. Ordered mine from a local Borders, which ended up carrying it in store, eventually. It's part of the BFI Classics series.

[Obssessed_with_Orson]

if we do have any of the books in the books to avoid list, what should we do with them?

just not read them again. since i already did anyway.

or dispose of them?

[LA]

Jaime N. C.: Here's my view: I second what many people have said: avoid Callow and Thomson.

Re: Callow's second volume, he's apparently having trouble with that, as he's been told by his publisher that he has to make Volume 2 roughly the same length as Road to Xanadu, so, as there isn't going to be a third volume, he has to fit in the remaining 45 years of OW's life into the same space where he previously fitted 25 years.
Re: Thomson, he seems to be part of a growing school of biographers who hold their subjects in contempt. Why write about people you despise? I can't understand it.
(Incidentally, I recently bought Scorsese On Scorsese, and the editor credits at first suprised me: How could such a great book have been co-edited by the author of Rosebud? Then I realised that the co-editor of Scorsese On Scorsese, David THOMPSON, was a different person from the author of Rosebud, David Thomson.)

Best Welles biog IMHO is Brady's Citizen Welles. Well-written, well-researched, no axe to grind.

[jaime marzol]

SCORSESE ON SCORSESE is a great book. loved every minute of it. bogdanovich's PIECES OF TIME, another great offering. sarris, INTEVIEW WITH FILM DIRECTORS, excellent. bogdanovich's WHO THE DEVIL MADE IT, great.

have heard several friends blubbering on sidney lummet's book about filmmaking. any one read this?

hitchcock's notebook, tantalising title, slightly limp. hitch by truffaut, worth the read. don't get stuck with the pocket book version. my copy is almost 4 feet tall, 2 feet wide.

FILM FORM, BY eisenstein after a few hair pulling starts, this book really jives.
.
,pretty good.

[jaime marzol]

.....................

nat:
it is my personal beleif that anytime anyone purchases a book that you feel is a total pack of lies, and unfairly degrades the topic, the reader should make it his duty to find the writer's address, put the book in a box along with a nasty letter, and 2 bait mullets, and mail it to him third class mail.

if everyone did this writers would be more careful when they write books because they would incure those huge, mullet and book removal charges. imagine if all had done that with THE FILMS OF OW, every higham book after that would have taken a different tone, or he would have gone into hiding to do his creepy work.

[sergio]

David Thompson is a TV producer and writer (he wrote a book on LAST TANGO IN PARIS for the BFI Modern Classics series as well), in case you were wondering.

I rather liked Lumet's book on film directing, though it is a rather small book and is fundamentally meant to be taken as a "how to" sort of thing.

re: mteal - if you're going to get the BFI Classics book on AMBERSONS by Victor Perkins, then maybe you should also get the one by Laura Mulvey on CITIZEN KANE - it's a psycho-analytical reading, but I really enjoyed it.

Incidentally, shameless plug here, the new BFI Classic on VERTIGO is by Charles Barr and I get a great big thank you in the acknowledgements...It's also a damm good book.

The book I really want to read on Welles of course would be another one by Jonathan Rosenbaum - could Rick talk him into it?

One can hope...

[Peter Tonguette]

I've read most of the books mentioned in this thread, but not Leaming's. What's the consensus on her book? I'm curious because I know that OW was heavily interviewed for it and even appearing w/ Leaming on Merv Griffin (?) shortly before his death.

Thanks,
Peter