Making Movies w Orson Welles: A Memoir by Gary Graver et al

[Harvey Chartrand]

Two Wellesnet scribes are nominated for Rondo Awards (http://www.rondoaward.com) for Best Article of 2008:

-- 'Cinematographer Gary Graver: The Man Who Shot Everything,' by Harvey Chartrand, PENNY BLOOD #11. One of last interviews with man behind the lens of Dracula vs. Frankenstein and Naschy films.

-- 'California Gothic: The Corman/Haller Collaboration,' roundtable with Roger Corman, Daniel Haller, Joe Dante, moderated by Lawrence French, VIDEO WATCHDOG #138. Tales from the sets of the Poe films and more.

The awards are named in honor of Rondo Hatton, the acromegalic movie actor of the 1940s who played monsters but couldn’t take the "makeup" off after his scenes were shot. Hatton was best known as "the Creeper" in The Brute Man, House of Horrors and The Pearl of Death.

[Glenn Anders]

All Hail our Gothic Heroes: Chartrand and French!

I just happened to catch that little sleeper, THE ROCKETEER (1991), on the tube the other day. The film, among its other gentle homages to Hollywood of the 1930's and 1940's, contains one to Rondo Hatton, in the form Tiny Ron, who plays Lothar (as in Mandrake the Magician)/Good Old Boy, an excellent double for Hatton. Director Joe Johnson, I see, has just completed a remake of THE WOLFMAN, with Bernicio del Toro, Emily Blunt, and Anthony Hopkins. Sounds like a film you and Mr. French might be interested in.

Glenn

[Tony]

I've just finished reading "Making movies with Orson Welles" and I must say I was terribly dissappointed. I have the laser disc of Gary's "Working with Welles" which is amateurish but interesting if you're into Welles and movies, and I enjoyed watching Gary's documentary on his own movies, but this book seems to be a bit of a fake to me. The first chapter seems to be in Gary's voice, but as the chapters go by I increasingly got the feeling that Andrew Rausch had taken over and was writing the book based on stories he heard from Gary, perhaps notes from Gary, and also that possibly parts of the book have been cribbed from other sources. In addition, the book is badly written, full of cliches and dull passages. I just hacked my way through it in the hopes I'd get a nugget of info I hadn't heard before, but really I got very little. And there are several errors: for example, it's been known for years that after the AFI show Welles got an offer of funding for TOSOTW but that he didn't accept it, incorrectly believing that many other better offers would soon be forthcoming. But in this book, no offers came forward, leading me to believe that Andrew Rausch simply didn't know the facts in this case.

From the intro by Rausch one gets the idea that this was a sincere attempt to pay homage to Gary, but sadly I think it's a rather poorly done attempt. Oh yes: in the forward Joeseph McBride makes what I think is an exagerrated claim: "To Gary we owe the last fifteen years of Welles's career, from 1970 through 1985..." Surely this is hyperbole: the notion that Welles would have done nothing after 1969 if it hadn't been for Gary seems unlikely.

I did meet Gary once, very briefly, at one of his travelling presentations: he seemed a very sincere, sweet man whose devotion to Welles seemed undimmed by the years, and who explained everything in a straightforward, uncomplicated manner. I wish this book were a better tribute to his memory.

[tonyw]

I don't know if Harvey has mentioned this before. If not, he is being professionally modest. However, the latest issue of the magazine PENNY BLOOD has an interview he conducted with Gary Graver. The issue also contains a good article about the harassment suffered by Savoy Books and Records in England, It is run by two friends of mine.

[Glenn Anders]

There's a sincere, almost touching, "Let's set up a camera in the backyard and make a movie" quality about Graver's WORKING WITH WELLES, tony [1 &2]. It's very much in the spirit of Welles. How Graver must have hoped that THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND would come out before he died!

Speaking of TOSOTW, last night, I was exploring my latest hobby horse, Turner's "Classic Film Union," and on a lark to test its touted 150,000 movie archive, I typed into the Favorite Films' search box: "THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND." [I thought that fair enough because I have seen several hours of the footage, if not so much as Toddy and Mr. French have.] To my bleary-eyed surprise and delight, up came the film, listed as starring Orson Welles and Henry Jaglom! Doing my bit, I registered myself as its first "fan," and now I see that it has picked up one or two more movie lovers.

The lesson is, I guess, that Turner Classic Movies is prepared for the release of TOSOTW, in no matter what distant time (though they are careful to say, if one follows the thread far enough, that "No material is available.")

Glenn