Rosenbaum Interview Posted

[Tony]

We seem to be assuming that Bogdanovich is telling the truth; is it possible that Welles gave Bogdanovich the info for the article (probably witihin the scope of the interviews), so Bogdanovich wanted to give proper credit to Welles, but overstated the truth?

It's All Lies/True

[mteal]

Yes, I think it's likely Welles gave Bogdanovich most of the info thru the interviews, and then as Bogdanovich says, took a strong hand in rewriting and revising the article. All of which suggests that the article is essentially by Welles. It was Oja Kodar who told Rosenbaum that Welles wrote ALL of it, which is certainly possible too. That Welles should write and take no credit for a piece that responds to an accusation that he took credit for a screenplay that he didn't write, seems like a typical Wellesian irony.

Fantomas,
That Munich archive sounds very impressive. It would be great to get a complete list of what it contains sometime. What is SANTO SPIRITO? I've never heard of it. OPERATION CENDRILLON is said to be one of the best of Welles' unfilmed screenplays. Have you ever read it? And do you know what the MERCEDES screenplay is about? Thanks for any info.

[fantomas]

mteal,
I just discovered your questions.
I looked into these screenplays only for minutes, I had no time to read them completely. My notices say that SANTO SPIRITO is a period piece taking place on ships and ending at Waterloo. MERCEDES is the adaption of Oja Kodar's story BLIND WINDOW and takes place in Spain. OPERATION CINDERELLA (that's the correct title) was written in October 1952 and takes place in a village "on the top of a high hill", "not far from Naples". The time is "the early summer of 1952". A remark in the introduction says "today, the Cinderella story is only possible in terms of the movies, and the only glass slipper is a Hollywood contract...".

[mteal]

Thanks Fantomas, for the info, and for clearing that up about OPERATION CINDERELLA (I can't remember where I heard it referred to as "Cendrillon").

So I guess MERCEDES is yet another example of Welles having fallen under the spell of his last great muse, Oja Kodar. He certainly seems to have done alot of work with her. A shame most of it was for naught. Looks like SANTO SPIRITO is another Napoleon-era story to go with Welles' screenplay for WAR AND PEACE. I cross-referenced Gregory Arkadin's website and found two possible matches: SANTA, a 1940 screenplay written for DeloresDel Rio, and the 1969 untitled female pirate film writtten for Jane Fonda and Pearl Bailey.

[fantomas]

mteal:

Yes, you're right, SANTO SPIRITO is the 1969 comedy about female pirates. It deals with two sailors who flee their gambling debts and meet a woman who just has murdered her second husband. They flee in a sailing ship and are captured by these female pirates. The leader is Black Tiger, others have names like Dirty Gertie, Sugar-Tit, Snag-Tooth Miriam, Juicy Jane, Pick-Your-Nose Wilma, Poxie Doxy and Daisy La Rouge. One female pirate is a disguised British Captain who frees the three captured. He enlistens the two sailors in the British army and takes the woman as well as the pirate's treasure for himself. The film ends with a shot of the Waterloo battlefield where the two sailors were killed.
It's a funny screenplay, and so are even some notes in the screenplay like "a series of shots (what used to be called a 'montage')" or the description of characters like "The chieftain's trusted adjutant wears formidable falsies, foot-long eyelashes and brighty sequined eye-lids. (A strapping male actor plays this part under the inspiration of Danny La Rue and Mae West.)". The only actor's names which are mentioned are Edward G. Robinson or George Raft to play Beau Skouras, a gangster in a casino. But it's eays to imagine Jane Fonda, Pearl Bailey and Oja Kodar in it.

[mteal]

Nice description, Fantomas - makes me want to read it, although I don't suppose there's much chance of it being published. Wouldn't it be great if there were more of these unpublished Welles screenplays available, whether commercially or on the grey market. Rosenbaum, in his afterword to the published edition of THE CRADLE WILL ROCK screenplay, said that Welles did write alot of stylish descriptions of action and character into his screenplays (like the examples you gave), almost as if he suspected they would not get a chance to exist in any other form but print.

Sounds like SANTO SPIRITO would have been an entertaining movie. Although all his films do have quirky senses of humor, there are no Welles-directed movies that could be called comedies, and he even said in interviews that he wanted to direct one. It would have been nice to have seen more of this side of his artistic persona.

[Welles Fan]

Is The Kane Mutiny you guys are referring to the same article that appears in the book of articles edited by Ronald Gottesman- Focus on Orson Welles? Isn't it just an article that is largely made up of the interviews Bogdonavich later published?