newbie question - from a stupid noob

[Nate H]

why didnt Welles and Toland make another film together? how did Stanley Cortez come into the picture for Ambersons?

and somewhat related to this, why did they abandon the Life of Christ? wasnt that to be a Welles/Toland pic?

[Glenn Anders]

Yes, Nate, there was talk of a life of Christ, shot in a "Western" setting, and Welles said that he and Toland scouted locations for it. The coming of the War changed plans for both men. Toland, who had worked with John Ford on THE LONG VOYAGE HOME, went to work for him making Naval war documentaries, especially a reconstruction of the Japanese December 7, 1941 attack at Pearl Harbor, which now often passes for history on TV.

To fill the gap left by Toland's departure, Welles turned to Stanley Cortez, who came highly recommended, for the photography on THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS. Unfortunately, Welles had been spoiled by the swift brilliance of Toland, and he quickly grew impatient, given time and financial pressures from the RKO Head Office, with the much more careful and slow style of Cortez. They did not get along.

Cortez was no slouch, as his work on NIGHT OF THE HUNTER for Charles Laughton showed.

Hope that helps.

Glenn

[jaime marzol]

after the war, toland and welles never worked together again because toland signed a long term contract for i think was the goldwyn studios where he made crap till his death, but he got a healthy paycheck for that crap.

welles says to bogdanovich that he never knew what toland was really like till they were in mexico scouting locations for the life of christ. on the tapes welles said nothing else about that. then i read that welles was berrated for not going in the service by ford's cronnies. i imagined he meant ward bond and some of bond's extreme right wing pals, and i always wondered if that included toland. i could not imagine bond berating welles for not going in the service when john wayne didn't go in the service, but they did.

anyway, years later i found a quote from the welles bogdanovich tapes that is not in the book, or the tapes. welles said he found out what toland was like when they were in mexico, toland was a real swinger.

in a ford documentary i have it says the war department hated toland's film so much that ford had recut and refilm, and that was the end of toland's career as director

[Nate H]

wow, very interesting stuff. thanks for the replies Glenn and Jaime

I was just looking on IMDB and noticed he worked on Song of the South. its too bad Disney will never make this available

can you recommend any other films that are particularly good examples of Toland's work? the only one I know is Grapes

[Glenn Anders]

Nate H: For a man who died so young, Toland went back to the 1920's, SADIE THOMPSON (1928) being the best of the early stuff, in my opinion. Aside from his photography for THE LONG VOYAGE HOME which I may like better than that for CITIZEN KANE, he did THE WESTERNER, BALL OF FIRE, WUTHERING HEIGHTS, THE GRAPES OF WRATH, and THE BEST DAYS OF OUR LIVES, among a number of other distinguished and popular films.

Glenn

[Tony]

On the unedited version of the Welles /Bogdanovich tapes, Welles really lays into Cortez; he calls him "criminally slow", and pretty much the reason they got so behind schedule on Ambersons, necessitating Welles' leaving the film in his editor's hands when he went to Brazil. Welles also calls Cortez a "terrible sh#t", (that's a quote, Jeff ) and that nobody liked him, and that towards the end of the shoot, Welles would fire Cortez regularily for being behind schedule, and Cortez would cry and sulk in a corner, while
Welles himself would light the sets. But welles asks Bogdanovich to not include the story in the book, because he says that Cortez is still working in the business. Coincidentally, I've just been reading a book on the making of The Night of the Hunter, and the producer says that Cortez was really slow on that picture, and slowed down the whole production, giving them trouble from the head office. If Toland had shot Ambersons, I believe we would have all of it. Cortez is interviewed in the book on "Hunter", and I've also seen him interviwed years ago on tv, and he's the kind of guy who wears a cravatte and always refers to himself in the 3rd person: "Cortez thought up that idea, and Orson...or was it Charles.... went along with him." Still, he was the main cinematographer on 2 of the most beautiful pictures ever to come out of hollywood, and I guess we just have to admit that, yeah, he was a pretentious sh#t, and criminally slow, but also one of the top five cinematographers ever to come out of hollywood, so...