I've always liked to read interviews with people from Welles' life and projects. It's fascinating to get their view of what the 'Booming Voice' and manic genius was like to be around. John Houseman, John Huston, etc have published books/biographies where they talk about him, but elsewhere there are reams and reams of discussions on Welles by his peers. So if Mr. Wilson doesn't mind (and if there's no infringement applied, otherwise I expect this to be tossed tout sweet!) I've gleaned a couple of brief snippets of interviews with those from around Welles. It'd be great, if anyone else likes this kind of stuff, if others added to the file...
PAUL STEWART AT BERNARD HERRMANN'S WEBSITE www.uib.no/herrmann/articles/smith/stewart/
I remember when we became the Campbell Playhouse, we were trying to change our theme. I can't remember if it was to Richard Strauss or Wagner. But the problem was, we couldn't find a point in the piece where the music came down and Orson could say, "Good evening...this is the Campbell Playhouse..." We fooled with it and fooled with it, and Benny finally said, "Let's go back to what we have!"
You know, I don't think I ever saw Benny happy. He always seemed very impatient, and it was his impatience and his apparent lack of humor that made him the butt of many jokes by Welles and Houseman; he was teased a lot to show this side of his personality. The orchestra did it more than anybody; they were so pleased that time when I took his baton.
There would be a frantic fight literally to the last second to get [each program] on the air every Sunday. Between Welles and Houseman and myself, there would be [script] pages crossed out - and we'd always have to cut Benny down; he'd be saying, "Why didn't ya tell me? How can I do this?!"...
Steven C. Smith: In his autobiography, Houseman says of Herrmann and Welles, "Amid the snapping of batons and the hurling of scripts and scores into the air, the two men came to understand each other perfectly."
Stewart: Welles didn't have that kind of temper; there were more people throwing things at Welles than Welles throwing things. I can't remember him every getting that angry. I remember in Leidecrantz Hall, [Welles assistant and actor] William Alland - who had an enormous temper - picked up a chair that we could hardly ever move - and threw it across the studio at Orson, missing him, thankfully! I've never heard Orson laugh so hard - and he has a pretty hearty laugh. He thought it was the funniest thing he'd ever seen, because the cause was so unimportant.
-30-
JEANNE MOREAU
www.salonmag.com/people/bc/2001/12/06/m ... ndex2.html
We begin by talking about her role in Joseph Losey's film. "When you play a character like Eva, does the anger stay with you? Was it ...?"
"There's no anger."
"No anger?"
"No," Moreau says. "We prepare the suitcase. Orson Welles taught me that. You prepare your suitcase -- meaning the costumes of biography. So the anger comes when it's needed. And even if on the day of the shoot, Orson would say, 'We're not shooting that scene, I don't like it anymore, I wrote another one,' I didn't mind, because being the character is like being in your own life. You know, before you go to bed, you know exactly what are your appointments for the day after ... And suddenly, someone says to you, Jeanne Moreau can't see you at 6, and you have to change gears, and come a little earlier ...
...
After Orson Welles' European relocation, Moreau fast became his favorite pinch hitter. She appeared in three complete films and one aborted project, which for a Welles collaborator must be some kind of record. First, in 1962, she had the small role of Miss Burstner in his underrated film of Kafka's "The Trial," throwing a tantrum that reduces Anthony Perkins to mush, and finally garnering one of the best close-ups in any Welles film, magnificently framed as she shrieks, "Get out of my room!" Then, in 1965, Moreau played Doll Tearsheet, in all her unexpurgated glory, cuddling with Welles' Falstaff in "Chimes at Midnight." Three years later she was cast as Virginie, wife of Welles' curmudgeonly Mr. Clay in "The Immortal Story," his first film in color; a subdued, perfect 58-minute miniature originally shot for television, but given a European theatrical release. Finally, she was Rae Ingram in his "The Deep," shot intermittently off the coast of Yugoslavia between 1968 and 1973, when the production was aborted, following the death of costar Lawrence Harvey. (Years later, "The Deep" would be made in Australia as "Dead Calm," a terse thriller early in the careers of Nicole Kidman, Sam Neill and Billy Zane).
Welles called Moreau "the greatest actress in the world" and the admiration was mutual. To this day, Welles is a topic Moreau addresses with particular warmth. When she wrote and wanted to direct her first film, "Lumiere" (1975), she consulted many of her director friends, almost all of whom were against the idea. Even Truffaut read her script and returned it with so many pages of notes and suggestions she felt he'd turned it into a Truffaut film. "[Francois] started really not to like me at all when I wanted to direct," Moreau tells me. "The only man who was behind me was Orson." After "Lumiere," Moreau went on to direct "L'Adolescent" in 1979, and a documentary on Lillian Gish for the American Film Institute in 1984.
The experience not only added to her respect for Welles, but also confirmed a broader suspicion. "Nearly all the film directors are macho," she says, flexing her own bicep. "Except Buñuel. He was a crazy man."
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Words on Welles
12 posts
• Page 1 of 1
by dmolson » Tue Jan 29, 2002 3:47 am
The story behind OW's the Big Brass Ring is tear-jerking, how he had the financing offered if he could get one of six star actors to step up and take the role of the politician. A few years ago the script was made. After seeing the filmed version, I was disappointed and almost wished they had left it just as a screenplay. But there were some hearty performances, especially Nigel Hawthorne.
Here's an excerpt from an interview of the late British actor on the film and Welles:
http://www.tipjar.com/dan/hawthorne.htm
Hawthorne has also completed work on a movie whose chief architect is no longer around to see it. The Big Brass Ring is an adaptation of one of Orson Welles' last scripts.
"It's very hard to make these sort of hypothetical judgments, but (Welles) was a man out of his time," Hawthorne says. "A lot of his writing is full of his genius, and certainly The Big Brass Ring has got all of that flair and feeling for words. I've read biographies of Welles that have said that nobody should ever do The Big Brass Ring because it was really awful. What F.X. Feeney (who also wrote Frankenstein Unbound) did was honor what Welles had written and at the same time elaborate on it in a way in which he hoped that Welles would have approved. I would never have done the movie if I had felt it went against Welles' style. I can't say his intentions, because I don't know what they were. I hope he's looking down from above and thinking, 'That's not half bad. I'd love to have written that movie.'"
Here's an excerpt from an interview of the late British actor on the film and Welles:
http://www.tipjar.com/dan/hawthorne.htm
Hawthorne has also completed work on a movie whose chief architect is no longer around to see it. The Big Brass Ring is an adaptation of one of Orson Welles' last scripts.
"It's very hard to make these sort of hypothetical judgments, but (Welles) was a man out of his time," Hawthorne says. "A lot of his writing is full of his genius, and certainly The Big Brass Ring has got all of that flair and feeling for words. I've read biographies of Welles that have said that nobody should ever do The Big Brass Ring because it was really awful. What F.X. Feeney (who also wrote Frankenstein Unbound) did was honor what Welles had written and at the same time elaborate on it in a way in which he hoped that Welles would have approved. I would never have done the movie if I had felt it went against Welles' style. I can't say his intentions, because I don't know what they were. I hope he's looking down from above and thinking, 'That's not half bad. I'd love to have written that movie.'"
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dmolson - Wellesnet Veteran
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by dmolson » Tue Jan 29, 2002 4:00 am
A lot of great actors appeared in OW productions on the stage and radio, where he was first proclaimed a genius. Vincent Price was a part of that theatre scene with Welles and Houseman...
http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/virginia/345/intevw.html
LAWRENCE FRENCH: How did you like working with Orson Welles?
VINCENT PRICE: Welles was a marvelous director. I did two plays with him, THE SHOEMAKER'S HOLIDAY and HEARTBREAK HOUSE. He was a really brilliant director, although I never thought he was a very good actor. I mean he's too Orson Welles. There's absolutely no characterization at all. More he did when he was young, then he does now, because he really is a caricature of himself now. I mean, that fat!
LAWRENCE FRENCH: Was Welles as undisciplined as some people have claimed?
VINCENT PRICE: He was completely undisciplined. You see, he had the theater like that! (holds up his hand in a fist). I would have loved to have worked with him again, but everybody in the Mercury Theater had a bit of a falling out with Orson. There were two plays we were supposed to do, Oscar Wilde's THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING ERNEST, and John Webster's THE DUCHESS OF MALFI (intriguingly described by a Mercury press release as, "one of the great horror plays of all time"). My then wife, Edith Barrett was going to be in THE DUCHESS OF MALFI as well. Orson was going to direct both of them, and the actors had contracts to do them. Then, when we went to rehearse them, Orson never showed up. He didn't show up for either show. He just decided he didn't want to do them, but he didn't bother to tell the actors.
LAWRENCE FRENCH: One book on Welles claims he had a fear of completion.
VINCENT PRICE: I think so. Like Michelangelo. I think he could have been the greatest director of the American theater and of the cinema, but there was something missing there.
LAWRENCE FRENCH: It's sad, because when Welles directs, his films are so brilliant. I think his CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT (FALSTAFF) is one of the greatest films ever made.
VINCENT PRICE: And CITIZEN KANE. THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS I saw the other day, and it falls apart completely at the end.
http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/virginia/345/intevw.html
LAWRENCE FRENCH: How did you like working with Orson Welles?
VINCENT PRICE: Welles was a marvelous director. I did two plays with him, THE SHOEMAKER'S HOLIDAY and HEARTBREAK HOUSE. He was a really brilliant director, although I never thought he was a very good actor. I mean he's too Orson Welles. There's absolutely no characterization at all. More he did when he was young, then he does now, because he really is a caricature of himself now. I mean, that fat!
LAWRENCE FRENCH: Was Welles as undisciplined as some people have claimed?
VINCENT PRICE: He was completely undisciplined. You see, he had the theater like that! (holds up his hand in a fist). I would have loved to have worked with him again, but everybody in the Mercury Theater had a bit of a falling out with Orson. There were two plays we were supposed to do, Oscar Wilde's THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING ERNEST, and John Webster's THE DUCHESS OF MALFI (intriguingly described by a Mercury press release as, "one of the great horror plays of all time"). My then wife, Edith Barrett was going to be in THE DUCHESS OF MALFI as well. Orson was going to direct both of them, and the actors had contracts to do them. Then, when we went to rehearse them, Orson never showed up. He didn't show up for either show. He just decided he didn't want to do them, but he didn't bother to tell the actors.
LAWRENCE FRENCH: One book on Welles claims he had a fear of completion.
VINCENT PRICE: I think so. Like Michelangelo. I think he could have been the greatest director of the American theater and of the cinema, but there was something missing there.
LAWRENCE FRENCH: It's sad, because when Welles directs, his films are so brilliant. I think his CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT (FALSTAFF) is one of the greatest films ever made.
VINCENT PRICE: And CITIZEN KANE. THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS I saw the other day, and it falls apart completely at the end.
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dmolson - Wellesnet Veteran
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by dmolson » Tue Jan 29, 2002 7:47 pm
David Ambrose
http://www.davidambrose.com/biog.htm
Before Hollywood Ambrose wrote plays like Siege starring Alastair Sim, Stanley Holloway and Michael Bryant, and anticipates a revival of Abra Cadaver. What lured him into the movies was Orson Welles.
‘He was in Robert Siodmak's Battle for Rome; playing the Emperor Justinian in Romania and the script didn't work. I did three months rewriting on a daily basis. Everyone was scared shitless of him, so they sent the kid. I showed up at his hotel room and here was this enormous figure in a Mao suit, foot-long cigar, squinting at me. He told me he was on the wagon, poured me a tumbler of whisky, and proceeded to read through my scenes, grunting and puffing on his cigar. He said, "There's one problem. I can't play this. I'm what the French call ‘The King Actor' so I can't react to people. People have to react to me". So I had to go round to Laurence Harvey and the rest of the cast and say, Orson's going to have your line here. I got all the stick from their managers.
‘But Orson was great. We went to dinner in a black market restaurant in Bucharest, and fortunately he got fed up with sipping Perrier, doctor's orders, and fell off the wagon with a big thump. Thought he'd have a vodka and put a bottle away. We ended up living in a castle together. One thing I remember him saying was, "You're using ambiguity in the wrong way. You're using it as a smokescreen to hide behind because you don't know what you're saying. Ambiguity must be a scalpel". Such perception! I got a complete film course personally from Orson Welles'.
http://www.davidambrose.com/biog.htm
Before Hollywood Ambrose wrote plays like Siege starring Alastair Sim, Stanley Holloway and Michael Bryant, and anticipates a revival of Abra Cadaver. What lured him into the movies was Orson Welles.
‘He was in Robert Siodmak's Battle for Rome; playing the Emperor Justinian in Romania and the script didn't work. I did three months rewriting on a daily basis. Everyone was scared shitless of him, so they sent the kid. I showed up at his hotel room and here was this enormous figure in a Mao suit, foot-long cigar, squinting at me. He told me he was on the wagon, poured me a tumbler of whisky, and proceeded to read through my scenes, grunting and puffing on his cigar. He said, "There's one problem. I can't play this. I'm what the French call ‘The King Actor' so I can't react to people. People have to react to me". So I had to go round to Laurence Harvey and the rest of the cast and say, Orson's going to have your line here. I got all the stick from their managers.
‘But Orson was great. We went to dinner in a black market restaurant in Bucharest, and fortunately he got fed up with sipping Perrier, doctor's orders, and fell off the wagon with a big thump. Thought he'd have a vodka and put a bottle away. We ended up living in a castle together. One thing I remember him saying was, "You're using ambiguity in the wrong way. You're using it as a smokescreen to hide behind because you don't know what you're saying. Ambiguity must be a scalpel". Such perception! I got a complete film course personally from Orson Welles'.
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dmolson - Wellesnet Veteran
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by dmolson » Wed Feb 06, 2002 4:55 am
A few more from the files...
MARGARET O'BRIEN
http://www.classicimages.com/1998/december98/mobrien1.html
AE:- What was Orson Welles like?
Margaret O’Brien: Orson Welles was very tall—I always thought of him as a very big gentleman that could just envelope you. Orson in his big capes always reminded me of a foreboding figure—but he wasn’t actually. I had seen Wuthering Heights, and he kind of reminded me of that.
AE: Did he work well with children?
Margaret O’Brien: He was nice, but he was a little more distant. There were no complaints. The only thing with Orson was that he would take about a hundred takes for one line, and that got real boring to me because I’d have to sit there. I was used to working through a scene. But there were times when he wanted a lot of takes even if I was just saying, "Hello, Mr. Rochester." There was one scene, I remember, that we did numerous takes on.
AE: Was that his idea or the directors?
Margaret O’Brien: A lot of it was his because sometimes he would mumble, and they had to get the clarity and it would take some time, and that’s why they would take a lot of takes. So that part was very boring to me, and I would tire out. I’d like to get in the mood and get going and that would stop the momentum.
...
AE: Do you have a favorite actor that you worked with?
Margaret O’Brien: It’s hard to say because I loved Lionel Barrymore, and I loved Charles Laughton. I loved Robert Young. They were all very special. It’s really hard to pick. I had very few that I did not like to work with. Some were not as warm, like Orson Welles, who kept a lot to himself, but he wasn’t mean to you. The only one that was difficult was Wallace Beery—that I worked with as a kid. Of course, I worked with some later that were pretty unpleasant.
DAWN STEELE
http://www.cjr.org/year/94/1/books-steele.asp
from THEY CAN KILL YOU . . . BUT THEY CAN'T EAT YOU, by Dawn Steele. Pocket Books. 285 pp. $ 22.
During my minute as an interviewer [for Penthouse magazine], Orson Welles taught me a very humiliating but useful lesson: Do your homework. I'd been sent to get an interview with Welles, my first big assignment. I did research and I prepared -- I hadn't been a film buff but I read everything I could find about him, and worked for a long time on writing him a really impressive letter that began. Dear Mr. Wells . . ."
He sent back a scathing answer to my request for an interview, saying, "Why would I give an interview to someone who can't even spell my name right?" I had done all that homework and spelled his name wrong. I never made that mistake again -- ever. And I've become as tough as Orson Welles. When job applicants send me resumes addressed to Mr. Don Steele -- which they do, all the time -- I invariably throw their letters in the wastebasket.
JOAN FONTAINE
http://www.tstonramp.com/~garys/interv87.htm
GS: Orson Welles was tough also, wasn't he?
JF: When I made 'Jane Eyre' with Bob Stevenson, Orson Wells gave us the same problem. We had an 11 a.m. rehearsal call on the set, which was a big library. We received our little director's chairs with our names on them, as usual, and we waited...and waited. Around 3 p.m., Mr. Welles and his entourage swept in, and Orson went right up to a Bible stand, which he obviously had arranged to be placed there. He opened the script and said, "Now, we will begin on page four." That was the power play that men found necessary. It may have led to his inability to get any work in his later years. I don't know of any women who ever had that kind of power. When Katharine Hepburn worked with Spencer Tracy, it was a special, mutual kind of thing. There was no need for dramatic power displays. In the case of Carole Lombard, Shelley Winters and Elizabeth Taylor, though, the only way to exercise power and establish position was to use foul language.
MARGARET O'BRIEN
http://www.classicimages.com/1998/december98/mobrien1.html
AE:- What was Orson Welles like?
Margaret O’Brien: Orson Welles was very tall—I always thought of him as a very big gentleman that could just envelope you. Orson in his big capes always reminded me of a foreboding figure—but he wasn’t actually. I had seen Wuthering Heights, and he kind of reminded me of that.
AE: Did he work well with children?
Margaret O’Brien: He was nice, but he was a little more distant. There were no complaints. The only thing with Orson was that he would take about a hundred takes for one line, and that got real boring to me because I’d have to sit there. I was used to working through a scene. But there were times when he wanted a lot of takes even if I was just saying, "Hello, Mr. Rochester." There was one scene, I remember, that we did numerous takes on.
AE: Was that his idea or the directors?
Margaret O’Brien: A lot of it was his because sometimes he would mumble, and they had to get the clarity and it would take some time, and that’s why they would take a lot of takes. So that part was very boring to me, and I would tire out. I’d like to get in the mood and get going and that would stop the momentum.
...
AE: Do you have a favorite actor that you worked with?
Margaret O’Brien: It’s hard to say because I loved Lionel Barrymore, and I loved Charles Laughton. I loved Robert Young. They were all very special. It’s really hard to pick. I had very few that I did not like to work with. Some were not as warm, like Orson Welles, who kept a lot to himself, but he wasn’t mean to you. The only one that was difficult was Wallace Beery—that I worked with as a kid. Of course, I worked with some later that were pretty unpleasant.
DAWN STEELE
http://www.cjr.org/year/94/1/books-steele.asp
from THEY CAN KILL YOU . . . BUT THEY CAN'T EAT YOU, by Dawn Steele. Pocket Books. 285 pp. $ 22.
During my minute as an interviewer [for Penthouse magazine], Orson Welles taught me a very humiliating but useful lesson: Do your homework. I'd been sent to get an interview with Welles, my first big assignment. I did research and I prepared -- I hadn't been a film buff but I read everything I could find about him, and worked for a long time on writing him a really impressive letter that began. Dear Mr. Wells . . ."
He sent back a scathing answer to my request for an interview, saying, "Why would I give an interview to someone who can't even spell my name right?" I had done all that homework and spelled his name wrong. I never made that mistake again -- ever. And I've become as tough as Orson Welles. When job applicants send me resumes addressed to Mr. Don Steele -- which they do, all the time -- I invariably throw their letters in the wastebasket.
JOAN FONTAINE
http://www.tstonramp.com/~garys/interv87.htm
GS: Orson Welles was tough also, wasn't he?
JF: When I made 'Jane Eyre' with Bob Stevenson, Orson Wells gave us the same problem. We had an 11 a.m. rehearsal call on the set, which was a big library. We received our little director's chairs with our names on them, as usual, and we waited...and waited. Around 3 p.m., Mr. Welles and his entourage swept in, and Orson went right up to a Bible stand, which he obviously had arranged to be placed there. He opened the script and said, "Now, we will begin on page four." That was the power play that men found necessary. It may have led to his inability to get any work in his later years. I don't know of any women who ever had that kind of power. When Katharine Hepburn worked with Spencer Tracy, it was a special, mutual kind of thing. There was no need for dramatic power displays. In the case of Carole Lombard, Shelley Winters and Elizabeth Taylor, though, the only way to exercise power and establish position was to use foul language.
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dmolson - Wellesnet Veteran
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by dmolson » Wed Feb 06, 2002 5:02 am
and a few more...
PETER HUNT - interviewed by Gary Giblin
http://www.secretintel.com/archives/1.02/features/hunt01.html
Gary: By the way, as an aside, guess what was on telly in London last week? Ferry to Hong Kong [which Hunt edited in 1958].
Peter: Yes, I know! I got a friend to record it, because I haven't got a tape of it. I had just come back from a meeting or something and just caught the last few minutes of it. And it quite surprised me because I didn't think it looked as bad as I thought it might have looked. [Shot on location by future Bond director Lewis Gilbert, Ferry stars Curt Jurgens as a stowaway aboard the eponymous boat, and Orson Welles as the pompous captain he antagonizes.] It's very slow. Boy, wouldn't I have got on with it now!
Gary: Oh, yes. I was going to say, I don't see too much "sharp cutting" there.
Peter: (laughing) No way! No, I must say.
Gary: Orson Welles was really horribly miscast as an English captain.
Peter: Of course he was. Of course he was. It was an adventure story and dear Lewis Gilbert is not the best director for an adventure story, in my opinion, and having done a lot of work with him on many, many films. I don't mean to denigrate him at all. He's just much better with a small, delicate subject like Educating Rita. He's got a lovely sense of humor and style. But once you put him on–I mean even on the Bond film, I think he was…lost! But, I must tell you a very funny story [about Ferry]. We shot the whole film in Hong Kong, you know. And we were out there, and Welles was about to arrive and Lewis was going off to the airport to meet him and have a press conference. And Lewis said to me, "Come with me, come with me, dear boy!" So I said, "All right, lovely." And we went along and met Welles and it was all, you know, the usual zoo of cameras and reporters. And we were sitting in this great room at the airport and the reporters were asking him questions and so one of them said, "Mr. Welles, can you tell me about this character you're playing in the film? Why did it particularly appeal to you?" And Welles said, "Because it's the greatest comedy I've ever been offered!" And Lewis and I just looked at one another because we always considered it an adventure story, not a comedy!
Gary: Well, that shows in the film. The other characters are all doing one thing and then there's Welles…
Peter: (laughing heartily) Absolutely!
Gary: There's Welles–he's in a comedy!
Peter: Yes, he tried to turn it into a comedy.
Gary: I guess that was right before Touch of Evil [Welles' 1958 cult classic starring Charlton Heston as a Mexican police officer and Orson himself as a corrupt lawman].
Peter: Yes, I guess it was. I loved Welles, incidentally. I found him delightful. We got on very well. He had married this beautiful Italian [actress Paola Mori] and they had one little girl. And they had this big suite in the Repulse Bay Hotel. And he had this 16 mil[limeter] projector, because, of course, as you know, there was no [video] tape then, it was all film and 16 mil. And at night he used to run 16 mil films for himself and his wife, but he could never lace up the projector [thread the film]. He couldn't make it work. And he realized that I was a sort of technician there and had a cutting room and all that, so he would always ask me to come and lace up his projector. And then he would always invite me to stay for dinner. And I became quite a sort of close friend during that time, which I found very enjoyable. Of course, he was a great raconteur, tremendous conversationalist, most of which was rather exaggerated, I found. I got to know him so well that I realized what his trick was. He would read a book on fly-fishing, for example, and then, wherever he was in the next day or so, he'd turn the conversation to fly-fishing. And because he had this brilliant "instant memory" he would be an authority on fly-fishing. And you'd think, Look, he knows about everything! He must be marvelous! But, you ask him about fly-fishing six weeks later and he wouldn't know a thing about it!
INGRID PITT - the lesser of the Pitts, but still a Pitt...
http://www.graveyard.ndirect.co.uk/ingrid/ingrid.htm
HG: How did you find the experience of being directed by Orson Welles in "Chimes at Midnight"?
Ingrid: Gruesome. He wasn't an easy man to work with. They claim it is because he was a genius. OK but so what? I only had a small part in the film so I didn't have much to do with him on set. Off-set was a different matter - we still didn't get along.
An Interview with Curtis Harrington
by Rusty White
http://www.einsiders.com/features/interviews/curtisharrington2.php
I think one of the most famous films never released is Mr. Welles' "The Other Side of the Wind."
Yes well, I'm privy to what is going on. Gary Graver is trying to set a deal with Showtime to pay for the completion of the film. It's all shot, it just needs final editing, sound effects, the final music and the whole production will be finished. There is a big problem and I think this is still an ongoing problem. They haven't resolved it yet. One of Orson Welles' daughters is an incredible, its very unfortunate, an incredible obstructionist. She is in the grip of a shyster lawyer. Whenever anything is done, she brings a law suite trying to get money. She's just vicious about it. She's a terrible person. When they did the restoration of "Touch of Evil" she caused trouble at Universal. She's extremely litigious because of this guy, this shyster lawyer that she is involved with. It's very unfortunate. She's preventing...they're afraid you see...she makes them afraid to make a deal to finish the film, because she's threatening and threatening and threatening. Even if she doesn't have a leg to stand on, they don't like the idea that there is going to be a lawsuit to fight through. Can't blame them. She is just awful.
What was it like working on "The Other Side of the Wind"? There was an amazing number of directors acting in the film?
Well I'm one of them!
Oh yes.
It was fun. Orson did it (the sequence with Mr. Harrington) the night before I began shooting "What's the Matter With Helen?", the very night before. I had to get up early to begin shooting, but I was so thrilled that I would do this little scene for Orson that I said "Come hell or high water, I'm going to finish my prep (on "Helen") and I'm going to be there and do this!"
Have you been able to see portions of the film?
A huge amount of it. Gary Graver, in trying to get the money to complete the film, arranged several screenings, not public screenings, but private screenings in a projection room in a laboratory or a studio.
It sounds like the movie has an intriguing premise.
Well, it's a very...it's an Orson Welles movie! It has two simultaneous storylines. It's about a film director played by John Huston, and then interspersed with the present day story about this film director are scenes from his latest film. So it's a film within the film. The film that he's shooting, which it has sequences from, is done in a very different style than the rest of the film. So it is very fascinating exercise.
Well hopefully one of these days the lawyer will go away...
I wish he would!
...and the world will get to see this.
It's really a shame that she is so terrible. She should be promoting the completion of the film, not obstructing it.
You would think so. You would think that she would tend to profit from its release. What did you think of "Touch of Evil"?
It's one of my favorites. There again, that's one of the great master works of the cinema, and it was totally ignored, totally ignored, even more ignored than my film "What's the Matter With Helen?" when it was originally released. It was released as a B-picture by Universal. They didn't like it. The executives didn't like it, nobody there liked it. They didn't understand it, they didn't want it, so it was just thrown out. It took France to recognize this. Then people began to notice it.
I guess it is to much to ask a producer to think beyond the bottom line, but from a historical viewpoint, where would Martin Scorsese be without "Touch of Evil"? That movie had such an impact on him, you look at the opening shoot...and Brian De Palma or Francis Ford Coppola?
Of course. Orson has had a profound influence on all of us. Absolutely. He was one of the great theatrical geniuses of the 20th century.
Yes, and he still owes me $99.00 for that fender on my Camero.
(Laughs).
But, hey, I'm not going to be like his daughter and sue.
Good, good.
PETER HUNT - interviewed by Gary Giblin
http://www.secretintel.com/archives/1.02/features/hunt01.html
Gary: By the way, as an aside, guess what was on telly in London last week? Ferry to Hong Kong [which Hunt edited in 1958].
Peter: Yes, I know! I got a friend to record it, because I haven't got a tape of it. I had just come back from a meeting or something and just caught the last few minutes of it. And it quite surprised me because I didn't think it looked as bad as I thought it might have looked. [Shot on location by future Bond director Lewis Gilbert, Ferry stars Curt Jurgens as a stowaway aboard the eponymous boat, and Orson Welles as the pompous captain he antagonizes.] It's very slow. Boy, wouldn't I have got on with it now!
Gary: Oh, yes. I was going to say, I don't see too much "sharp cutting" there.
Peter: (laughing) No way! No, I must say.
Gary: Orson Welles was really horribly miscast as an English captain.
Peter: Of course he was. Of course he was. It was an adventure story and dear Lewis Gilbert is not the best director for an adventure story, in my opinion, and having done a lot of work with him on many, many films. I don't mean to denigrate him at all. He's just much better with a small, delicate subject like Educating Rita. He's got a lovely sense of humor and style. But once you put him on–I mean even on the Bond film, I think he was…lost! But, I must tell you a very funny story [about Ferry]. We shot the whole film in Hong Kong, you know. And we were out there, and Welles was about to arrive and Lewis was going off to the airport to meet him and have a press conference. And Lewis said to me, "Come with me, come with me, dear boy!" So I said, "All right, lovely." And we went along and met Welles and it was all, you know, the usual zoo of cameras and reporters. And we were sitting in this great room at the airport and the reporters were asking him questions and so one of them said, "Mr. Welles, can you tell me about this character you're playing in the film? Why did it particularly appeal to you?" And Welles said, "Because it's the greatest comedy I've ever been offered!" And Lewis and I just looked at one another because we always considered it an adventure story, not a comedy!
Gary: Well, that shows in the film. The other characters are all doing one thing and then there's Welles…
Peter: (laughing heartily) Absolutely!
Gary: There's Welles–he's in a comedy!
Peter: Yes, he tried to turn it into a comedy.
Gary: I guess that was right before Touch of Evil [Welles' 1958 cult classic starring Charlton Heston as a Mexican police officer and Orson himself as a corrupt lawman].
Peter: Yes, I guess it was. I loved Welles, incidentally. I found him delightful. We got on very well. He had married this beautiful Italian [actress Paola Mori] and they had one little girl. And they had this big suite in the Repulse Bay Hotel. And he had this 16 mil[limeter] projector, because, of course, as you know, there was no [video] tape then, it was all film and 16 mil. And at night he used to run 16 mil films for himself and his wife, but he could never lace up the projector [thread the film]. He couldn't make it work. And he realized that I was a sort of technician there and had a cutting room and all that, so he would always ask me to come and lace up his projector. And then he would always invite me to stay for dinner. And I became quite a sort of close friend during that time, which I found very enjoyable. Of course, he was a great raconteur, tremendous conversationalist, most of which was rather exaggerated, I found. I got to know him so well that I realized what his trick was. He would read a book on fly-fishing, for example, and then, wherever he was in the next day or so, he'd turn the conversation to fly-fishing. And because he had this brilliant "instant memory" he would be an authority on fly-fishing. And you'd think, Look, he knows about everything! He must be marvelous! But, you ask him about fly-fishing six weeks later and he wouldn't know a thing about it!
INGRID PITT - the lesser of the Pitts, but still a Pitt...
http://www.graveyard.ndirect.co.uk/ingrid/ingrid.htm
HG: How did you find the experience of being directed by Orson Welles in "Chimes at Midnight"?
Ingrid: Gruesome. He wasn't an easy man to work with. They claim it is because he was a genius. OK but so what? I only had a small part in the film so I didn't have much to do with him on set. Off-set was a different matter - we still didn't get along.
An Interview with Curtis Harrington
by Rusty White
http://www.einsiders.com/features/interviews/curtisharrington2.php
I think one of the most famous films never released is Mr. Welles' "The Other Side of the Wind."
Yes well, I'm privy to what is going on. Gary Graver is trying to set a deal with Showtime to pay for the completion of the film. It's all shot, it just needs final editing, sound effects, the final music and the whole production will be finished. There is a big problem and I think this is still an ongoing problem. They haven't resolved it yet. One of Orson Welles' daughters is an incredible, its very unfortunate, an incredible obstructionist. She is in the grip of a shyster lawyer. Whenever anything is done, she brings a law suite trying to get money. She's just vicious about it. She's a terrible person. When they did the restoration of "Touch of Evil" she caused trouble at Universal. She's extremely litigious because of this guy, this shyster lawyer that she is involved with. It's very unfortunate. She's preventing...they're afraid you see...she makes them afraid to make a deal to finish the film, because she's threatening and threatening and threatening. Even if she doesn't have a leg to stand on, they don't like the idea that there is going to be a lawsuit to fight through. Can't blame them. She is just awful.
What was it like working on "The Other Side of the Wind"? There was an amazing number of directors acting in the film?
Well I'm one of them!
Oh yes.
It was fun. Orson did it (the sequence with Mr. Harrington) the night before I began shooting "What's the Matter With Helen?", the very night before. I had to get up early to begin shooting, but I was so thrilled that I would do this little scene for Orson that I said "Come hell or high water, I'm going to finish my prep (on "Helen") and I'm going to be there and do this!"
Have you been able to see portions of the film?
A huge amount of it. Gary Graver, in trying to get the money to complete the film, arranged several screenings, not public screenings, but private screenings in a projection room in a laboratory or a studio.
It sounds like the movie has an intriguing premise.
Well, it's a very...it's an Orson Welles movie! It has two simultaneous storylines. It's about a film director played by John Huston, and then interspersed with the present day story about this film director are scenes from his latest film. So it's a film within the film. The film that he's shooting, which it has sequences from, is done in a very different style than the rest of the film. So it is very fascinating exercise.
Well hopefully one of these days the lawyer will go away...
I wish he would!
...and the world will get to see this.
It's really a shame that she is so terrible. She should be promoting the completion of the film, not obstructing it.
You would think so. You would think that she would tend to profit from its release. What did you think of "Touch of Evil"?
It's one of my favorites. There again, that's one of the great master works of the cinema, and it was totally ignored, totally ignored, even more ignored than my film "What's the Matter With Helen?" when it was originally released. It was released as a B-picture by Universal. They didn't like it. The executives didn't like it, nobody there liked it. They didn't understand it, they didn't want it, so it was just thrown out. It took France to recognize this. Then people began to notice it.
I guess it is to much to ask a producer to think beyond the bottom line, but from a historical viewpoint, where would Martin Scorsese be without "Touch of Evil"? That movie had such an impact on him, you look at the opening shoot...and Brian De Palma or Francis Ford Coppola?
Of course. Orson has had a profound influence on all of us. Absolutely. He was one of the great theatrical geniuses of the 20th century.
Yes, and he still owes me $99.00 for that fender on my Camero.
(Laughs).
But, hey, I'm not going to be like his daughter and sue.
Good, good.
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dmolson - Wellesnet Veteran
- Posts: 122
- Joined: Sat Jul 07, 2001 12:11 pm
- Location: Canada
by dmolson » Wed Feb 06, 2002 6:00 am
THOSE ILLERGIC TO CHEESE, TURN AWAY!
* PIA ZADORA
http://www.stomptokyo.com/pia/articles/genesis.html
GENESIS: Evidently, Orson Welles had a rather hot time working with you and the cast on Butterfly.
Zadora: Oh, God! Orson was up on this podium, smoking a big cigar and holding a big bottle of vodka (he plays a very kinky judge). All of a sudden, he says very calmly, in the middle of a scene, "Excuse me, but I'm on fire." The cigar had dropped down onto his robes. Everyone turned around and saw flames, and we all ran to throw water on him. He was very calm about it. After everything died down, he said, "Well, that is the most exciting thing that's happened all evening." Very charming. He wrote me a beautiful letter afterward and sent me a bouquet of roses the size of this table. He was also nominated for best supporting actor in Butterfly. If he had won, there wouldn't have been any controversy. Or maybe there would have been. Who knows?
* PIA ZADORA
http://www.stomptokyo.com/pia/articles/genesis.html
GENESIS: Evidently, Orson Welles had a rather hot time working with you and the cast on Butterfly.
Zadora: Oh, God! Orson was up on this podium, smoking a big cigar and holding a big bottle of vodka (he plays a very kinky judge). All of a sudden, he says very calmly, in the middle of a scene, "Excuse me, but I'm on fire." The cigar had dropped down onto his robes. Everyone turned around and saw flames, and we all ran to throw water on him. He was very calm about it. After everything died down, he said, "Well, that is the most exciting thing that's happened all evening." Very charming. He wrote me a beautiful letter afterward and sent me a bouquet of roses the size of this table. He was also nominated for best supporting actor in Butterfly. If he had won, there wouldn't have been any controversy. Or maybe there would have been. Who knows?
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dmolson - Wellesnet Veteran
- Posts: 122
- Joined: Sat Jul 07, 2001 12:11 pm
- Location: Canada
by dmolson » Sat Mar 23, 2002 6:34 pm
And how Orson was just like us... or some of us, anyways...
Frank Cady aka "Mr. Sam Drucker"
http://www.what-a-character.com/cgi-bin/display.cgi?id=982796235
After Green Acres, Cady was offered job after job—providing he would play a storekeeper. Finding the prospect less than enticing, Cady turned to film and commercial work, and considers his role as "Pa" in Zandy’s Bride (starring Liv Ullman and Gene Hackman) to be one of the highlights of his career. Another high point came in 1984 when he received a call from Orson Welles asking him to appear in an upcoming film, The Cradle Will Rock. Sadly, the picture was pushed back and Welles died before it could be shot.
"I asked Mr. Welles why he had picked me to play the part of an old vaudevillian. It turned out that he was a big fan of Petticoat Junction and Green Acres. Imagine that!"
Frank Cady aka "Mr. Sam Drucker"
http://www.what-a-character.com/cgi-bin/display.cgi?id=982796235
After Green Acres, Cady was offered job after job—providing he would play a storekeeper. Finding the prospect less than enticing, Cady turned to film and commercial work, and considers his role as "Pa" in Zandy’s Bride (starring Liv Ullman and Gene Hackman) to be one of the highlights of his career. Another high point came in 1984 when he received a call from Orson Welles asking him to appear in an upcoming film, The Cradle Will Rock. Sadly, the picture was pushed back and Welles died before it could be shot.
"I asked Mr. Welles why he had picked me to play the part of an old vaudevillian. It turned out that he was a big fan of Petticoat Junction and Green Acres. Imagine that!"
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dmolson - Wellesnet Veteran
- Posts: 122
- Joined: Sat Jul 07, 2001 12:11 pm
- Location: Canada
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