Oja Yoko Linda Susan?

[Tony]

Here's a little speculative premise about the Orson/Oja relationship that I'm recycling, because Glenn asked me to tell him about it and I got carried away; I was wondering if anyone has thought along these same lines?

Here it is:

1962: Welles and Olga Palinkas meet in Zagreb while he is making the Trial; he writes a letter to her which he never gives her but which he keeps in his pocket for 4 years until he meets her again; he gives her the letter and their relationship begins. From this point on, OW and OK write countless scripts together and embark on several film projects over a period of almost 20 years, but manage to finish only one: the documentary essay "F For Fake"; the number of projects left incomplete/unrealized by the Welles/Kodar partnership is stunning in it's volume; here is just a partial list of their activities and projects:

1966: -"The Heroine" (starring Olga Palinkas):part 2 of a projected anthology of Dinesen stories is halted after one day's shooting in Budapest when money dissappears; the other parts were to be "A Country tale" and "Deluge at Nordernay"

1967:-"The Deep":their first project together which begins filming in 1967, and which continues intermittently until 1969; apparently Moreau and Palinkas do not get along and possibly argue on set ( Did Jeanne sense something?) and the project founders, possibly because Moreau refuses to do her looping, and perhaps due to money problems; it is not, of course, due to Harvey's death, which is often given as the reason, since he dies in 1973, long after the film has been abandoned.

1968: -script based on Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado" and "The Masque of the Red Death" intended for the film anthology "Spirits of the Dead"

1969: -"Because of the Cat" based on a story by Nick Freeling
-" The Merchant of Venice": Olga Palinkas refuses to play the part of Portia; nevertheless, the film can never be shown as some of the sound elements are stolen

Around 1969, Welles, in a Svengali mode not unlike Kane as regarding Susan Alexander and her opera "career", and with a similar blind spot as to her lack of talent, renames Olga Palinkas "Oja Kodar", and becomes determined to make her a star.

In 1970, an Italian newspaper publishes an expose of the affair, with pictures of both Oja and Mrs. Welles; Welles himself has been editing Don Quixote for more than a year with editor Mauro Bonanini, but when the story hits the scandal papers, Welles angrily leaves Italy forever to return to America, and Quixote is never finished. Welles then rents his Italian villa to actor Robert Shaw, who promptly burns down the wing of the house where Welles has stored many mementos and unfinished/unrealized works, including the film of his play "Moby Dick".

1970: -"The Other Side of the Wind": script by OW/Oja Kodar (formerly "Olga Palinkas), based on OW's 1966 script "The Sacred Beasts"; principal photography is completed in 1976, starring OK; Moreau declines to appear in TOSOTW, even though Welles has a part specially written for her; the rumour is that she refuses to work with Palinkas/Kodar.

1971: -"Surinam": adapted from Conrad's "Victory"
- untitled script about Dumas

1972: -"F For Fake": script by OW/OK (Picasso episode is based on a short story by OK written in 1962 called "Girl Watching")
-"Crazy Weather" by OW/OK, adapted from a short story by OK
- "Saint Jack": an adaptation of the book by Paul Theroux

1975: Welles seems to have presented "Oja" only as his new star, and may NEVER have come clean on this issue with his wife; at the AFI award ceremony, it is Mrs. Welles who is sitting beside Welles, and OK is nowhwere to be seen. Welles never divorces his 3rd wife, and NEVER talks about Oja in public other than in a professional, collaborative sense.

1976: OW begins filming "The Magic Show": Ok helps as assisstant director and performer
- "F For Fake Trailor": Welles films a 9 minute trailor which is never processed by the producers of "F For Fake"

1977: -"The Other Man": adaptation of Graham Greene's "The Honorary Consul"
-"Dead Giveaway":adaptation of Jim Thompson's "A Hell of s Woman"
-"The Assassin: adaptation of donald freed's biography of Sirhan Sirhan

1978: "Da Capo" (later entitled "The Dreamers"): based on two stories by Dinesen: "The Dreamers" and "Echoes"; tests are filmed with OW and OK

1982: "The Big Brass Ring": script based in part on a short story written by OK in 1974 called "Ivanka"; part of the script comes from the letter from OW to OK that he carried around in his pocket for 4 years; the central character is based on an old idea of OW's.

1985: "Mercedes": script by OW based on a short story by OK
-OW plans "King Lear" with OK as Cordelia

I find it haunting that just as Welles found his one true love, he found that he could not sacrifice his 3rd marriage for this love, and never again finished a dramatic film; somehow, everything they touched together turned to ash. One would have to be able to read all their scripts together, and to see all the film they did, in order to come to the conclusion that either they were a great creative team who were continually stifled, or that Welles became blinded by love. But one thing is for sure: from the moment Welles and Kodar began their personal/creative relationship in 1966 and they began filming "Heroine" (which lasted just one day) theirs was a relationship seemingly star-crossed; or perhaps they had crossed the stars? Was there some kind of cosmic payback for Welles having an illicit affair? I'm sure that Mrs. Welles and Beatrice thought that OK was the worst thing that ever happened to him, and that he stopped being able to make films after getting involved with OK; furthermore, they might well have thought (and think) that the quality of his work went down during his years with OK, and that he, like Paul McCartney, John Lennon, and Charles Foster Kane, was blinded by love into believing that his sweetheart was as talented as he was.

If it was a cosmic price, then it was a heck of a price to pay; I've often wondered what Mrs. Welles and Beatrice were was thinking and feeling that evening when Welles was being celebrated by the AFI: what did they think when they saw the "Other Side of the Wind" footage starring Oja? Did they think "This garbage will never be finished?" Did they hope it never would be? And was Oja somewhere in the wings, wondering if she would ever become the 4th Mrs. Welles?

Is Beatrice to this day doing all she can to stop TOSOTW from ever being finished as a tribute to the memory of her mother, and as a final payback to Oja? In fact, Beatrice has, I believe, also stopped Bogdanovich's version of "The One Man Band" from getting more than one broadcast, and my guess is that this is for the same reason: all the late works are products of the Orson/Oja relationship, which is likely illegitimate in Beatrice's eyes, and the reason for the downfall of her father post-'66.


A few years after OW's death, Mrs. Welles and Oja finally agree on the settling of Welles''s will, but on the way to their meeting to sign the papers, Mrs. Welles is killed in a car accident.

It's a strange, haunting story; it might make a really good movie.





???

[Tashman]

It's a good premise. I actually like your other one better, about the higher desertion factor for his films in which he didn't also star. As to this one, maybe it should first be acknowledged that even though the lost opportunities seem extreme (or star-crossed) when enumerated, at the most simple level, stripped away of all the many complications of the man, Welles was not unique in "retiring" from filmmaking with a trunk of unproduced scripts and an unrequited pet project or three.

But taking in those complications of the man, consider this story from Peter Bogdanovich overlapping the Oja period, which is only suggestive of some red flags having nothing to do with her:

From 1969 through 1977, besides working on ["This Is Orson Welles"] and numerous picture projects of his and mine and ours, I also functioned for a while as Orson's agent: at first encouraging him to return to America and try to make pictures here again, helping to arrange his first triumphant TV appearances [with] David Frost...and Dick Cavett...

When my stock eventually went down because of a couple of financial flops, I suddenly had trouble convincing the studio even to pay Orson his normal salary as an actor on a movie I was going to direct. Because of a dispute with that studio, in which Welles encouraged me to fight in the name of quality, I got into my first bad scrap with an executive, urged on by Orson's advice to stand fast by black-and-white. The project (Nickelodeon) was abruptly cancelled...

[From the introduction to the Revised Edition.]

As a side note to that, why were they even working on TiOW in the first place? To get Welles' own story out, to correct the hostile misperceptions from executives and picture backers and segments of the public. OW deserted this project when he got an offer for an advance on an autobiography, never written.

At the very least I think we can rule out the divine retribution theory. Unless DESK SET is a very elaborate and ironic form of punishment, Spencer Tracy's career was extra-maritally enhanced. As you say, OW's is a good story, and he may have been blinded by love, but we cross ourselves (you'll forgive the expression) with whatever is placed in front of us.

[Jeff Wilson]

It makes for a nice story, but I guess it comes down to how you wish to interpret events. Welles, regardless of whether Kodar was with him or not, was box office poison, not to mention far older than the young turks who were taking control of the business at the time. Few of the old guard directors were getting regular jobs. Look at how Ford got shoved out the door, and he was certainly more bankable and willing to work with the system than Welles ever was.

And considering Welles was quite happily committing adultery during his first two marriages as well, I doubt it has much "cosmic" influence here either. The unusual thing is Paola Mori remaining married to him despite the blatant disregard Welles showed for her by carrying on with Kodar. And the story about Mori being killed on her way to meeting Kodar has been rubbished by Kodar herself at least, who argues she had no reason to even meet Mori, given that the terms of the will were pretty clear as to who was left what.

What one could argue is whether Kodar was the artistic ruination of Welles, based on the work they did together. Some would certainly argue yes, some no. That's more down to a matter of taste than anything else.

[catbuglah]

BWS interview 1

BWS interview 2

[Gordon]

the story about Mori being killed on her way to meeting Kodar has been rubbished by Kodar herself at least, who argues she had no reason to even meet Mori, given that the terms of the will were pretty clear as to who was left what.

and hasn't the Shaw Fire story also been disproved?

[Kevin Loy]

I thought that there was considerable doubt about the fire as well...but didn't "Too Much Johnson" supposedly burn up in that fire, amongst numerous other things, or am I getting things mixed up here?

[Gordon]

why were they even working on TiOW in the first place? To get Welles' own story out, to correct the hostile misperceptions from executives and picture backers and segments of the public. OW deserted this project when he got an offer for an advance on an autobiography, never written.

Is there any possibility of the rest of the recordings of the interviews being released? The ones on casette are so enjoyable. To hear his real speaking voice, unique laugh etc. Who released the ones that are on casette and what would it take for the rest to be on a cd?

[Tony]

Bogdanovich states in his version of the "One Man Band" that the fire did happen, and a wing burned down and a lot of stuff was lost, but is Bog just reporting what welles told him?