Browsing after a favorite actress of mine, Molly Parker, I came across Phil Kaufman's new HBO Film, HEMINGWAY AND GELHORN, in which she plays the dominant American writer's second wife, Pauline Pfeiffer. Looking down the list of historical figures in this made-for-TV movie about the writer's involvement with the Spanish Civil War -- Ernest Hemingway (Clive Owen), Journalist-3rd Wife, Martha Gelhorn (Nicole Kidman), John Dos Passos (David Strathairn), Madam Chiang-kai-shek (Joan Chen), etc -- I was surprised to find (but shouldn't have been) the name, Orson Welles. He will be played by a relatively obscure actor, Malcolm Brownson, and will presumably essay the disagreement Hemingway and Welles had over the narration of SPANISH EARTH.

The movie is due for airing in 2012 and features another Welles' connection. Walter Murch is doing the editing.

Glenn Anders

Sounds promising. Phil Kaufman is an excellent director. I've really enjoyed several of the original HBO films I've seen lately, like GREY GARDENS, BOBBY FISCHER AGAINST THE WORLD, and especially TOO BIG TO FAIL, which I even notated some of the dialogue from, such as this explanation as to why the '08 Wall St. crash happened:

Right, Mike: Phil Kaufman is an excellent director. I was able to observe that as an extra in his droll, sharply satirical THE RIGHT STUFF. Kaufman is a local San Francisco resident who has kept his independence through a long career. Originally, BTW, James Gandolfino was going to play Ernest Hemingway in HEMINGWAY AND GELHORN, but when another local, Robin Wright Penn, scheduled to take the Gelhorn part, dropped out (perhaps over her split from Sean Penn), Gandolfino stepped aside into a producer position. I'll be interested in seeing the picture for several reasons in addition to how Malcolm Brownson fleshes out Welles, one of them being the location settings. The film takes place all over the World, in Cuba, Spain, Finland, New York City, etc., but the whole thing was done in Frisco and environs!

Yes, as I often say these days, the future of movies is with the cable and satellite companies. I also saw TOO BIG TO FAIL, but found that the picture gave "the Masters of the World" a lot of undeserved slack. For instance, perhaps I'm mistaken, but AIG never really failed. In fact, the Fed gave AIG nearly 200 billion dollars in liquidity, and the company is still in operation. That's why, in part, we are now teetering on default, which would mean the end of a predominance we've enjoyed in the financial world since WWII.

It was really the "bundling" -- i.e., the greed -- which was the problem. The big investment banks of Wall Street, newly wed to the larger merchant banks, knowingly designed "a product" which combined fraudulent paper with all sorts of enterprises (like, eventually, the well being of Narvik, Norway) in an evil mandelbrot of megacapitalism. Those well dressed fellows in the movie, who are handled with such quiet sympathy, should be in prison now. Instead, they are still running the show, and if past is prologue, they are going to bring us down. Not to worry, they at least will still be very well off (in whatever currency they decide to shelter their billions)!

Glenn

So which scene were you in? The Right Stuff is fabulous, and a good example of the increasing importance of video and cable that you mentioned: a film that failed at the box-office but became a hit on the small screen. Which is great, but a shame in a way, since it looked so good on the big screen. Many of HBO’s original shows strike me as being worthy of the big screen. Much worthier then most of the stuff out there.

Yes, TOO BIG TO FAIL seems like a cool rebuttal to the much more incendiary INSIDE JOB, which made you want to start stringing CEOs and other golden parachuters up by their thumbs. Like a lot of people, I’ve more or less laid the blame for the ’08 crash at the feet of the Securities and Exchange Commission, supposedly the Federal Government’s “watchdog” for Wall Street. Obviously, the people running this institution were not doing their jobs effectively. But then, as INSIDE JOB pointed out, the power and influence of the SEC had been systematically gutted since the Reagan era. Here’s an excerpt from one website:

Arthur Levitt, chairman of the SEC from 1993 to 2001, harshly criticized the SEC for what he considers to be its failures in recent years — failures which he believes contributed to the current financial crisis. In his testimony before the Senate Banking Committee today, Levitt stated that
“As the markets grew larger and more complex — in scope and in products offered — the commission failed to keep pace. As the markets needed more transparency, the SEC allowed opacity to reign. As an overheated market needed a strong referee to rein in dangerously risky behavior, the commission too often remained on the sidelines.”

On the other hand, seeing as the SEC works for Congress, many prefer to put the blame there:
"The one thing that's clear is that the SEC didn't cause these problems," says former SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt. Rather, Congress, by failing to modernize financial regulation when it deregulated the financial-services industry in the 1990s, left the SEC and other regulators without the tools to regulate new markets and securities as they arose. "In essence what we have is a 21st century financial system and a 19th century regulatory system,"

Mike: Increasingly, since the Reagan Era (during Clinton's time, too), the various financial mechanisms and their watch groups have been staffed by those controlling the investment banks -- now the international investment banks. Nothing has changed, except "the little people" and the middle class -- the tiny milling dots Welles was always watching from a tower or other high place -- have been looted and pillaged. Eventually, to be ground under -- no longer of much use.

Three colleagues and myself had a minuscule part in making THE RIGHT STUFF during a "six day shoot" in San Francisco. We played hookey (only time we ever did), and spent most of our days at The Cow Palace, dressed in wide collar shirts, narrow ties, pleated trousers, and Stetsons. The experience was great fun, but also a bit tedious, as only a film shoot can be. We were imitating Texans at the Houston Coliseum, when the Astronauts pull up in open topped convertibles to a bandstand, where the President is waiting for them, again and again and AGAIN, etc. Each time, LBJ shouted, "And look what I've brought you!" [The crowd roars.]

About the fourth day, Kaufman's son (incidentally) pulled me out of the crowd, asked me to turn up at the Polk Hall, that Saturday, for a gig as a "special extra." They put me in a good suit, and I led a group of "Senators" applauding wildly for Neil Armstrong (Ed Harris), as he addressed a Joint Session of Congress. Kaufman's AD also had my little group sauntering around (in overcoats and homburg hats) like bankers among other fans, supposedly on Wall Street (actually on Montgomery Street, SF) during a welcoming parade in New York; then, back to Polk Hall, sitting behind Armstrong's wife as she wept when he pointed proudly to her from the Congressional dais. Perhaps, the latter scene contributed to most of that footage being cut out of the finished picture.

Years later, at a Lon Chaney Film Festival at the Roxie Theater in the Mission, who did I end up sitting beside but Phil Kaufman, his wife and son. Between pictures, I said to him, wryly, describing briefly my participation in THE RIGHT STUFF, that he had cut my scenes, ruinIng my chance for stardom. He looked at me with a chuckle, and said, "Aw, shucks. When I get my Director's Cut on DVD, I'll restore your performances. Never give up!"

Kaufman eventually did have his Director's Cut, but the scenes aren't there. However, for a fraction of a second in the Houston Coliseum, two cowboys (myself and best friend BAMBO-BAMBO Christianson) are seen rising from the masses, waving their hats in the air, to welcome the Astronauts.

It is a moment of supreme cinematic artistry!

Immortal in its poignancy . . . .

Glenn

Thanks Glenn. I didn't even know there was a director's cut DVD of the film. I'll watch for your split-second appearance when I check it out.



Except to carry the scorpions across the river.

Ta-DAH!

Sadly, a great coda, Mike.

Glenn

I just came across the press release for HEMINGWAY AND GELHORN, which HBO will debut in May. The piece includes a synopsis of the film:

http//:philipkaufman.com/images/hemingwayandgelhorn_press_release.pdf

You will see that Orson Welles (played by San Franciscan Malcolm Brownson) apparently appears early in the film, when Hemingway takes young Martha Gelhorn to Spain with him to make SPANISH EARTH. [Why has Tod Baesen not corralled Brownson for a Wellesnet exclusive interview?]

Glenn

I just came across the press release for HEMINGWAY AND GELHORN, which HBO will debut in May. The piece includes a synopsis of the film:

http//:philipkaufman.com/images/hemingwayandgelhorn_press_release.pdf

You will see that Orson Welles (played by San Franciscan Malcolm Brownson) apparently appears early in the film, when Hemingway takes young Martha Gelhorn to Spain with him to make SPANISH EARTH. [Why has Tod Baesen not corralled Brownson for a Wellesnet exclusive interview?]

Glenn

Hello all, Malcolm Brownson here,
I just wanted to let you know that I utilized your forum while prepping for both the audition and the role.
Thank you.
It is a pretty short scene, but if any questions arise, i will make myself available to answer them.
Your humble servant,
Mal

Malcolm: Welcome semi-officially to Wellesnet!

The sun is over the yardarm now, so Todd Baesen may toddle along here soon to ask you some questions.

He has not reacted to the original news, but once the movie is aired, I'm sure he and others will be some responses.

Phil Kaufman's enterprise has set off a renewed craze, perhaps. I see another movie announced, starring Anthony Hopkins as Hemingway.

I hope HEMINGWAY AND GELHORN is the start of something big for you, Mal.

Glenn

Welcome Malcolm, and I second Glenn's best wishes for yourself and the film which, if I'm not mistaken, premieres on May 28th. I'm looking forward to it, and am very glad to hear Wellesnet was a useful resource for you.

Interesting that, in addition to Welles' run-in with Hemingway for THE SPANISH EARTH, he also had problems with Martha Gellhorn as well, as he related in the 1982 Arena interview:

Does anyone know if Martha Gellhorn actually wrote the LIFE magazine pan of the film version of MACBETH?

I think Welles may have been mistaken, because she is actually quoted in John Houseman's book, giving the Harlem Voodoo MACBETH some very good comments, like this: "The impression was of a hot richness that I have almost never seen in the theatre or anywhere else."

However, Gellhorn certainly didn't like the Welles narration for THE SPANISH EARTH. After the film was shown to FDR at the White House with the Welles narration, Gellhorn wrote to Eleanor Roosevelt, on July 8, 1937, telling the first lady this:

"I hope you liked the prose, the comment, despite that awful voice which mangles it. It is very beautiful: a great deal of it reads like poetry. Ernest has borrowed some money (he is now quite broke paying for the film and buying ambulances) and is going to pay to have that voice part done over, with somebody who knows how to talk and has enough imagination to feel. I think the film will gain enormously. They are out in Hollywood with it now and I am hoping it works well there."

Perhaps that is what Welles is recalling, because he must have been given some story about why his narration was not used, and it may be he heard that Gellhorn felt he had "mangled" Hemingway's "poetic" narration. Given that Hemingway was broke, it would also explain why he ended up doing the new narration himself.

Gellhorn's statement about mangling the text is still more charitable then what Hemingway reportedly said about Welles' narration. Something about swallowing, I believe?

That's right, Hemingway "supposedly" told Orson Welles that every time he said the word "infantry" it sounded like a cocksucker swallowing. If that story is true, it would make perfect sense, since Welles claims Hemingway called him "a faggot" and then years later Welles based Jake Hannaford in OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND on Hemingway, portraying him as a muy macho film director who was really a closeted gay in love with his leading man!