Treasure Island - Megaphone-holding department

[catbuglah]

MTEAL Treasure Island and then use some of the sets to make CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT as well. As Peter Conrad points out in his rambling but often brilliant new book on Welles, the relationship between Jim Hawkins and Long John Silver is similar in some ways to the relationship between Prince Hal and Falstaff, so the idea of doing the two stories in tandem in order to illuminate those similarities may have been intriguing to Welles (He had already done a similar thing in the 50's by staging productions of KING LEAR and MOBY DICK). Welles did make Chimes but didn't bother finishing Treasure Island, although I'm fairly convinced that some Welles-shot footage did get used when the project was finished a few years later by others.

SIRBYGBERBROWNThat's exciting about Treasure - i quite agree that as a whole it doesn't stack up next to a category 1 project. But i was surprised at how watchable it was. Considering the info you give, i also noted some scenes near the beginning of interest which Welles was not in, but which looked like Wellesian compositions. In addition, though it may be a product of the similarities of the source novels, the childhood sequence remind me of the childhood sequence in Jane Eyre.

GLENNANDERS It is fitting then that Welles should make a deal, according to evil David Thomson, with the original Spanish producer, Emiliano Piedra, to put up money in order to write, direct and star in TREASURE ISLAND, in 1964, while secretly shooting CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT. As Thomson would have it, the only real set built for CHIMES . . . was The Admiral Benbow Inn, which doubled as Mistress Quickly's tavern. By the time, CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT was complete, Piedra had caught on. He is listed as a producer of the latter film. TREASURE . . . languished until it fell into the always fatal hands of Harry Alan Towers, who had it completed under the guidance of John Hough, in 1971.

Shiver me timbers, :angry: thar be Wellesian gold in thet thar film. Looks like the maestro directed the whole shooting match - Cool - Lots of amazing shots - I dig this flick, man - he takes you through this in an efficient, snappy, poetic hop, skip and jump. What freaks me out :p is that you get to see a good chunk of Welles' post-60's non-documentary cinema - you can see his dreamier, quieter, color, later-style at work here - I notice that he's got this red and blue color scheme going on...

[catbuglah]

This movie moves so fast, lot of short, quick cutting scenes but three über Welles shots stood out for me - (They made me peg leg throb- garr!
:angry: )
-When Jim pulls out the Treasure Map - there's an extreme closeup with Trelaney's eye and the focus switches from the book to the eye. :O
_ When Jim is going to the looking glass tavern - there's this weird shot of Jim and the inside of a looking glass???
- When the first mate is drowned - there's this shot of the ship and a fast zoom out showing the man washed ashore with the ship still in frame.:p

[catbuglah]

Garrr! Here's me Orson Auteur Equation - a very scientific methodological tool ??? used in determining the canonicity of a Welles film in terms of percentage - i.e. The method consists of rating Welles' involvement with a maximum of 20 points in each of the five following categories :
1- Directing (Points deducted for re-shot scenes by other directors)
2- Editing (Maximum points for director's cut)
3- Writing (Maximum points if OW is sole author of original story)
4- Acting (maximum points if OW is in starring role, hero or villain)
5- Kitchen Sink (Casting, Music, Sound, Costume & set designs, etc...)
The maximum Welles original auteur level used as a barometer is the (non-extant) director's cut of Mr. Arkadin (100%) :angry:
Citizen Kane rates a 90, The Trial: 80. Jane Eyre: 60.

Treasure Island rates an impressive 67.
1- Directing: 15
2- Editing: 15
3- Writing: 7
4- Acting: 20
5- Kitchen Sink: 10

[Sir Bygber Brown]

In the Editing category, does that make F for Fake the ultimate Welles film because it was personally edited by hand by Orson...

Even though with Kane and Touch of Evil, for e.g, he claims to have sat in the cutting room with the cutters and specified how it was to be done.

[catbuglah]

ultimate Welles film because it was personally edited by hand by Orson...

From an editing standpoint, I suppose so - I guess it's the first film entirely edited by Welles'. To me though, F for Fake is a whole different animal, the essay thing, which I like a lot, it's amazing what he does, but I see it as a different editing style from his theatrical films and there's the question of the use of outside footage...

Touch of Evil, for e.g, he claims to have sat in the cutting room with the cutters and specified how it was to be done.

Walter Murch actually mentions how the editor for TOE was apparently overwhelmed by Welles in the cutting room which touched off the ensuing evil- (pun)

[catbuglah]

Just watched Lady from Shanghai and one can see the similar use of Ocean in the title sequence - --The Maestro seems to favor elemental, primordial, mythical openings (death, fables, water, light, words--- :O

,...)--- I'd attribute the interesting use of red lettering in the title sequence over a blue water and sky background to Welles as it fits in to his familiar blue-red color scheme of his color work.

Also one can denote a stylistic similarities in the way the Circe and Hispaniola are filmed i.e. the extreme upshot that frames a figure and the mast, the simple, horizontal longshot,...

[mteal]

Interesting points, catbuglah. TREASURE ISLAND was Welles's last starring role as an actor, and there may be more of him in it then we thought. For me, the biggest problem with the film has always been Welles' hammy, semi-drunk performance as Long John Silver. Your thread has made me want to take another look at it, though. Hopefully it'll make it's way to DVD one of these days.

[catbuglah]

Thank ye kindly, sirrah! And thanks to Sir Bigber for steering me to Treasure Island... The copy I have is a rather dilapidated Family Adventure Theater :p video, I ordered the English DVD... I can live with the Welles' performance myself, I can see bits of Quinlan, Clay, and Falstaff... I can live with the low budget - my caveat is the supporting cast, unremarkable TV actors... Maybe that's why this one is so underneath the radar, whereas Jane Eyre, a similar project (a Wellesian take on a 19th century classic and Mercury radio favorite) has the advantage of a superlative cast and stronger production values. I actually prefer Treasure Island :angry: overall,...

[catbuglah]

Avast there matees – just got me the English DVD of Treasure Island – Decent picture quality. Shiver my sides, THEY DONE REPLACED WELLES’ VOICE! :angry: By the powers! Not good – This blows big time (I assume it’s because he often uses a TOE type difficultly legible slurring- mumble) – No telling how badly this messes Welles' complex soundtrack work. I like Welles’ performance in this, I thought his accent had character and a nicely picturesque quality. I'll be hanged... ???


In the first twenty minutes up until they board the ship – There are various and sundry Wellesian touches that shows the Maestro's attention to detail and directorial craftsmanship : Various clothing and fabric are prominently blue and red - The night scenes are blue-hued. Various little choreography movements - Angular framing with frequent use of objects in extreme foreground - Deep focus with business going on in fore, middle and backgrond - Creative shots using windows - Wide-angle upshots a plenty -Quick moves to extreme close-ups - Some quick rapid zooms (one with a clock)- Various travelling shots (although used in a more subtle, subdued manner) - Various bits of lighting and shadow effects - The outdoor night scene where Jim fetches Black Dog is very moody and very Welles - The buildup to Welles' intro is of course typically dramatic and theatrical - the whole scene in Silver's tavern is murky and angular, very Welles. A medium travelling shot of a horse and carriage in motion followed by a shot taken with camera inside carriage seems creatively Wellesian to me.

[catbuglah]

The next twenty minutes up to the murder of sailor scene takes place aboard the Hispaniola - so there's a prevalence of upshots that are framed to include the mast - there's some nice use of bright sunlight reflections for effect - it's all nice - again, I find this movie has superb pacing, structure, and rhythm - like buttah :laugh: It's like David Mamet directed this.

One cool Wellesian thing is that often new scenes begin with an abrupt close-up :p of an object (pipe, crutch, hat,etc...) after which the characters move into view... Very fun. :;):

The apple-barrel scene is is real good - lots of sort of Eisensteinian theatrical/symbolic gestures (i.e. close-up of hand with knife which freezes in an unrealistic manner).

[Harvey Chartrand]

I've never seen Welles' take on TREASURE ISLAND. Is the film now being critically reappraised? I heard it was a bomb. By 1971, Welles was too fat to play Long John Silver. I read that the effort to maintain the pegleg illusion was too much for old Orson, which explains why so many of his scenes are shot in closeup. As for Welles mumbling his lines, this may have been due to his chronic heavy drinking and cigar smoking, which were ruining his vocal cords. He sounds quite breathy from this point on... No wonder his voice had to be dubbed – perhaps by impressionist Rich Little, who was then dubbing the voices of ailing stars like Jack Hawkins and David Niven.
All this speculation that Welles directed entire scenes of TREASURE ISLAND is false. Schlock producer Harry Alan Towers said in a recent interview in SCARLET STREET MAGAZINE that he would never allow Welles to direct TREASURE ISLAND, as the aging boy wonder was way too unpredictable. Towers needed a one-take director like John Hough to do the job efficiently and cheaply. And soft porn/Eurohorror director Andrea Bianchi was called in to do some reshoots.
However, Towers allowed Welles to write a few of his own scenes. (Five other writers collaborated on the script!) For the opening credits, Welles uses the pseudonym O.W. Jeeves, which hints that he may have been dissatisfied with the end result. TREASURE ISLAND was barely released, as I recall, and is never shown on television up here in Canada. It would be interesting to discover if any scenes in this TREASURE ISLAND were lifted from the cancelled project LA ISLA DEL TESORO, which Welles shot in Spain in 1964, during breaks in the filming of CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT/FALSTAFF.

[catbuglah]

Is the film now being critically reappraised?

I think it deserves to be- I found a couple of minor pro-Welles comments on the internet regarding his directing this film. I blame Disney for the film's poor reception - There's such a jolly, rollickin', happy, kiddy adventure perception to the story that a darker, grittier, more realistic take is invariable considered not jolly, rollickin', happy and kiddy enough.

The english DVD is a disapointment to me - The soundtrack, voice thing (although they call Welles' performance on the back 'outstanding') (the music for the film is actually quite nice - and there are some tricky, precise sound things that denote Welles) plus the day scenes are a little washed out, faded and the night scenes are too dark. The original color film quality has interesting color but the film quality (and state of preservation) looks mediocre. There is the trailer included, though.

There's an Australian edition out there, but I don't know if it's the same doctored print. (Although the cover artwork is nicer).

My opinion on the director situation is that since Hough at the time was just starting out (oddly enough, he directed some of his most critically acclaimed stuff shortly after this) and the director's credit proved to be a very moveable feast, as it were, (Apparently 5 directors, a different one for every country of release according to ethnicity!) then the chair is very open to attribute to Welles.

For a decent reappraisable DVD release I guess you would need to do some color restoration, have the original Welles voice, maybe with the redubbed version as an option (Welles' voice is perfectly understandable if you turn up the volume a bit...), include the Mercury radio version, an explanation of the different credits for the different language versions. And perhaps some commentary by Hough would be interesting.

[Store Hadji]

I've been convalescing from an injury recently - one involving a subcutaneous rip in the tissues of my side - and I thought it would be a good time to watch all of my VHS of Catbuglah's favourite film. I was looking for camera placements with a Wellesian look, and there are many. Whether Welles actually placed them, we could guess (until someone shares a definitive history of the film's making.) I'm also intrigued to know how much of Welles' original 1965 screenplay survived, how much was rewritten, and if this is why he chose to be billed as O W Jeeves.

So, the whyfore of the post is that when I finally made it to old Long John appearing - I couldn't understand a word he said. I had my headphones on at the time, and a factory release dub of the film. Welles did mumble and slur - and growl and I don't what to call it, but it made me laugh - whole paragraphs of dialogue delivered completely unintelligably and inarticulately. I don't know why it struck me as so funny - it just sounded absurd. Long John making all these severe and intense facial expressions and emitting bizarre sounds - and laughing at it hurt my side like someone was stabbing me with a fricking knife - and I couldn't stop laughing, or hurting. Way to go Orson. I hadn't laughed like that since hearing him say "mwah hah" on that Paul Masson wine commercial blooper.

It's unfortunate, though understandable, if the English DVD featured someone else dubbing the dialogue. I don't know what Welles was thinking by delivering such a vocal performance. Was it a characterization gone wrong? Was it a poor mike job on the location recording? Did Welles expect to fix it in ADR but never had the chance? Was he testing the director to see how much sloppy diction he could get away with? Was he angry about the changes to his script and actively sabotaging the film? Orson was a master of enunciation - he must have known what he was doing. Listen to the 1938 radio version of Treasure Island - he knew how to do a pirate accent and still enunciate clearly.

Thanks for obsessing about this film till I watched it, Cat. I'll never forgive you! Ow! It is a great bad film, though. I'll double bill it along with Bride of the Monster for a poor, unsuspecting girlfriend.

[Store Hadji]

And to counter and challenge claims that drinking and smoking ruined his vocal cords - there's plenty of other stuff Welles did after that in the seventies and eighties and all of it is perfectly articulated. I don't accept the vocal cord theory. Welles knew exactly what he was doing and sounded like that deliberately. I just haven't sussed out why.

[jaime marzol]

sinatra smoked and drank, and his best stuff is the reprise years, the later years. his voice got deeper. he lost some from the top but he gained it on the bottom. i didn't notice damage till LA IS MY LADY, i think 1984, and a serious drop in the duets cd and i don't know what year that was. he was already an old man by 1984. was it the booze and smokes, or age?