THE MAN IN THE CHAIR: Christopher Plummer on Welles.

[Glenn Anders]

In view of a recent thread discussing the death of the last survivor of CITIZEN KANE, it is amusing to note that a new film has just opened in New York: THE MAN IN THE CHAIR. The plot concerns an ambitious tyro film student, who seeks out a drunken derelict, "Flash" Madden. This fellow Madden is said to have been given his nickname by Orson Welles, when he worked as young man on CITIZEN KANE (as a gaffer). The student asks "Flash" Madden to mentor him in making a brilliant first feature. The old man is flattered, brings on board an old screenwriter pal (M. Emmet Walsh), and away they go.

[You have come across this general plot before, I'm sure.]

By all accounts, the film's great asset is the performance of Christopher Plummer as "Flash" Madden. He said the following, in a recent interview concerning THE MAN IN THE CHAIR, about those who mentored him when he was a younger actor:

"Yes. I've had many mentors such as Kazan and even Kama Savitski, who I was lucky enough to work under when I was 18, and those are extraordinary giants of the theatre.

"And in movies too, John Houston, Orson Welles, whom I've never been directed by, but whom I've known well and worked with several times on the screen. God, I love him. I was hoping to do a film with him because we were going to produce, yet again, Julius Cesar in brown shirt instead of black shirt. He said 'I want you to play Marc Antony and come in as a producer with me.' I thought, 'Well, I would do anything. I would pay to work with Orson because he's such a funny, witty man.' Of course, the thing never got off the ground, as was always his way.

"I always loved him because he never had a front man to charm the backers. He had to do it himself, and then he got so sick of charming them that he would call them a bunch of philistines and then leave the room and of course had no money. He was so shattered by these dreadful people that he had been charming."

Many wellesnetters will remember that Welles was indeed in the habit of giving nick names to his workers, and if I'm not mistaken, he did dub one of his Mercury staff, "Flash."

The critics are extending THE MAN IN THE CHAIR only so-so reviews, but initial audiences seem to really like it. The terms "decency" and "heart" dot commentaries. It would seem worth a try in a Holiday Season in which I've never seen so many dark, pessimistic Big American Produced Pictures.

Glenn

P.S. Despite the remarkable resemblance of Christopher Plummer's "Flash" Madden -- the archaic headgear, the endearing crinkly eyes, the unshaven cheeks, the struggling beard, the drunken smile -- to a prominent Wellesnetter of my acquaintance, it is all purely coincidental. It is not true that THE MAN IN THE CHAIR's original credits stated: "Based on a memoir by Sweeney T. Baesen"!

[Alan Brody]

This New York Times review by Stephen Holden is not too positive, but it actually makes the film sound kind of interesting. The "animal protection" subplot even reminds one a bit of Beatrice Welles, and the concern for animals she inherited from her father:

In “Man in the Chair” Christopher Plummer, an actor typecast nowadays as a suave, smiling cobra slithering through the corridors of power, sheds his scales to play a tippling old curmudgeon raging against the dying of the light. His fierce portrayal of Flash Madden, a long-retired Hollywood studio gaffer, is the knot that ties together this sentimental intergenerational drama.

The movie, written and directed by Michael Schroeder, wants to confront hard truths about old age in what one character disgustedly labels a throwaway society. But it also insists on applying a thick sugar coating to this very bitter pill. Mr. Plummer’s Flash, who swings between extremes of fury and weepiness, keeps “Man in the Chair” reasonably honest despite itself, though the film is so concerned that Flash’s anger will be unpalatable to audiences that it throws in a mawkish, unconvincing subplot about animal protection to persuade us that in his heart of hearts he’s a softie.

Flash is so obsessed with saving stray dogs from being rounded up and killed that he leads an after-hours raid on an animal shelter to liberate them. The metaphor of the old man as an old dog may be apt, but the comparison is so heavy-handed it feels like pandering. And the raid itself is a perfunctory bit of business.

The movie also has a ludicrous flashback to the young Flash being given his nickname by Orson Welles on the set of “Citizen Kane.” It throws in gratuitously dizzying camera effects to demonstrate its integrity as an independent film.

Flash is first seen in a nearly empty Los Angeles revival house glaring at the screen and hurling abuse during a showing of another Welles film, “Touch of Evil.” “You never could act in pants, Chuckles,” he shouts at a mustachioed Charlton Heston playing a Mexican policeman. Observing this skid-row-worthy heckler is Cameron Kincaid (Michael Angarano), a nervous 17-year-old student who is preparing to make a short movie for a high school competition.

Cameron is as alienated in his way as Flash. Bullied at school and treated contemptuously by his stepfather (Mitch Pileggi), he dwells in a cocoon of old movie lore. Sensing a kindred spirit in the loudmouth crank, Cameron considers Flash as a possible subject for his project and trails him to the grounds of the Motion Picture Home where Flash lives with other retired movie business employees. Flash may have physical comfort, but he spends his days wandering around Los Angeles, perching on park benches and overpasses and swigging out of a pint of bourbon.

After some harsh rebuffs Cameron pries the details of Flash’s career out of him then begs him to help with the film. Flash finally agrees after Cameron bribes him with a promise of a continuing supply of Cuban cigars and Wild Turkey.

After dismissing Cameron’s terrible ideas for the movie, Flash introduces Cameron to Mickey (M. Emmet Walsh), an Oscar-winning former screenwriter who now lives miserably in a nursing home. The movie mentions that Flash’s union affiliation enables him to live in comfort, whereas Mickey, for whatever unspecified reason, has no such cushion.

Cameron now decides he should make an exposé of nursing home conditions and shows the slightly gaga screenwriter, wonderfully played by Mr. Walsh, how to research the topic on Google. Mickey hauls a battered old typewriter out of the closet and, as he begins to peck at the keys, re-engages with life. To get the $5,000 to finance the film, Flash visits a wealthy film producer (Robert Wagner) who stole his wife years earlier and shames him into lending the money.

“Man in the Chair” has few surprises. Once its machinery is humming, it settles into a soothing fable of a last hurrah.

“Man in the Chair” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). It includes profanity.

MAN IN THE CHAIR

[ToddBaesen]

So we can add MAN IN THE CHAIR to the ever growing number of movies that feature actors playing Mr. Welles!

And here's a bit more of Christopher Plummer on Welles, from the S.F. Chronicle:

Walter Addiego: Did you ever work with Orson Welles or Charlton Heston?

Christopher Plummer: Oh yes, I knew Welles well, and we worked several times together. Indeed, we were going to produce together at one point. That didn't happen because Orson always either got disinterested in a project or there was no money. But I was crazy about him, and we got on like a house on fire. He was a terribly funny man. Many people don't realize how witty and amusing he was. And what a terrific mimic he was. We had a marvelous time together. Heston I knew a little bit. I don't think an awful lot of people knew Heston. He was slightly remote. He was always nice to me, gentlemanly nice. Jason Robards Jr. used to call him "Chuckles" because of his teeth. "Chuckles Heston" was an affectionate nomenclature. So I put that in the film.

[Glenn Anders]

Thank you for the Times' review, Alan, and yes, Todd, your observation dovetails happily with the review. It's fitting that Jodi Ashworth (a name really too good to be true) is making his debut as Orson Welles.

We shall have to keep an eye on him.

Glenn

[ToddBaesen]

Coming across this 1967 article in the N.Y Times, it struck me how fascinating it would have been if Welles had gotten the money to make a modern dress version of "Julius Caesar" that could have been ready to show in theaters in the early months of 1968.

Imagine if it had come out before the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy!

Plummer of course recently played KING LEAR on Broadway to rave reviews, and I had the great pleasure of seeing him play John Barrymore on stage, doing bits of Shakespeare (as Barrymore), so it's doubly sad he never got to work with Welles as his director. He clearly was ready to play Antony for next to nothing.

_______


WELLES TO GIVE CAESAR HIS DUE - AGAIN!

By A. H. Weiler - The N.Y. Times - July 9, 1967

Orson Welles, once a boy wonder but obviously no longer a boy at 52, will return to a theatrical triumph of his youth for his new film. He will make a movie version of the modern dress "Julius Caesar" that his imaginative Mercury Theater troupe staged here 30 years ago.

Christopher Plummer, who recently filmed "Oedipus Rex" with Welles in Greece (directed by Peter Saville), revealed that "Orson has already adapted his original, modern version of the Shakespearean play, and he will not only produce and direct it independently, but will also play Caesar. I'll do Antony, and Orson hopes to get Paul Scofield to play Brutus. He will also update the political implications, using a documentary technique. Shooting will begin this fall on location and in a studio in Rome."

"I guess," he continued, "it's likely to be as much a labor of love for me as "Oedipus" was. You like to make money, but... I gave up the role of Lord Cardigan in "The Charge of the Light Brigade" and a fair amount of money to play Antony in the upcoming Stratford, Ontario, production of "Antony and Cleopatra." You can't have everything, you know. The same applied to "Oedipus." I'd done the role on TV years ago, and I liked the idea of doing it in films. So there I was in Greece during a revolution, with soldiers around and planes overhead, but they didn't interfere with us in any way. I think this "Oedipus" will have freshness and excitement - the kind of excitement you get from people enjoying what they're doing."

[Glenn Anders]

Yes, Todd, Christopher Plummer has to be one of Theater's Nature Noblemen.

It's a shame that his MAN IN THE CHAIR seems to have gone nowhere.

We are almost at a point where we could build an entire film festival around recreations of the Mercury Theater's milieux in the late 1930's.

Glenn

[Alan Brody]

That sounds like a great idea, Glenn. We've already also got Me and Orson Welles, Cradle Will Rock, Night that Panicked America, now we need someone to make a film of Steven Philip Jones's novel King of Harlem:

http://ebooks.ebookmall.com/ebook/184231-ebook.htm

[ToddBaesen]

Christopher Plummer's movie career began with Nicholas Ray's WIND ACROSS THE EVERGLADES, written by Budd Schulberg, about the senseless slaughter of Birds in Florida. It's a film that seems ripe for re-discovery in this age of global warming and endangered animals species.

While Christopher Plummer never actually worked with Orson Welles as a director, it's interesting to note he certainly wanted to.

Which brings us to those actors who worked with Welles for next to nothing. Most of them were willing to do so because of their love of Shakespeare, or because they wanted to work with Welles, or both.

Christopher Plummer was certainly an actor who loved doing Shakespeare. He started out of all places, under John Houseman at Stratford, Conn, and then went on to star in many of Shakespeare's plays at the Stratford festival, in Ontario.

Plummer is currently acting the part of Julius Caesar in Bernard Shaw's ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. I just watched the interview with him about playing Caesar (see the link to the Stratford video on the main page) and found his comments to be quite insightful. Here is just a small sample of what he had to say about the relevance of Mr. Shaw's play in today's world:

CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER: There are very cogent things said about our own situation right now in the world… there’s a part in act two when Caesar discusses the Roman armies occupation of Egypt and it might just as well be BUSH talking, but at least Caesar admits he should have never come to Egypt. We haven’t quite heard that admission yet from the powers to be…

[Glenn Anders]

Good work, Todd:

The Project for a New American Century Boys, for reasons inexplicable to me, always came back to the idea that Egypt was the key and final objective on their course of empire in the Middle East. [Sort of reminded me of Ken Follett's novel, The Key to Rebecca. They probably got the idea in the same place.] It all has something to do with Armageddon, The Rapture, and the Conversion of the Jews. Just this morning, I heard a report that gang now believes the new final location of Armageddon is in . . . Alaska!

We shall have to comb Welles' outtakes from THE MAN WHO SAW TOMORROW for more insights.

Glenn