English writer, musician, filmmaker and illustrator Chris Wade has explored so many facets of the arts, it is surprising it has taken him this long to pen Orson Welles: The Final Cut.
Wade, who runs the arts publication Hound Dawg magazine, records with Nigel Planer for the music project Rainsmoke, and recently completed his first film The Apple Picker, which was picked up by Sydney World Film Festival. He has published books on subjects ranging from Martin Scorsese to Paul McCartney.
In Orson Welles: The Final Cut, available from Kindle with a paperback on the way, Wade provides an overview of Welles’ cinematic career in his essay The Rise and Supposed Fall of a Maverick.
Wade also offers a detailed log of Welles’ many movie appearances beginning with the amateur short The Hearts of Age in 1934 and concluding with the posthumous release of Henry Jaglom’s Someone To Love in 1987.
Wade took the time to field a few questions from Wellesnet about his interest in Welles and his new book.
Fleshing out an Orson Welles filmography is a daunting task, what inspired you to take this on?
I had always liked Orson, but I only really knew of his key directorial films, some of his acting parts and his wonderful chat show appearances. When I first got hooked on him I became obsessed primarily with his unfinished films, researched and read about them like a mad man. I think I fell for that romanticized frustrated maverick idea. Then I saw how vast his filmography was, and thought how bad it was for a newcomer, that they had little to guide them through that massive catalogue. As I started to research the work, I also realized how much good stuff a Welles newcomer might miss if they just bypassed all the later work and focused on the acclaimed work.
I did the book primarily for myself, as I couldn’t find a full Orson Welles film guide, so I thought I’d give it a go. I always do my projects to please myself, I never write about anything I am not fascinated by at the time, and I put them out in case anyone else fancies taking a look. But for me, too many Welles bios just sped past his later years, even books I thought were really enjoyable. Some became bogged down with the abandoned projects and the hard time he had finding funding. I wanted to put together something that celebrated the work he actually finished.
How many of the films mentioned were you able to screen?
I watched a hell of a lot. I already had some on DVD, and I bought more as I went along, but a lot of them I was able to view online. Some directors gave me access to their films which Orson had appeared in. But I watched a lot of random things; documentaries, TV series, films, which I managed to screen online. I saw nearly everything I cover in the book, there were just a few I couldn’t find much info on. But surprisingly, a lot of these works are readily available.
What works did you find most useful in doing your research?
Well I had obtained a stack of books on him over the past few years which I had bought and casually read. The Bogdanovich book (This is Orson Welles), the (Barbara) Leaming biography (Orson Welles), Frank Brady’s book (Citizen Welles)… they were all helpful, but mostly I wanted to do new research, find the films, get some info and hopefully inform the Orson newbie or casual fan which work was worth investigating. I found a lot of gems which are rather unfairly buried in time, some of which were missing from the books I had. Books aside, I found Henry Jaglom himself the most useful and helpful, who I interviewed a couple of times. His words on Welles’ last film, Someone to Love, were very moving.
What are your favorite Welles films in which he acted? Directed?
My favourite Welles directorial pieces are Chimes At Midnight and The Immortal Story. Chimes is just staggering from start to finish and for me that is Welles’ greatest screen performance. When I first watched it I was absolutely stunned. It shows what a genius he was at editing. It’s relentlessly good. But Immortal Story, even though it isn’t as well known, I just found it very moving and surreal, very dreamy and hazy. I love the feel of it, and Welles gives a lovely performance. But I find Macbeth and Othello are masterpieces too, and obviously Citizen Kane is a film to be in awe of with every viewing.
As for his acting work, I love his work in A Safe Place; he was amazing in the TV version of King Lear; I thought he was tremendous in Compulsion; and funnily enough I loved his work in the 1968 film Oedipus the King. But I also enjoyed some of the more curious things I came across, like the seedy horror film Necromancy, which although no masterpiece, was really enjoyable and Welles was really effective in it.
To be honest, I enjoyed everything I was lucky enough to watch, even the stuff that was bad, because Welles was still great in it. One piece I found which was really enjoyable was a 1977 version of Rime of the Ancient Mariner, with visuals directed by Larry Jordan and narration by Welles. There was so much good stuff. I would have loved to see more of the London One Man Band material and in the book, Goodies star Tim Brooke Taylor recalls working on that with him.
With Final Cut under your belt, what is your next project?
I completed my first ever film earlier this year, The Apple Picker, and I am currently piecing together my second one, due to be put out next year. I do them for fun and people can view them for free if they fancy it. I am also working on a new album under my Dodson and Fogg name, a project I have been doing since 2012, and I am working on more book projects, firstly one about Sergio Leone’s Once Upon A Time in America, and other film and music books which are in my “to do” folder. I just like to keep myself busy, and I am lucky that my hobbies are also my job.
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