By RAY KELLY
Fifty years after its original release, the restored Chimes at Midnight has deservedly received widespread acclaim. Frequently mentioned in passing is Orson Welles’ failed effort to film Treasure Island at the same time.
Some have dismissed Welles’ plan as a con: To secure financing for his beloved Chimes at Midnight, Welles promised to shoot the more commercial Treasure Island using some of the same sets and cast with no intention of actually following through.
That was not the case, according to participants.
Keith Baxter, who played Prince Hal in Chimes at Midnight, was cast as Doctor Livesey in the aborted Treasure Island. He recalled his conversation with Welles about the two-movie plan during a British Film Institute appearance in August 2015.
Spanish producer Emiliano Piedra had agreed to finance Chimes at Midnight and Treasure Island with filming on both set to begin in late 1964, Baxter recalled.
“Orson said … ‘I’ve agreed what they want me to do, and I’ve agreed that I’m going to play Long John Silver in a Technicolor version of Treasure Island, and you’re going to play Doctor Livesey.’ I said ‘Really? What’s Sir John Gielgud going to play?’ “Oh, he’s going to play Squire Trelawney, but he doesn’t know.’ I said ‘Are you going to tell him?’ ‘I don’t think so…’ The next morning, I said ‘How can we do it?’ He said ‘I can do it, I can do it Keith, I can do it, really. I’ve told them that all they’ve got to build is the set for the inn in Treasure Island, and that’ll be the inn for Chimes at Midnight.'”
Australian-born child actor Fraser MacIntosh (The Boy Cried Murder), then 11-years old, was cast as Jim Hawkins and flown to Spain for the shoot, according to Welles’ youngest daughter, Beatrice, who was a child actor in Chimes at Midnight. “Basically, 70 percent of Chimes‘ cast was going to be in Treasure Island – Tony Beckley, Norman Rodway…”
It’s impossible to say for certainty what inspired Welles’ plan. Perhaps, he was thinking back more than two decades earlier when he directed the deeply personal The Magnificent Ambersons for RKO Pictures, while a director of his choosing helmed the commercial thriller Journey Into Fear from a script he had co-written. Several cast members from the former appeared in the latter, filmed on the same studio lot.
Welles’ assistant and friend, Juan Cobos, told Wellesnet that Welles was “afraid that Chimes wouldn’t be a very appealing film at the box office and he proposed a remake of Treasure Island to the (producers). It was a way to cover the money deficit of Chimes with a more popular film based on (Robert Louis) Stevenson´s classical novel.”
“In fact, for financial reasons, he suggested that Treasure Island would get a good subsidy as a Spanish movie shot in this country – but a Spanish director and most of the technicians were needed as part of the deal. At a meeting with the Spanish producers, Orson Welles suggested a director for Treasure Island with whom I had written a couple of scripts, Jesus Franco. The producers became rather startled because Franco never was a prestigious director in Spain. Piedra and (Angel) Escolano wanted a more famous Spanish director. At that working meeting, Orson didn’t mention it was my suggestion and he invented his own lie. He said that he had been told in Paris that young Jesus Franco was a very talented director.
It was agreed Franco would direct Treasure Island from a script written by Welles.
“(Franco) was under contract to make Treasure Island, which was postponed after a week shooting on the Mediterranean coast of Alicante. The rented ship had been built for John Paul Jones, a film directed in Spain by John Farrow,” Cobos said.
The website western-locations-spain.com has a faded 1964 color snapshot of the Italian ship Marcel B.Surdo, which was used in the films John Paul Jones, Billy Budd, H.M.S. Defiant and Son of Captain Blood, in Alicante harbor. The name “Hispanola” is visible on its stern.
Baxter recalled the brief shoot for the BFI: “We drove across Spain and we arrived at Alicante at midday, and there was a small wharf and a big ship which had been used in Billy Budd. There were the producers, and champagne, and a lot of laughter – ‘Bravo Orson!’ – and Orson said, ‘Are we ready?’ and somebody said “Yes!”, and he said “Action!” and the mainsail dropped on the boat, and somebody said “Cast off aft!” and Orson said ‘Cut!’ and everybody drank some champagne, and he said ‘Let’s f––’ (well, I won’t say the F-word) he said ‘ Let’s clear off now, we can go.’ I never saw a shot of Treasure Island ever again after that.”
In his book Citizen Welles, biographer Frank Brady reported Welles shot a scene at Casteldelfels.
A few Treasure Island dailies have been preserved in Spain. Two minutes of footage appears in the 2000 documentary Orson Welles en el pais de Don Quijote (Orson Welles in the Land of Don Quixote), directed by Carlos Rodriguez and written by Carlos F. Heredero and Esteve Riambau.
Baxter has speculated that Welles’ commitment to the project may have waned during the shoot, telling Film International Journal in January 2016, “I think he was serious about Treasure Island at first … He saw how to do it. They had a ship we could use, and there was Ibiza for the island. All Welles needed was the Admiral Benbow Tavern, which would be built on a soundstage. Everything else could be shot on location. He actually filmed a crew lowering sails on the ship, the crowdhuzzahing on the shore.”
Following the filming of the ship, Cobos says, “Franco helped Orson (for three weeks) on the Chimes scenes when we had many extras in the shooting. Then later Welles disagreed with him and Franco left the film.”
Franco and Welles reportedly had a falling out after funding from Piedra dried up. Franco sought out Harry Saltzman to finance completion of Chimes at Midnight. However, to Welles’ chagrin, the deal Franco negotiated gave Saltzman prominent onscreen credit on the title card and distribution rights in all non-Spanish speaking countries.
Although Piedra was no longer financing Chimes at Midnight, Welles remained contractually tied to Treasure Island as both actor and writer.
“Years later, we had a long lunch: Piedra, Franco, Welles and I to pick up again the project,” Cobos said. “No economic agreement was reached with Piedra.”
In 1972, a film version of Treasure Island based on Welles’ script was directed by John Hough. Welles starred as Long John Silver and it was shot in Spain with a Spanish crew.
Welles was largely dismissive of the film and unhappy with the rewrites of his script. (The film credits the screenplay to the pseudonym “O.W. Jeeves.”)
“We had a good script. It was loyal to Stevenson; my contribution was to keep it clear about just where the people were on the island, which Stevenson didn’t always bother about.” Welles told interviewer Peter Bogdanovich years later. “You don’t notice it when you are reading, just when you are making a film script.”
In his book What Ever Happened to Orson Welles?: A Portrait of an Independent Career, film historian Joseph McBride described Welles’ performance as Long John Silver as “sound(ing) like Falstaff with a terrible hangover.” McBride has reported that Welles issued a public apology in Variety for his nearly unintelligible performance, saying he was dubbed by another actor without his permission. However, another source told McBride Welles did the dubbing in a single night in Rome and drank white wine throughout the session, contributing to a forgettable version of an adventure classic.
Welles’ fondness for the Stevenson story dated as far back as his radio days. A hour-long adaptation was the sophomore production of the Mercury Theatre On the Air for CBS in July 1938.
Years after Welles’ death, Beatrice Welles found several bound copies of her father’s complete Treasure Island script, as well as a copy with corrections and notes. The script covers were designated for various cast members.
“He loved the story, always did,” Beatrice Welles said. “It’s one of the books he read to me as a child.”
As for the aborted Franco-directed film, she said her father “definitely wanted to make it.”
“Why would he look for a young actor at RADA? I remember looking through the photos with him and helping him pick Fraser (MacIntosh). Why would he fly Fraser in if he didn’t want to make the movie?,” she said. “That’s just a tall tale that sounds good in certain circles: ‘He conned the Spaniards.’ Bull! My father was not a con artist when it came to his movies.”
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