Thanks to Lance Morrison for tallying up all the votes so far of Wellesnet members ongoing ranking of their favorite Orson Welles’ movies. I’ve taken the results Lance has posted on the message board and added in ten more votes, including my own, as well as people I’ve asked to send me their rankings, including Christopher Welles Feder, Juan Cobos, Richard France, etc.
The results change slightly, but rather significantly, in that now FALSTAFF comes in at number one!
*****
1. Falstaff (Chimes at Midnight)
2. Citizen Kane
3. The Magnificent Ambersons
4. Touch of Evil
5. The Trial
6. The Lady from Shanghai
7. Othello
8. F For Fake
9. Mr. Arkadin
10. Macbeth
11. The Stranger
12. The Immortal Story
The Fountain of Youth
*****
For comparison, here is a ranking Juan Cobos complied for his magazine Nickel Odeon, when he asked 100 mostly Spanish writers and filmmakers to pick there favorite Orson Welles’ movies in 1999:
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1. Citizen Kane
2. Touch of Evil
3. The Magnificent Ambersons
4. Falstaff (Chimes at Midnight)
5. The Lady from Shanghai
6. The Trial
7. F For Fake
8. Othello
9. The Immortal Story
10. The Stranger
11. Mr. Arkadin
12. Macbeth
*****
Interestingly enough, a clear consensus seems to emerge if we divide the two lists into a top four, a middle four and a bottom four.
In that case, the top, middle and bottom films remain the same on both lists, varying only slightly in their final ranking within their respective tier.