Callow Vol. II: "Hello Americans"

[Christopher]

Macresarf1 has given us an excellent, in-depth, well-balanced review of Simon Callow's second volume. The reviewer brings out the important connection, developed at length in Callow's book, between Welles's radical, left-wing political activities and their negative impact on his career in radio and in film. As far as I know, HELLO AMERICANS is the first book on Welles to deal with the profoundly political side of his nature and it is worth reading for that alone. Also valuable is Callow's detailed discussion of the IT'S ALL TRUE debacle.

Callow is an engaging writer, witty and perceptive, which makes his book highly readable. However, his tendency to editorialize, judge, criticize and make psychological assumptions and pronouncements about Welles became irritating to this reader. While I grant that some of Callow's assumptions are valid, others are off the mark, and only someone who knew Welles personally, which Callow did not, would be able to make this distinction. So I would recomend this book with the caveat that you read it essentially for the facts and details it presents and take Callow's assumptions with a grain of salt.

[ToddBaesen]

Glenn:

I told Larry French that you had finished your review of Callows book, and I was going to ask him him to post the link on the Wellesnet main page, but since you've already provided us with that link, it would now seem to be a redundancy... Anyway, can we agree that if Catherine Benamou's book on IT'S ALL TRUE says that Welles was actually under budget when the plug was pulled on the film by RKO, that you finally accept that as the the real truth of the matter?

And isn't it ironic that Welles two documentary (or essay films) where titled: IT'S ALL TRUE and F FOR FAKE. It sort of sums up Welles entire life and career. But in one of the most brilliant observations I think Welles made, he told Kenneth Tynan: We are made of opposites; we live between two poles. There is a philistine and an aesthete in all of us, and a murderer and a saint. You don't reconcile the poles, you just recognize them.

Now isn't that the truth?

I certainly think so. We all are a big mass of contradictions, certainly Orson Welles was. He could be charming and he could be an ogre. But can't we all? We all love and hate, and can be nice one minute, and angry the next. But journalists especially want to categorize you into a convenient box. With Welles it was the "Boy Genius, who lost his talent and got fat, never living up to his promise." Well, we all know that is a completely untrue story. Or if you were Garbo the press said let's make you the great loner. If you were Boris Karloff, let's cast you as the great boogeyman, even though Karloff was probably the nicest, most considerate actor in Hollywood.

So it's idiotic to listen to any of these standard press descriptions, since it reduces an artist to a one line biography.

But depending on your view, Welles was either a genius, or after CITIZEN KANE, a total failure. I don't think anyone who is reading this needs to be convinced that Welles was never a failure, even with his worst film, whatever you might think it was. Instead I think as Joe McBride posits in his new book, it's the audiences, particuarly in America, who let Welles down, by not supporting a great visionary artist. In that regard Welles was like a Van Gogh. Never appreciated in his own time, because he was so far ahead of it... except for CITIZEN KANE, which everyone Universally regards as a masterpiece.

[Glenn Anders]

Glad to see you on deck, Todd!

I would hazard that Welles attempted to balance the light and the dark, the good and evil, the true and the false, all through his career.

Macresarf1 sends his thanks to you, anyway.

As for the the costs of IT'S ALL TRUE, we shall have to examine Miss Benamou's book carefully. I don't know if Larry told you, but Macresarf1 put a link in his review to the Wellenet announcement of her book's publication.

Christopher: Thank you for the endorsement and your agreement. Macresarf1 appreciates if, too, I'm sure.

Glenn

[tony]

This doppelganger thing is scaring me, Glenn... I mean Alex...I mean Macresarf...

Christopher and Todd: well said; I wish Welles had called it "It's All Fake" !

:;):