Question about "Battle Over CK" - your thoughts please....

[JasonH]

Hadn’t watched this in ages, but I found myself giving it a spin. I have nothing fresh to contribute about the documentary’s considerable slant. The attempts to draw parallels between Welles and Hearst are more than a little tortured, and the old saw that Welles was basically finished to any degree that matters after his RKO contract was terminated is in full force here.

The main thing of value is the same thing that makes all of these older documentaries valuable: the participation of contemporaries who were still alive to share their memories. I forgot what a riot Sam Leve (set designer from the Mercury Theatre days) is in this. He recalls Welles’s outrageous antics with such breathless pearl-clutching -- except the anecdotes that come from him are some of the most innocuous. The highlight is when he describes Welles leaving a hundred-dollar tip for a soda with a level of animated disbelief generally reserved for witnessing a homicide.