WELLESNET MESSAGE BOARD

Only 77 years late:
http://www.wellesnet.com/too-much-johns ... ve-actors/

Thanks to Masimiliano Studer for this:

Formacinema proudly presents an exclusive interview with "Rosabella" co-director Ciro Giorgini, the man who identified Too Much Johnson (1938) by Orson Welles.

Mr Giorgini has given several interviews in Italy in Italian language. This is the first time English spoken readers/scholars/viewers can know everything about the story behind the discovery and identification of this Welles’ lost film.

Massimiliano and Filippo Biagianti made this interview in February 2014. We edited and translated this work only now.

You can find our work following the link: all the material is in English language, especially the English subtitles in Vimeo video:

http://www.formacinema.it/index.php/for ... son-welles

Watched it on TCM tonite. Although the unfinished elements made a storyline difficult to follow, there appeared so many Wellesian camera moves, or was that projection on my part? I was also amazed at what for the most part was a pristine copy. My biggest problem was the modern tacked-on sound track. Unbearable to this viewer.

dmolson wrote:Watched it on TCM tonite...

Reading the reviews posted on TCM's site, I'm confused by what version they actually broadcasted. One reviewer referred to the running time being 40 minutes, which would seem to be the 34 minute compilation edit done by Scott Simmons, but there are references to multiple takes of the same action and a lousy electronic score. It sounds like they showed the whole 66 minute work print and slapped on some random music which, to my mind, would be a poor way of presenting this material.

The Scott Simmons edit...

http://www.filmpreservation.org/preserv ... reimagined

...edits all the best takes together in an attempt to present the film as it may have been used in conjunction with the stage play in 1938 (complete with period appropriate music and inter-titles). The 66 minute work print is really just a collection of rushes with little concern for continuity. Done with live piano accompaniment and commentary as I saw it last week at Indiana University, it makes for an interesting study in early Welles film-making, but a TCM audience would be much better served by seeing the best takes edited together as in the Simmons piece.

Managed to see this tonight. Definitely has the Wellesian touch in places. Can see him falling in love with the medium. He's listed as having a small part as a keystone kop but I couldn't find him in the 40 minute version, where is he?

Roger,

To answer your question, TCM did not play the Simmons edit. It played the full 66 minute version with multiple takes and a ridiculously inappropriate modern score. The score did not seem in any way correlated with the film itself. It was like they were playing some random recording of strange music. It was certainly not a score fit for a comedy! Indeed, the score would have been more fit for a Ingmar Bergman drama. The presentation also lacked any titles to explain any of the set-up or missing plot points. There wasn't even an introduction from one of TCM's hosts to explain the context of what the heck the whole thing was. There was just an introductory title card labeling it a workprint. Terrible, terrible presentation.

The Simmons edit is vastly better. It's well-paced, charming, fun and (mostly) comprehensible.

dmolson wrote:Watched it on TCM tonite. Although the unfinished elements made a storyline difficult to follow, there appeared so many Wellesian camera moves, or was that projection on my part? I was also amazed at what for the most part was a pristine copy. My biggest problem was the modern tacked-on sound track. Unbearable to this viewer.

All silent movies have "tacked on" soundtracks... Unfortunately, they didn't pay the accompanists enough to wait in the film cans for 100 years.

Richard Brody's review of a MOMA showing of TOO MUCH JOHNSON:
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richa ... all-welles

Which leads me to ask the following questions to you good folks:

1. Is this any different than the material on the Mr. Bongo Bluray released overseas?
2. Is the Mr. Bongo Bluray Region locked or is it playable on a US region player?

A representative from Mr. Bongo emailed me back to say that all their Blurays are Region free. So I will probably try ordering the TOO MUCH JOHNSON disc at some point.

Massimiliano Studer has published a new book in Italian on Too Much Johnson.
I interviewed him for Wellesnet. See http://www.wellesnet.com/orson-welles-t ... on-studer/
Among his findings:
* Thirteen trunks with 600 reels (!) of footage from various Welles projects are now in Gemona.
* The untagged trunks almost went from a Roiatti warehouse to a landfill.
* Vintage Spanish newspaper reports confirm Beatrice Welles' account that the Madrid villa fire was small in size
* Similarities between TMJ and cameraman's Harry Dunham's 1936 short Venus and Adonis
* Welles showed Too Much Johnson to RKO executives when he was hired
* He was working on TMJ footage during 1940

Ray, great interview with Massimiliano Studer. Thanks for posting.

I happened to notice that on the free movie site, TubiTV (movies will have a couple of interspersed advertisements) Too Much Johnson is available.

https://tubitv.com/movies/502443/too_mu ... start=true

This is the 66 minute Mr. Bongo release, which is rather expansive and includes many similar shots & sequences that Welles (or most any other editor) would have certainly cut down. Personally, though, I don’t mind this “supercut” version. Yes, the redundant shots don’t really help the narrative, and they probably do make the story harder to follow, but there are so many interesting, beautiful, and innovative shots that I’m glad to see them all. I’m also glad to report that the music consists of a piano score that, while a bit hyperactive, still sounds appropriate to a comic silent film.

For a more coherent version, Roger Ryan has already posted a link to Scott Simmon’s version (see Roger’s post on Tue May 05, 2015 12:33 pm). The Simmon’s edit cuts the Johnson material down to about 33 minutes, includes intertitles, and adds a piano score that matches and enhances the action. It was great fun to become reacquainted with Too Much Johnson through TubiTV and quite enjoyable to read through the interesting comments of Roger & others on this thread.

https://www.filmpreservation.org/preser ... reimagined