WELLESNET MESSAGE BOARD

Or OTHELLO? (Beware jealousy, my lord...)

Right, indeed, Mike! Or in MACBETH, when he impatiently asks about the condition of his ill wife, who has suffered a nervous breakdown:

Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased,
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,
Raze out the written troubles of the brain
And with some sweet oblivious antidote
Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff
Which weighs upon the heart?

That would fit the attitude attributed to Robert Wagner in response to the plight of Natalie Wood, his wife.

In fact, incidentally, many of Welles' films display women abused, neglected, or in distress: The second Mrs. Kane, Mrs. Minafer, Elsa Bannister, Mary Longstreet, etc.

Glenn

Like many, having waited with baited breath for many years and having those flushes of excitement everytime there's news that TOSOTW or The Deep is almost there and almost certainly coming soon... i've gradually moved to the opinion that if there was potential for The Deep to actually be something, then Welles had ample time to finish it himself. The fact he didn't, and pretty much lost total interest in it after being ripped off yet again, suggests to me that it was supposed to be a by-the-book drama in a similar way that The Stranger came about to show that Welles could do straight-forward bankable low-art projects.

As Welles said, "My hope is that it won’t be an art-house movie. I hope it’s the kind of movie I enjoy seeing myself. I felt it was high time to show that we could make some money." And for many reasons it failed. It didn't have Welles heart in it, so he wasn't prepared to go through an Othello-like triumph against the odds to get it finished.

Wind is to me, more interesting because Welles seemed to always have wanted to finish it. That he allegedly never got around to recording the film's planned opening narration at any point between 1976 and 1985, is either untrue and the audio is lost somewhere / possibly destroyed, or if true maybe casts a shadow on how much he wanted it completed, posthumously if necessary. As Welles said, "It is just as vulgar to work for the sake of posterity as to work for the sake of money."

As we know, no-one can finish either of the films as Welles would have done. And I fear anyone who tries to pretend to be Welles will be destined to failure.
My biggest hope now is that the people who want to make money out of any of the projects, passes asap, and the shot footage is made freely available for Welles fans to assemble their own versions. With the advancements in video-editing technology surely it's just a matter of time before we're able to knock-up a convincing CGI explosion seen for The Deep... and use sophisticated voice synthesizers to recreate the missing audio in such a way that it's seamless!
Or have i gone too far!

Notice that a whole load of OW work relating to The Deep is up for auction at Juliens Auctions in early Nov. Looks interesting.

Welcome Reppid and thanks for the tip. I have
posted details athttp://www.wellesnet.com/?p=2032

Good to see these papers being made available. I would think the Munich Filmmuseum, holders of one of the three major Welles archives, might be interested in these, to go with the DEEP workprint. Here's another page on the auction:
http://www.julienslive.com/view-auction ... lot/31820/
This page says Welles "left" these materials to his longtime friend Bill Cronshaw. Too bad he didn't also leave to Cronshaw the negative of the film itself, which now appears to be lost.

Is ‘The Deep’ boat for sale?:
http://www.wellesnet.com/?p=6789

Baxter never acted for Welles again, although at one point it looked as though he might appear in THE DEEP...Shot in the late '60s, the project was never released and may sources claim it was unfinished, though Baxter told me, "There is a finished print of that film."

--From ORSON WELLES REMEMBERED by Peter Prescott Tonguette

THE DEEP was not finished because Jeanne Moreau refused to dub her lines. It had nothing to do with Lawrence Harvey's death. Jeanne Moreau and Welles apparently had had a romantic relationship because Moreau was very jealous of Kodar on the set of THE DEEP. "You're going to do the same thing to me that Antonioni did with Monica Vitti!" she screamed at Welles. Welles's lawyer, Arnold Weissberger, advised Welles to sue Moreau for breach of contract, but Welles did not want to do that as he still considered her a friend.

--Why THE DEEP remained unfinished, according to Oja Kodar at her recent Woodstock appearance.

Do you remember how this connection with the Iranian producer Mehdi Bousheri came about?

Yes, we were editing a film. I think it was Jeanne Moreau's sound loops for THE DEEP...

--Oja Kodar, interview with Stefan Drossler

Don't believe anything these people say. Not one word. After all, TOO MUCH JOHNSON was lost in a fire, and IT'S ALL TRUE is at the bottom of the ocean.

There are forgotten and forlorn storage facilities in Europe and LA filled with celluloid treasure. It's all true? It's all there, and will be found when it wants to be found.

I find all this quite curious, that The Deep may have been sidelined partially due to Moreau's unwillingness to loop some dialogue - not to say it couldn't harbour a grain of truth, however.
In many of Welles' independent, European films he apparently didn't hesitate to overdub dialogue with someone else's recording; Desdemona in Othello, Auer in Mr Arkadin (he himself providing the dialogue), and due to financial and logistical constraints, much of the edited Don Quixote. Perhaps most of these examples are a result of a freelancer, with film in the can from months ago and little means or ability to bring the actor abroad for a few days; the story on Cloutier's voice being overdubbed is purported to have a romantic - spurned lover - angle. Why not just do the same for Moreau? Or was Welles more of a romantic than we know, feeling unwavering loyalty to his one-time paramour? Or did, as other versions suggest, he just lose interest in the project? How much of his hand was guided, as with his heart, by Kodar at this point? The questions never fade and interesting tales linger in the world of Welles...

There's also the version where Moreau was ready to dub her lines, but Welles never sent her the plane tickets to wherever it was supposed to have been done.

There's also the version where Moreau was ready to dub her lines, but Welles never sent her the plane tickets to wherever it was supposed to have been done.

Given Moreau's renowned dedication and professionalism, and her passionate reverence for Welles as man and artist that continues to this day, I'd say the above version is closer to the truth.

Here's an interesting story about THE DEEP that is new to me; I just discovered it, along with a treasure trove of equally fascinating information, in Bart Whaley's essential e-book ORSON WELLES, THE MAN WHO WAS MAGIC. This comes from Lawrence Harvey's mistress at the time, Paulene Stone:

Harvey originally shot his scenes on location in Yugoslavia, over a 2 1/2 week period, then flew back home. Almost immediately Welles phoned Harvey and asked him to return to film some additional scenes. Welles told Harvey to buy the tickets, and that he would be reimbursed upon arrival. Harvey flew back to Yugoslavia with Stone and actor John Ireland.

As they were changing planes to fly out to the island of Hvar, where the actual filming was taking place, Harvey and company ran into actor Michael Bryant, who was also acting in THE DEEP, and who had just left the location. Bryant told Harvey not to bother continuing, as Welles had had a massive argument with Oja, and, in a deep funk, had gone into seclusion, essentially shutting down the production. Although Harvey attempted to contact him by phone, Welles refused to take his calls. Harvey and company left Yugoslavia the next morning.

Although shooting on THE DEEP eventually resumed with Welles, Oja, and a scratch crew, Harvey was never called back for those additional scenes; nor, for that matter, was anyone else.

As was typical of most actors who had been directed by Welles, Harvey always spoke highly of him, until his own death from stomach cancer in 1973.

Note: "The Deep" was filmed between 1966 and 1969 when Jeanne Moreau (who appeared in four Welles projects) was 38-41 years old and Oja Kodar 25 to 28 years old. Laurence Harvey died in 1973. Cinematographer Willy Kurant has stated Moreau, who had already appeared in nearly three dozen films, was upset her part was smaller than Kodar's, who was a newcomer to film.

Translated from http://www.adorocinema.com/noticias/fil ... ia-113308/ - May 13, 2015

Question: Orson Welles had several projects never completed ...

Oja Kodar: This is a painful issue for me. People always accused Orson to start something, but not end, as if he were a genius afraid to complete their films. This is ridiculous! He did not finish the film for lack of money. The first film I started with it was called The Reckoning, then changed to The Deep, and then changed again, because someone else made ​​a movie of that name ... Anyway, he called me to act in this story, and the sad thing is know that he finished filming! There were only second unit of images, some taken underwater ... He also needed Jeanne Moreau dub some scenes.

Before, I did not talk about it, but today I'm 74 years old and do not care if I hurt someone's feelings or not. We pretended at the time that the film could not be completed because of the death of Laurence Harvey , but that's not true. We could not finish because Jeanne Moreau refused to participate in the dubbing. I say this without fear of repercussion, without fear of being sued, because I have letters from Orson and Orson lawyers, proving that the culprit is Moreau. I was a very pretty girl, and at the time she was hired for the film, she was a middle-aged woman. When she saw me, she hated me, and could not forgive Orson for loving me rather than love her. That's why The Deep has not been completed. It was jealousy.

There are various versions of this slanderous story circulating around. Here is the most explicit one, recently related by Oja herself at Woodstock:

THE DEEP was not finished because Jeanne Moreau refused to dub her lines. It had nothing to do with Lawrence Harvey's death. Jeanne Moreau and Welles apparently had had a romantic relationship because Moreau was very jealous of Kodar on the set of THE DEEP. "You're going to do the same thing to me that Antonioni did with Monica Vitti!" she screamed at Welles. Welles's lawyer, Arnold Weissberger, advised Welles to sue Moreau for breach of contract, but Welles did not want to do that as he still considered her a friend.

It's a garbage story, and it's time to put it to rest.

Moreau, an icon of European cinema, acted in four films for Welles during his most brilliant and fertile creative period: THE TRIAL, CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT, THE IMMORTAL STORY, and the unfinished THE DEEP. A tough woman whose dedication to her art matches Orson's own, Moreau has a well-deserved reputation for siding with her directors, and for standing up to meddling producers. Nonetheless, she was also box-office, and in high demand. It is likely that her presence in Welles's films helped get them funded.

Moreau is a consummate professional, who has always spoken of Welles in god-like terms in interviews. It is unthinkable that she would wreck a film because of a jealous snit. Not only would such an action harm Welles, it would sully Moreau's own reputation. Such was Moreau's dedication to Welles that she often took no money up front for her involvement, instead accepting a back end deal. For example, on THE IMMORTAL STORY, Moreau took a piece of the theatrical and broadcast distribution rights outside of France. This was not lucrative. According to an account in the great book ORSON WELLES AT WORK, "neither Welles, nor Moreau, nor their producer received a penny from the film they had made for the love of cinema". Nonetheless, Moreau immediately signed up for THE DEEP.

Once again, Moreau took no salary. According to Kodar herself, "Moreau agreed to be paid later". She probably made a deal similar to the one made for THE IMMORTAL STORY. But this time, Moreau would not just be betting on herself, and on Orson. She was not carrying the film. This time, Orson (and Moreau) would be betting the farm on an untried and, as it became increasingly apparent, hopelessly untalented amateur, who just happened to be having an affair with her director.

My guess is that Moreau must have been appalled. She may have tried to talk some sense into Welles. Moreover, given her age and immaturity, and the personality traits that have recently become so apparent, Oja was probably insufferable. I can imagine the cattiness, and the snottiness, and the disrespect for Moreau. I suspect she just waltzed around with her nose in the air, letting everyone, especially Moreau, know that she was Orson's special lady. No wonder Moreau blew a gasket.

If the Lawrence Harvey anecdote is to be believed, Welles finally lost his temper with Oja, and shut down production. When it resumed in a desultory fashion, only Orson, Oja, and a scratch crew were present, although most of the important scenes seem to have been in the can.

I think that, seeing the way THE DEEP was going, Moreau probably thought THE DEEP, if it ever got finished, would be a bomb. Having been burned (through no fault of her own, or Orson's) on THE IMMORTAL STORY, she probably reversed herself and demanded some money up front, and used the dubbing issue as leverage. I am sure there are letters between Weissberger and Welles on the subject, but they exist in a wider context. That Moreau has stated publicly that she was waiting to do the dubbing, but never got the call, leads me to think that the issue was resolved, but that Welles, for his own reasons, decided not to finish THE DEEP.

The question still remains, why not? My guess is that Welles knew that Moreau was right, and that THE DEEP would be an embarrassment for him. The tipping point was probably the Italian scandal, when the Roman gutter press got wind of Welles's relationship with Kodar. Welles was so angry, and so concerned not to embarrass his family, that he left Italy, and Europe, for good, and relocated to the United States. There is an interesting anecdote from editor Mauro Bonanni, who worked in THE DEEP, that confirms my suspicion:

You know, for example, because of The Deep being there, he wanted to work more on it? But I told him one day at lunch - it was just me and him – “Can you imagine, Welles, the day when the movie comes out, there will be a few reviews, and they’ll all speak only of the leading actress, Oja?” Because of this, there was deathly silence on his part ... and that was why we did not do any more work on it. There were still scenes with her that didn’t work because, unfortunately, at that stage of her career, she was having trouble. And I, as a young naif, I said such a thing to him. Shame on me.

Of course, Oja Kodar, who at age 74 has no need to be diplomatic, as she insists in interviews, is not going to admit this. So she distorts history and slanders a woman who is not only a great artist, but also a great friend to Orson.

I've recently been in touch with "major pepper", who was lucky enough to attend the Cinémathèque Française's screening of the work print of THE DEEP July 18th, 2015. He was very happy to provide a detailed description of film and the event, but didn't feel confident he could do so in English. I offered to translate his text from French to English for the benefit of the board, and he agreed, asking me to post it here on his behalf.

Stefan Drössler and DP Willy Kurant were present to describe the missing scenes and provide some production history and anecdotes.

Since the camera negative has been destroyed, the quality of the surviving film elements varies quite a bit, even though the print from which the video copy was derived looked well-preserved. Eighty to ninety percent of the work print was comprised of reasonably good quality black and white footage, although the finished film was always intended to be in colour. Stefan Drössler explained that Orson Welles had the rushes printed in B/W as a cost-cutting measure. The few shot processed in colour shots were quite beautiful despite being significantly faded. Blue skies had unmistakably turned red. If the film was ever to be released commercially, major restoration and colour correction could prove a daunting task, and it's unclear whether it would be feasibly accomplished

Roughly 5 to 10% of the print was overexposed with poor definition, making it difficult to see the actors' faces. For a minute or two, the image also became unstable and drifted out of frame to the left. I presume this was due to a telecine problem, but I'm not knowledgeable enough about the technical side of things to say for sure. During the film's final 15 minutes, the image got progressively darker up until the climax, which was mercifully not affected. This darkening obscured the most burlesque and jubilant part of the film in which the Orpheus's crew threw paint and other flammable products onto the boat while shooting flares into the sky. During this scene, the image is so dark that I got the impression that the multi-coloured paint splashing onto the screen was actually an optical effect. The darkening ends at the point where an underwater sequence was to begin. Only a fragment of this scene remained - a shot of John (Michael Bryant) diving into the water explore the bottom of the yacht.

The actual edit was indeed based on Welles's own work print, with the exception of one scene - Rae's (Oja Kodar) dream sequence, which was filmed later and was reportedly not present in the shooting script. According to Drössler, this sequence could only be inserted at the head or tail of the work print itself. Otherwise, white leader stood in for missing inserts. During those sections, Drössler would describe the missing elements - usually short B-roll inserts which could easily be shot without requiring the cast - such as a shot of a bottle dropping into the sea. The more important missing scenes were concentrated near the end of the film. Without venturing too far into spoiler territory, I can say that the eventual appearance of sharks immediately reminded me of great picnic scene from THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI.

Instead of having the multiple takes play back sequentially as they had on the actual Munich Cinematheque print, this presentation only retained the best ones. The only exception for which multiple takes were kept in was a monologue by Hughie (Laurence Harvey) in which he acts both menacingly and seductively towards Rae. First, she looks terrified as we hear his off-screen voice, then we see the scene again from her POV with him (in a striking extreme close-up) looking aggressively at her (and at us). I presume that a decision was made not to intercut the two angles in order to show the full take of Harvey's impressive performance.

Since Welles had never completed post-production, this print had no music other than a short bass and piano jazz piece, added, I presume, by the Munich Cinematheque. This music worked so well with the the on-screen action that it made me regret the absence of a complete score. All the dialog tracks were from the original production audio, and although they hadn't gone through any additional sweetening, they were clear enough to follow. Unfortunately, there were also a few silent sequences for which no sound had been recorded (or had survived). The actual dialogue was apparently present in the script, no effort was made to subtitle these scenes to ease comprehension. I was particularly disappointed that much of Welles's own dialog was missing, since his character was clearly the most colourful and eccentric of the lot. For example, when John, seen repeatedly hanging from the ship's mast in low-angle shots, becomes increasingly tyrannical on board the Orpheus, Ruth responds with a forceful "Jawohl, mein Führer!"

Willy Kurant (the film's DP) shared a few memories from the film's shoot with us in perfect French. He related a few anecdotes and, even after all the years, he hasn't gotten over the fact that the negative had been ceased and destroyed by French customs.

The shoot had originally been planned for Spain, but was relocated closer to Oja Kodar's home in Croatia.

Welles insisted on one particular camera, the Cameflex, which had a singularly large viewfinder. He found that other cameras weren't well-suited for a head as large as his own. However, the Cameflex had one major drawback, however: it was loud! This explains why we often heard the camera's motor noise over the actors' dialog. The Cameflex was also the source of other anxieties when Welles had to wait several days for it to be delivered to the set. The entire cast and crew waited, at great expense, only to finally discover that the precious camera had in fact arrived on the first day at the hotel where Welles and the crew were staying.

Kurant also explained that Welles intended to shoot the entire film backlit. They covered the lens with a stocking when shooting Jeanne Moreau's close-ups to soften her features. He recalled Welles yelling at owner of the yacht when the wind changed direction, keeping them from shooting against the sun. The sailor tried to explain that it was impossible to move against the wind, but Welles wouldn't hear any of it. With a laugh, Kurant recalled that Welles shouted at the sailor that his own job was to film with a camera and that the sailor's job was to allow him shoot like he wished, keeping the yacht positioned against the sun!

Kurant also explained his technique for keeping the camera steady on rough seas - keeping it tucked firmly against his stomach. He also recalled he dangers he unconsciously faced shooting alone on a canoe a few hundred meters away from the yacht.

If we're to believe Welles' own statements, THE DEEP was intended to be a commercial project calculated to re-ignite his directing career; a thriller full of action and suspense. Although it's impossible to judge the final film based solely on the unfinished work print, I felt that the film's introspective and psychological elements came across more strongly than the action. The humorous excerpts seen in THE ONE MAN BAND documentary did not strike me as being very representative of the film as a whole in its present state. Except for a few action scenes making ample use of the zoom, Welles focused in large part on the more claustrophobic elements and on the emotionally-charged psychological state of the characters.

Shot entirely aboard two boats drifting in the middle of the ocean, THE DEEP did not contain any scenes set on land. Despite this technical constraint, the film never felt visually monotonous, the inventiveness of the direction keeping things fresh with elegantly composed shots typical of Welles's work. A splendidly composed shot from Jeanne Moreau's POV had the sea appear rhythmically in front of her while intercutting with the horizon moving up and down behind her as the yacht dips with the waves. We know that Willy Kurant held the camera perfectly steady against his stomach, so the shots were clearly an artistic choice, not an accident.

THE DEEP bathes in a climate of paranoia, keeping the spectator in a constant state of doubt. We never really know who the good and the bad guys are in the confined spaces that separate two couples aboard two different vessels. Ruth's (Jeanne Moreau) admissions about her psychopathic husband keep us from judging her too harshly, like Rae, a hostage who eventually pushes a gun barrel away from her attacker Hughie. The character relationships remain largely ambiguous, like when a liaison seems to appear between Rae and Hughie and we're unsure if this is simply her ruse for survival or a real mutual attraction.

Not having read the script nor the novel on which it was based, I had a hard time understanding certain parts of the story, particularly the climax. This may have been due to the fact that we didn't have access to essential dialog or to entire missing scenes. Going by what I saw, and by Stefan Drössler's detailing of the missing scenes, the story plays like this:

John (Bryant) and Rae (Kodar) are young newlyweds on their honeymoon aboard the Saracen, a well-maintained yacht running low on fuel. The Saracen sails out into the ocean, farther and farther away from the coast. The camera lovingly follows Oja Kodar as she removes her bathrobe to reveal her nude body. John's hand moves down to caress her back, then he pushes her violently into the water and starts the motor, abandoning her in the ocean. Rae awakens, startled, and tells her husband her strange feelings of solitude and abandonment. These scenes prepare us for Hughie's (Harvey) eventual discomfort every time he sees something fall into the water. When John and Rae rescue Hughie onto their yacht, John calls Hughie's bluff when the latter claims to be the only survivor of the Orpheus following a food poisoning incident that supposedly killed the other passengers. With Rae staying aboard the Saracen with Hughie, John boards and explores the Orpheus which is slowly sinking. He discovers a man and a woman locked away in one of the cabins, when he hears Rae screaming in the distance. She's been taken hostage by Hughie on the Saracen which is sailing away at high speed. The Orpheus, taking on water with torn sails, belonged to Hughie and Ruth (Moreau), an unhappy couple. They were accompanied by Russ (Welles), a ridiculous hunter incapable of steering a boat despite the captain's hat permanently affixed to his head.

Only Rae can save her husband and the Orpheus's passengers of certain death as they struggle to pump the water out of their boat. Who knows if she will let herself be seduced by her kidnapper, if she will confront him, or try to use the radio to call for help. Although she appears late in the film and has much less screen time than Kodar, I was impressed by Moreau's sober performance. Her best scenes are those where she defends Hughie's actions to John while remaining emotionally ambivalent about her husband. Through her, we learn Hughie's story, his problem with women dating back to his childhood with an absent father and overprotective mother. Hughie has never really attained adulthood. He gains Rae and Ruth's sympathies, but never their trust.

Welles's character, both ridiculous and wry, stands in sharp contrast with Bryant's, who becomes progressively tyrannical and unsympathetic. Russ is a dime store sailor ironically decked out with his captain's hat; a loser who always finds himself in the direct trajectory of buckets of water or paint thrown by John, and who never seems to notice the holes in his own bucket as he uselessly struggles to pour water from the boat. Initially, though, Russ appears more sympathetic than Ruth. Gradually, as their real natures are revealed by their actions, our sympathies completely shift. John also softens up in Ruth's presence, who confides in the husband of her own husband's hostage. We expect John and Ruth to develop some sort of bond, but each one remains focused on their own quest: John wants to save his wife, while Ruth and Ross are driven by their desire for vengeance. From this pessimistic state of affairs, only Rae gains the audience's real admiration, through her actions based on her humanity and compassion for her aggressor.

http://www.wellesnet.com/roger-skipper- ... -the-deep/
By TODD TARBOX

Recently, I came upon a snapshot of Orson and my grandfather, Roger "Skipper" Hill, taken during the filming of Welles’s movie Dead Reckoning, alternately titled The Deep.

The image brought to mind a wonderful reflection Skipper wrote in his memoir, One Man's Time And Chance – A Memoir of Eighty Years 1895-1975, concerning weeks of collaboration on this project that like The Other Side of the Wind, might one day be released in a form close to Orson’s vision.

On the thirtieth anniversary of Welles’s death allow me to quote Skipper:

"Dead Reckoning is a sea-going thriller involving two yachts that meet in mid-ocean with subsequent murder and mayhem. The film was started in the Adriatic. Orson played the villain and cast Laurence Harvey and Oja Kodar as co-stars. His first message of distress came from Yugoslavia. One of his rented yachts was no longer available. I must find a duplicate and help him finish up in Miami waters. I tell him there are no empty horizons near Miami but he and his crew might come to the Bahamas. ‘Send me a picture of the boat you must duplicate. I’ll make copies and circularize yacht brokers.’ But his ketch proved to be of weird design, impossible to duplicate. ‘Never mind’ he wires, ‘We’ll shoot around any discrepancies.’ And later: ‘You must find something somewhere. Absolutely must come with cast. This is a wild cry for help.” Even that didn’t move me. I was tied tight to my chores of chartering in the Keys. What I finally fell for was his satanic flattery: ‘I know it’s impossible. All I ask is that you pass one of your usual miracles.” So, I bought miles of film, found a ketch and a cameraman and arranged a Bahamian rendezvous. He arrived with Oja only, plus costumes for the others. These we would fill with local flesh. More accurately, I would fill them. The couple departed after a few days leaving me the costumes, the cameraman and reams of instructions. Orson, it seemed, was committed to a movie in the mountains of Yugoslavia where, with Tito’s army, he was to film the storied resistance of those Partisans in World War II.

“My problems were more immediate. This film’s climax is a knife fight under water. Down there the bad guy, Welles, meets his gory end. Before leaving us, our director-star had begun this scene by falling off the ketch and sinking beneath the water. Now I must locate a super swimmer who could fill that huge costume. In Miami, a commercial conch diver was found almost big enough and completely dumb enough to believe my assurance that the dye we must put on his blonde hair would soon wear off. What I failed to solve was the problem of that brilliant red gore Orson insisted must gush from his neck during the final stab wounds. ‘Simple,’ he said. ‘Max Factor sold a blood routinely used in Technicolor fights. Then he wrote out these instructions:

“This liquid could be kept in the armpit of the costume. A tube will lead up to the neck where the stabs should occur. When these start, your actor, like the wily Scot with his bag of air, can eject the contents by compressing his elbow.”
“Damned if it didn’t work, too. But O woe! Down there in the depths, it came out green!

Hours before Orson’s last conversation with my grandfather, he appeared on the Merv Griffin Show and Griffin asked him. “Were there certain parts of your life that were really joyous?” Welles paused for a moment and responded, “Oh, yes. There are certain parts of every day that are joyous. I’m not essentially a happy person, but I have all kinds of joy. There’s a difference, you know, because joy is a great big electrical experience. And just happiness is, what, I don’t know. A warthog can be happy.”

I’m glad to know Orson experienced an abundance of joy. I can attest he provided enormous quantities of joyous electricity to my grandfather and grandmother as he did to millions of people during his lifetime, as he continues to do, and will for generations to come. What a fitting legacy for George Orson Welles that he so richly deserves.

Todd Tarbox is the author of "Orson Welles and Roger Hill: A Friendship in Three Acts." It is available from BearManor Media and Amazon.com