IT'S ALL TRUE

[ToddBaesen]

Has anybody tried playing any different music under the THREE MEN ON A RAFT episode of IT'S ALL TRUE. I thought the score they used was rather poorly done, and if i was at the preview I would have told them: "It Stinks!" or "sent it back for re-scoring!"

Seriously, I was trying to think of something else suitable that might go under it. Anybody have any suggestions?

It would be sort of like hearing the original Bernard Herrmann cues played under TORN CURTAIN. In the few clips they showed on the DVD it made a startling difference.

[Le Chiffre]

I think the Lilly library has the original score written for the Four Men On A Raft episode by Paul Misraki, who also did the score for Arkadin. If so, it's beyond me as to why they didn't use it.

[Jeff Wilson]

I like Misraki's Arkadin score a lot. As for his It's All True work, it's possible that the score didn't match the editing, and the effort to make it correspond to same wasn't felt to be worth it. Another consideration is the budgetary requirements to record it. Rights issues, maybe? But the score that they did use is sleep-inducing, to be sure.

[ToddBaesen]

-
There's currently a press kit for sale on Ebay which had this interesting material about IT'S ALL TRUE listed in the description:

BACKGROUND: On February 18, 1942 the Carnival In Rio ended, and Welles began preparing the Jangadeiros episode of IT'S ALL TRUE, "Four Men on a Raft." He also was planning additional scenes for the Carnival, to be staged at Rio's Urca Casino. Welles wrote the following short treatment on how he planned to create a transition from the Jangadeiros segment to the Carnival footage.
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March 11, 1942 - ORSON WELLES TREATMENT FOR LINKING EPISODES OF "IT'S ALL TRUE":

--- This is the way I visualize it—Beautiful shots of Rio, and I start a kind of travelogue, looks like (it's) going to be boring and I say a few words, rush expensive music, Copacabana crowds of bathing girls and suddenly close shot of couple girls under umbrella looking out at water… Guys stand up and look… make cuts showing tiny sail out in bay, no explanation for all of this. Few more cuts, people noticing, kids, crowds beginning to form and look at what is apparently refugees or guys on raft caught in storm. Sail keeps coming in.
***** Show Copacabana Palace Hotel. Crowds of people around front, don't see President, then jangadeiros come through crowd.
***** Then I either appear on screen or speak and say, "This is what happened when we were in Rio and we didn't understand who these people were. We found out and it is the best story in South America."
***** Dissolve into interior of hotel room and there are a lot of Brazilian reporters and jangadeiros… And I say as though I were right there, "I wish you could tell us something about these people." While busy talking in Portuguese one fellow turns to camera and tells us what jangadeiros are but doesn't say why they came (to Rio)…
***** Then I lead into the story and the four fellows talking and being translated. As I start to talk, fade into jangada village… Whole track is not my telling story but they telling story…
***** I get to arrival in Rio and last shot should be from their point of view seeing bay and people coming toward them. Dissolve back to hotel room… I finally turn to Jacare and he says he has been talking long enough because we have been hearing music outside. "We want to see Carnival and excuse us." ***** We go to Carnival…

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March 15, 1942: (Welles had been in Brazil for only six weeks, when George Schaefer began to worry about the ballooning budget of IT'S ALL TRUE. Trying to calm his fears, Welles sent him the following cable):
ORSON WELLES TO GEORGE SCHAEFER:

HASTEN ASSURE YOU MY ONLY DESIRE HERE IS TO MAKE THIS BEST POSSIBLE PICTURE AT LOWEST POSSIBLE COST. HOPE YOU BELIEVE I WISH NOTHING MORE THAN TO BE FULLY COOPERATIVE IN EVERY RESPECT AND TO MAKE YOU PROUD OF ME. -- MUCH LOVE, ORSON WELLES.

[Obssessed_with_Orson]

why was there a budget to begin with? this wasn't going to be a film. this was something that should have been no cost to anyone other than mr. rockefeller. the moron that told orson it was his patriotic duty to do this in the first place.

[Jeff Wilson]

According to the linked post from Home Theater Forum, the documentary It's All True will see release on November 30 of this year, No details as to any potential extras, though I don't imagine there will be any, given the low profile of this title.

Paramount Catalog releases

[R Kadin]

I'm going to guess that it will just be a transfer of the 1993 VHS version, reviews of which seem to be rather conflicting. While one can always hope for things like an enhanced restoration and additional supporting materials, hard-nosed business reasons for investing the added time and trouble don't exactly over-runneth the cup, so to speak.

As a labour of love, maybe? A profile-enhancing exercise for the Paramount image, perhaps? Sure - why not leave a little room for some optimisim?

Anyway, has anyone out there had a good look at the earlier product and, if so, what's your take?

[Flint]

WOW! Great News!

R. Kadin-
I saw the video several years ago, but the thing I remember most is the striking cinematography. Especially in the "Three Men and a Raft" segment, which I believe was shot mostly by Welles himself after the studio had tried to pull the plug on the project and he opted to stay behind with a minimal crew. Extras or no, I can't wait!!

-Flint.

[savehollywood]

I have the VHS. It is actually a very nice quality. If you can find it, probably no need to buy the DVD... unless it has extra features, of course.

However, I personally found "It's All True" to be a rather static documentary... and the footage, although beautifully shot and in focus, was not something I care to invest in another edition of...

Give me the "One Man Band" DVD, then I'll giggle...

[Christopher]

The Museum of Modern Art in New York had a special showing of the "It's All True" documentary some years ago, which I saw and found more heartbreaking than anything else. The footage of the "Three Men in a Raft" sequence, even without sound, hints at what Welles's film might have been, had he been allowed to finish it. So, at best, in my view, the documentary is tantalizing, saddening and not that interesting, overall, except as a postmortem.

[Roger Ryan]

Following along the idea that even unfinished fragments should be allowed in the Welles canon proper (i.e. "The Dreamers"), I think the restoration of "Four Men and a Raft" is a wonderful addition. Apart from Welles' missing narration, the sequence feels complete and certainly shows that Welles was crafting something much more artistic than what the bad RKO press would lead one to believe.

[Glenn Anders]

Larry French has posted some interesting material on our Main Page about IT'S ALL TRUE from Joseph McBride's new book. Certainly, there were attempts to undercut Welles at RKO, incidents of betrayal, bungled or sensationalized reports about the Jangadeiros tragedy -- and the material Larry posts documents those facts. But I'm not sure the conclusion Larry draws in his headline is accurate.

When Welles and the RKO executives met with State Department reps (FDR right hand man Harry Hopkins) and Technicolor technicians, the Government's idea was to turn out a modest documentary, little more than a travelogue, bolstered by a lot of PR and diplomatic receptions in Brazil (which, given Welles popularity there, could be spread around South America). At the meeting, Welles, for his part, seemed reluctant to even fool around with the expensive Technicolor process, which the State Department liked. The project might have taken six weeks to a couple of months, with a budget of $500,000.

Delays in delivering equipment to Rio stretched out the schedule, and meanwhile Welles began graft onto to the travelogue his other projects, in the planning stages earlier. Eventually, he was in South America for six months, and his concept grew into a kind of "History of the Americas and their cultures cum-A Night at the Movies," during which time his reputation in Hollywood fell into shreds under the collapse of George Schaefer's RKO regime.

When Schaefer's courrier Phil Reisman (the best friend Welles had among RKO execs, other than Schaefer) trades scuttlebutt with company man Reg Armour, they are running before the new broom of New York corporate hitman Charles Koerner, who had been sent by his faction right after Welles' departure for Brazil to get rid of all the Arts Units at the Studio. When they talk about "Bonito the Bull" costing $400,000 so far, they are speaking of only a quarter or third of the entire projected IT'S ALL TRUE. The big scene for that "Bonito" segment has not yet been shot (and never would be). From their standpoint, from the standpoint of the Studio, the project has become a financial bottomless pit. The have orders to plug it, but they don't know how to do it without creating a public relations, not to speak of a diplomatic, incident.

In terms of business, any business, the lack of an effective control mechanism or a schedule, even a script, certainly a solid budget, doomed IT'S ALL TRUE from the start, especially when most of the crew had to be supported in South America by RKO during (real) Wartime for upwards of six months. The death of Jacare (certainly, to be sure, not in a fight between a shark and an Octopus) was the final blow.

Much of the good will extended to Welles and RKO by the Brazillian Government and Press, much of the good work Welles had done both on the film and as an ambassador, was lost. Welles had gambled that his luck would be with him, as it had been many times before. This time it was not. The canning of George Schaefer, Welles' defender, as RKO CEO, already assured, appeared now fully justified to the Studios.

I think it is foolish to snatch at the odd fact amidst other evidence to make it appear, on financial grounds, at least, that IT'S ALL TRUE was not a disaster for all parties involved.

Glenn

[ToddBaesen]

Glenn:

As usual you make somes convincing arguements, but I don't see how you can question the basic fact in this case, which is no matter how you figure it, IT'S ALL TRUE was never over budget. This is quite plain in all the documentation and memos in the Welles/RKO files at the Lilly Library which are open for examination, and supported by that nasty little phone chat between Mr. Reisman and Mr. Amour.

The amount of money RKO listed as having spent for IT'S ALL TRUE was $753,000 when the plug was pulled after George Schaefer resigned in June, 1942. The total budget was set at $1.2 million by RKO and the CIAA. The film remained unfinished, but still had $447,000 left to go before it could be considered over-budget. Since Hollywood has very creative accounting methods, when a film actually makes a profit is always a matter of debate. But in this case I don't see how there can be any doubt that IT'S ALL TRUE was not over budget.

If the film had been completed, the CIAA was to reimbursed RKO $300,000 of the projected $1.2 million budget. These are the facts. As we know, when Welles returned to the US, RKO put out a story he went way over budget on IT'S ALL TRUE and terminated his services. This is the beginning of the story that Welles would go over budget, but IT'S NOT TRUE.

Of course, whether Welles was sending back usable or unusable footage is open to debate. Whether he was drunk every day, or working 20 hours every day, is open to debate. Whether he was off pissing in the Amazon river, or meeting young ladies in the afternoons, is open to debate. Whether the film would have gone over budget if Welles were allowed the time to edit and finish it, as he was allowed to do with CITIZEN KANE, is also open to debate. But the facts indicate, that at the the point the film was stopped, it was quite certainly, not over budget.

End of story.

End of Welles career at RKO.

[Glenn Anders]

Todd: I think pretty much "all of the above" in what you say is true.

However, businesses run on records and calculations. There was precious little actual information about what Welles was doing and how much was being committed to expenditure. The obviously biased reports by Linn Shores did not help. And true, Welles seems to have gotten RKO quite a lot for their money, but could they use it? There does not seem to have been the ghost of a plan, except at the end, after the production was shut down.

Most of these executives, certainly George Schaefer, wanted Welles to succeed. It had been on that basis that they gave him an unheard of contract, but RKO was in bankruptcy when the signed him up, and they were still in bankruptcy when Charles Koerner seized control for the other faction of stockholders. Welles had produced four unconventional films which, though not necessarily all his fault, had added up to a considerable net loss.

It was not that he had not spent all his budgets. RKO was broke, in the hole, and IT'S ALL TRUE emerged as a greater commercial failure than the other films had been. You may argue that Welles would have bailed RKO out eventually, but RKO was sunk at the time he was doing the bailing.

You have a tendency, Todd, to dismiss the fact that most people, at a given moment, do not recognize what is true, but what appears to be true. Their attitudes are often based on fear and a need for safety. Humans, certainly Americans, have not changed much.

We have only to look around us.

Glenn

[tony]

What I found strange is that Welles was promised Robert Wise in Brazil for the cutting of Ambersons, but was then told that wartime restrictions forbade Wise's coming. However, when problems arose about the IAT budget, Reisman was sent down immediately.

Hmmmmm...... ???


PS: Todd: Don't forget that one of the main reasons, and perhaps the main reason, for IAT being shut down, was that Welles had so much footage featuring and indeed concentrating on blacks. We know now about the memos flying back and forth between spies and Hollywood talking about this problem, and even spies complaining to the Brazilian government about this; Brazil has "the blood of all men" but blacks were (and still are) on the bottom there, and of course were brought over as slaves. Jacare and another Jangedeiro were blacks, and so was Grande Otello, and many of the samba people, and many in the carnival sequences, and of course the voodoo section, so.... the picture could never have been shown in large parts of the U.S. at that time, and this would have killed profits. When they realized this (not to mention the furniture throwing, the loss of Jacare, etc.), the plug was pulled, and probably, from their perspective and reality, correctly so: they sent the wrong guy to make a pleasant travelogue. Actually, it's hard to imagine how Welles could have released the picture on his own in 40s America.