Welles & Rita

[Glenn Anders]

Rita Hayworth would evidently have been content to abandon Hollywood, go off to Todd School with Orson Welles, to be the wife of an instructor and a mother to his child.

Meantime, after the debacles of THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS and IT'S ALL TRUE, she guaranteed any financial loss that might be incurred should Welles not successfully complete THE STRANGER, something of a comeback movie for Welles, in 1945.

Later, when their marriage had collapsed, she agreed to star opposite Welles in THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI, a project she need not have taken on. It was during the shooting of the picture, at close quarters with Welles, that a pattern of uncontrollable drinking appeared to establish itself, one that would dog her for the rest of her life. Ironically, that was one cause of holdups in the production, which upon completion, encouraged Columbia's Harry Cohn to take the film away from Welles.

The vision I get of Welles and Rita Hayworth is of two two people who recognized the phoniness of the world in which they moved. Each had a most private side. One critic, I forget his name, writes movingly of how they bought a piece of land in Big Sur, south of San Francisco, and hoped to escape there.

Artistic or political ambition, debt, appetites, and the draw of celebrity took Welles away from that paradisical spot, and not to be overly sentimental, one might speculate that he wandered the rest of his life, around the World, looking for that place again . . . only occasionally finding it.

Glenn

[Bantock]

Have you gotten to the part where Rita has an affair with Howard Hughes?

[Glenn Anders]

Rita Hayworth was said to have been one of Hughes' stable of women, whom he treated as prostitutes. She is also said to have become pregnant by him during that period (before she was a star), and had an abortion. It would have been an additional reason why Welles was fascinated by Howard Hughes throughout his career, especially in F FOR FAKE.

[Miss Hayworth suffered from acrophobia, btw, as Mary Longstreet does In THE STRANGER.]

Prep schools and clock towers, eh, Peter. I hate to tell you, given your obsession with specificity, but Howard Hughes attended THATCHER School, in Ojai, California!

You might find amusing a parody review I did of THE AVIATOR, a takeoff on the supposed connection between Scorsese's bio-pic and CITIZEN KANE:

http://www99.epinions.com/review/mvie_m ... 3092212356

Unlike the movie, the review is probably too long on specific facts, but you should enjoy that.

I'm planning to re-write it, substituting John McCain for Howard Hughes.

Let's take off!

Glenn

[Glenn Anders]

Most commendable, Peter.

You are quite right: I would not take most of what is now said about Rita Hayworth at face value. That's why I did adopt passive voice. If we are to believe Barbara Leaming, Miss Hayworth was a victim of incest, a fact which deeply moved Welles artistically, when he learned of it. Such experiences tend create divided people, in whom anything is possible, and that's how Welles depicted aspects of her character in THE STRANGER's Mary Longstreet and Elsa Bannister in THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI.

I would only suggest, Peter, that we never really know other people, not even ourselves, far less products of immense myth-making whom we never met, and who have been dead for twenty years.

No Nazis in Williamstown? That you know of. I'm glad to see you qualify the statement. Actually, I'm sure Welles was fearful that a blindness toward a propensity for Nazism was inherent in Mary's reluctance to be shown horrors, and in Mr. Potter's close to the chest Yankee commercial shrewdness, and the smug self-satisfaction of Dr. Lawrence and other Harper town folk -- the latter examples largely lost in editing.

And of course, "Nazis" are all around Elsa Bannister in THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI. They appear to be modeled on Columbia Studio executives and functionaries.

Rationalization, goes the commonplace, is that quality which ruins humankind, but also the release which allows us to retain our sanity.

Peter, did you see the Williams College Museum of Art's widely advertised 2002 exhibition: "Prelude to a Nightmare: Art, Politics, and Hitler's Early Years in Vienna 1906-1913"? I trust your resistance to factors which disturb your preconceptions did not cause you to avoid that well-reviewed selection of Nazi Art in the midst of your New England town.

Then, too, Robert G. L. Waite of Williamstown was a distinguished authority on Nazism, last I knew. It would almost be a shame if there were not a few Nazis wandering around to represent the mentality!

I'm reminded that Aneurin Bevan, the great British Labor Socialist, declared to the Party upon returning from a visit to Mao: "There are no flies in China!"

I would not wander too deeply into the woods around Williamstown, my friend. Stay in sight of the church steeples.

Meanwhile, others will enjoy Macresarf1's little over-extended conceit on Howard Hughes, THE AVIATOR and CITIZEN KANE.

Glenn

[Glenn Anders]

My apologies to you, Peter, if I misled you, or misrepresented Rita Hayworth in any way. My point was only that she had a very difficult bringing up, and by most accounts, she was "shopped" by her father from the time he featured her on the rather infamous gambling ship, The Rex, in waters between Southern California and Mexico. These events put a blight on her life, which she escaped fitfully through her joy in dancing, her children, and a very few friends over a lifetime.

People who knew her well said she was very shy, and that before the Alzheimer's set in, when the "bi-polar" some detected or alcoholism was not upon her, she was very smart, very warm, very funny.

As for the rest of it, if you tell me there are no Nazis in your hometown, I'm compelled to say you don't know much about the place. There are nazis and fascists every in industrial, developed nation, especially America. That was Orson Welles' point in THE STRANGER.

It is much more true today, in a sense, than it was in 1945.

I can't see why that should offend you so much.

Such an erudite man, such a thin skin.

Relax, Peter.

Glenn

[Alfred Willmore]

..

[mido505]

Alfred:

You are listed as new member, but I presume you have been reading Wellesnet for a while now. If you have been paying attention you will have noticed that pissing matches are as common here as mushrooms after a spring rain. Right now, over at the Don Quixote thread, esteemed long-time members Tony and Harvey Chartrand are engaged in one of their semi-annual iron cage bouts. It is rather desultory right now, but I think it will pick up some steam once the chains are taken off the gates and a few more members pile in. I have had my own share of dust-ups, and Glenn seems to have been involved in just about all of the memorable Wellesnet brawls. Don't let Glenn's mild-mannered professorial tone fool you; there is a steely Hemingwayesque resolve behind that gimlet stare, forged in uncountable HaRa Club rumbles. I am rather enjoying the Glenn/Keats match; Keats has been rather restrained as far as these things go, but he is more than holding his own against the master's thrusts and parries. As long as these things don't get profane, too vicious, or too off topic, they can be a lot of fun. Let it play out. And besides, Keats has a point - in all fairness, if he must remove his snark, every other member should remove theirs as well, and then we would lose about a third of the posts.

[ToddBaesen]

To second what Mido has said, I think everyone here tries to remain fairly civil, but the heat of opinion about Welles and his work can sometime lead to pretty intense debate.

In the interests of preserving this lively debate, I think it's better to allow things to go right up to the edge... and then if someone should cross over the fine line of acceptability, the forum moderator steps in to deal with the situation, as he sees fit.

[Alfred Willmore]

--

[tony]

Who is Alfred Willmore and why is he typing "Blunted by Community"? Has he removed all his posts before I could read them? Damn!

[François Thomas]

Who is Alfred Willmore

Alfred Willmore would probably admit that he is Micheál Mac Liammóir. :wink:

[Glenn Anders]

Actually, Francois, I have just had a weekly report from Viktor Kleinhaagen of our Quarto Negro Investigatory Unit. Have no fear, Alfred Willmore is no Michael Mac Liammoir. Of that I can now assure you. Nor is he really Blunted by the Community. Nor is he Spartacus! He is just a modest chap who tries to help out, once in a while . . . and then thinks better of it.


Our expert investigator reports that Williamstown, a beautiful New England town, tucks itself into the Berkshires. "Deadshot Kleinhaagen," as he is known, has been trying to keep out of the unseasonal rain, and posing, ironically, as an "Active Shooter Trainee" at the program being presented next week in the local high school. Kleinhaagen has been staying across the border in Berlin, but he describes standing on the steps of Williamstown's fine old First Congregational Church, with its soaring steeple and clock, talking to the townspeople.

No one around Williamstown's grassy realm had an ill thing to say about our cantankerous correspondent. He may sometimes be observed walking his dog in a small woodsy area along the Hoosec River, near his home.

One citizen said, with wry New England humor, "Reads a lot, that fella. But 'tower Peter is a thing of beauty and a joy forever."

The Quarto Negro dossier could hardly conclude less.

Kleinhaagen did come up with one startling fact, however. Peter is not his real name. Despite suspicions that someone so furtive would turn out to be Franz Kindler, his real name is "Osborne Cox."

I had rather hoped it would be Alfred Willmore.

As Welles would no doubt laugh: "What's in a name?"

Let's hear much more from you, Peter, whatever you call yourself!

Glenn

[François Thomas]

Actually, Francois, I have just had a weekly report from Viktor Kleinhaagen of our Quarto Negro Investigatory Unit. Have no fear, Alfred Willmore is no Michael Mac Liammoir.

What I meant is that Alfred Willmore was the real name of the London-born Micheál Mac Liammóir.

Hence, a clever pseudonym for a Wellesnetter. :wink:

[ToddBaesen]

Francois:

Thanks for this very interesting bit of news.

Does this imply that Micheál mac Liammóir was English and not Irish?
If so, what a delicious Wellesian piece of fakery!

Glenn: you and I will have to drink an Irish toast to Alfred "mac" Liammóir at The Edinburgh Castle before we segue over to the Ha-Ra club to celebrate your 77th birthday this Sunday!

I'm even going to bring along the 30p Micheál mac Liammóir stamp issued in Eire that commemorates Dublin's great "Irish" thespian and a pint of Irish whiskey... or on second thought, why not some good London gin. As you know, "it's my only weakness."

"Here's to Wellesnet's newest member, Alfred Willmore!"

[François Thomas]

Does this imply that Micheál mac Liammóir was English and not Irish?

Yes, he was.

About his metamorphosis, see Simon Callow's The Road to Xanadu: "He now boasted a complete command of the Irish language and a rich accent that became the epitome of an Irish acting voice, though in truth it was unlike any Irish voice to be heard in the streets – and certainly not the streets of what he now claimed was his native city, Cork" (p.91.) Or Christopher Fitz-Simon's The Boys:A Double Biography, about Mac Liammóir and Hilton Edwards.