Welles connections to Bogdanovich's "The Cat's Meow"

[Wellesnet]

Jonathon Rosenbaum has recently posted to his website his original review of Peter Bogdanovich's 2002 film, "The Cat's Meow", based on the mysterious death of filmmaker Thomas Ince aboard William Randolph Heart's yacht:

http://www.jonathanrosenbaum.net/2014/0 ... fidential/

ORSON WELLES: In the original script [of Citizen Kane] we had a scene based on a notorious thing Hearst had done, which I still cannot repeat for publication. And I cut it out because I thought it hurt the film and wasn’t in keeping with Kane’s character. If I’d kept it in, I would have had no trouble with Hearst. He wouldn’t have dared admit it was him.

PETER BOGDANOVICH: Did you shoot the scene?

ORSON WELLES: No, I didn’t. I decided against it. If I’d kept it in, I would have bought silence for myself forever.

— This Is Orson Welles

[Wellesnet]

From the old tierranet Welles board:

THE CAT”S MEOW
Tuesday December 19, 2000 1:43 AM ET
Bogdanovich's ``Cat'' yarn all spooled

BERLIN (Variety) - Director Peter Bogdanovich is wrapping ``The Cat's Meow,'' which has been shooting in the German capital since November.

The $6 million German-Canadian co-production recounts events that allegedly occurred during a cruise from San Pedro to San Diego on the yacht of newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst (Edward Hermann) in 1924.
Hollywood legend has it that an angry Hearst discovered his mistress Marion Davies (Kirsten Dunst) was having an affair with guest Charlie Chaplin (Eddie Izzard) and shot at the silent film star. But he missed, killing another guest, film producer Thomas Ince (Cary Elwes).

The story was supposedly hushed up but has remained alive as Hollywood mythology.
Bogdanovich said he first heard the story in 1969 from Orson Welles, who told him he had planned to include a similar scene in “Citizen Kane'' but decided against it.
Reuters/Variety REUTERS

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Rapier:
Bogdanovich said he first heard the story in 1969 from Orson Welles, who told him he had planned to include a similar scene in ``Citizen Kane'' but decided against it.

And then did do a film obviously inspired by these events - "Lady From Shanghai"! A yacht trip, a lover, a murder. Ince was Hearst's business partner in movies, as Grisby is Bannister's partner. Who ends up getting killed? Also Bannister walks with Kanes. Has anybody seen the photo of Marion Davies in "The Times We Had" - aboard a yacht? She has short blonde hair, a sailor suit and a small dog. The spitting image of Rita in "Lady From Shanghai". This is the reason for Welles' odd choice of cutting Rita's hair! To make her look like Davies. "Lady From Shanghai" is the dark sister of "Citizen Kane". Clearly, Welles was not finished with Hearst and Davies and their sick relationship. Sharks eating each other up - and eating Welles up in the process, which they did after "Kane".



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Vagtangov:
You make some very interesting points, but of course, LADY FROM SHANGHAI was also influenced by the IT'S ALL TRUE fiasco. According to Barbra Leaming's book, the George Grisby character is intended to be a caricature of Nelson Rockefeller, who bamboozled Welles into the Rio adventure in the first place, and then left Welles high and dry when he refused to give him the support needed to finish TRUE. It is possible that CITIZEN KANE also makes a strange reference to the Ince killing in the tent scene when Kane slaps Susan and she starts screaming (on the soundtrack only).
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Rapier:
You make some very interesting points, but of course, LADY FROM SHANGHAI was also influenced by the IT'S ALL TRUE fiasco.

Great point. Welles hated the super rich. He saw Hearst and Davies, as trying to destroy "Kane", and soon after with "It's All True", Rockefeller as abandoning him in Rio. Between the three of them, Welles believed they ruined his career. "Lady From Shanghai" is inspired by the murder of Thomas Ince, but it has other levels. Welles personalized the story. Welles himself, in the character of Black Irish, becomes the innocent lover. The Ince character is transposed into Rockefeller, so we have the triumverate of Hearst, Davies and Rockefeller trying to destroy Welles. The sordid tale of murder on Hearst's yacht is reflected back onto Welles personal life and struggles. Like a hall of mirrors so to speak. In the end the rich sharks fail to completely destroy Welles/Mike O'Hara - he is "innocent". But, as Welles says in the script, "innocent" is a big word. In the film, although Welles sees himself as a victim, he also acknowledges his own culpability in the events. He does foolishly lust after Elsa Bannister/Rita Hayworth who becomes a metaphor for all that is beautiful, glamorous, lethal and corrupt about Hollywood. In the end, he sees himself as being "stupid" rather than "innocent". That's what happens when you swim with sharks.

"Lady From Shanghai" is one of the most important and interesting of Welles' films, and, to this day, I do not believe it has received it's critical due. The fact that it is obviously based on the famous Hearst/Ince yacht trip, a sequence disgarded from "Citizen Kane" makes the film very significant. Here we have Welles dealing with Hearst yet again - only this time he is dealing with the whole aftermath of "Kane" and how it affected his life, all in the form of a nightmarish drama. Yet I have never seen this fact dealt with in any book or article about Welles. Perhaps someone on the board knows of one, but I do not. All of this shows that Welles' work is so filled with mysteries and secrets that we will never be able to grasp it all. It keeps his work eternally new and surprising.

[Roger Ryan]

Given that the Welles screenplay for THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI is a rewrite of William Castle's script based the Sherwood King novel "If I Die Before I Wake", I doubt that the Thomas Ince murder legend influenced the subject matter much. The early scripted scene for KANE where one of Susan's lovers is shot by Kane on a yacht does seem directly tied the purported event.

[Le Chiffre]

Chances are, Roger, that you are correct about there being no connection in Welles's mind between LFS and the death of Thomas Ince. However, what's interesting is that the original Sherwood King novel, if I'm not mistaken, has no scenes aboard a yacht; the whole story takes place on Long Island. I've never read Castle's screenplay, but my guess is that the entire subplot about the yacht trip was Welles's idea...for whatever reason.

“All you have to do to make Hearst turn white as a ghost is mention Ince’s name. There’s plenty wrong there, but Hearst is too big to touch.” - D.W. Griffith

[Roger Ryan]

You're right - Castle's screenplay sets the action entirely on Long Island. I'm sure Welles thought that this choice was too static and sought to open the film up by incorporating a journey. This would also give him a chance to mix in some IT'S ALL TRUE flavor along with a dash of HEART OF DARKNESS.