WELLESNET MESSAGE BOARD

The BBC just broadcast Journey Into Fear, listing it as co-directed by Welles and Foster. Though Welles denies having a hand in the directing of the movie in TIOW, the opening scenes, the magic act, the scenes on ship - all seem to me to be covered in Orson's fingerprints.
So: is this at least partly a Welles film or not? Should it be aprt of the oeuvre? He produced it and co-wrote it, and I'm certain he directed some, as well as gloriously hamming it up as Chief of Secret Police as well.

Dear Mr. Clay: Although the exact facts of the matter are as hard to nail down as in any other Hollywood tale, I believe the story is that Welles was working on THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS "in his day job," and doing JOURNEY INTO FEAR at night. Obviously, sometimes Welles could not be there. Also, Welles had obligated himself to fly to Under Secretary of State Nelson Rockefeller to fly to Brazil on that infamous "Good Will" mission after shooting on AMBERSONS was complete, but before JOURNEY INTO FEAR was done. By default, the job and the credit fell to Norman Foster. I also think Joseph Cotton, who co-wrote the screenplay, took a hand.

[Somewhere, I have a rather sad article by Foster's son, saying that Foster was willing to drop anything he was doing to go help Welles -- and did!]

Hope this helps.

[Macresarf1]

i've always thought that Welles had planned to produce, direct and star in Journey Into Fear, and had got so far as to design shots, storyboards etc... then when he had to relinquish the role of director to concentrate on Ambersons, Norman Foster took over, but mainly followed Orsons instructions/plans. hence the split directorial credit is the correct one!! (though i've no evidence to back this up!)

Journey on dvd, offered at this url:

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws....me=WDVW

could be just apirate- hard to tell

There is a legit French edition of the film available, under the title Voyage au pays de la peur. Don't have it, so I can't comment on the quality. The description at Amazon.fr says "dans ce DVD impeccable techniquement", so take that for what it's worth.

There's also a portuguese edition, titled A Jornada do Medo.

Hi All-
Haven't posted for a while, but I saw this on DVD Beaver and thought ya all might like the info. Looks good to me!

-Flint

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDReviews10/journey_into_fear.htm

"Looks like Welles, feels like Welles... but isn't Welles." Filmbrain on Journey Into Fear:
http://filmbrain.typepad.com/filmbrain/2005/05/looks_like_well.html

Thank you, Harvey, for that decent review.

Unfortunately, on my screen, about a quarter of it was lost because "About Me," "Archives," etc., obscured the left hand margin.

We have discussed this matter before. No doubt, the film was quickly done, written by Welles and Joseph Cotton, but directed mostly by Norman Foster, Loretta Young's brother-in-law -- after Welles left for Brazil, following his completion of THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS, and finishing his scenes as Colonel Haki (one of his most off hand, careless performances). Welles always said that, to him, the most interesting scenes were those which showed the personal and political tensions set up by the relationships of the passengers on the ship. And almost all of that was cut out.

I guess you would have to say, what was Welles in the picture was Welles, and what was not Welles . . . was not.

Thank you for the contribution.

Glenn

Nice review - Saw it today on a video bootleg - The talented Mercury group makes it worthwhile - I liked Dolores del Rio, as well. That finale ledge scene does look like Welles, brillianlty filmed... The first scene with Colonel Haki looks like Welles direction also.

Mark

i like imitation welles, anthony man and aldrich are disciples. who else? tim burton has certainly put in time, scorsese.

I saw a Simpsons episode today - the one where Elliott Gould assaults Krusty the Clown because his monkey was biting his kids due to their use of banana-flavored suntan lotion. There's a Lady from Shanghai takeoff as the finale takes place in a circus hall of mirrors because that's where the private detective sold the lab test animals in his plot to frame Lisa because Homer refused to pay his extravagant expense tab. Only the mirrors don't get shattered as the detective was subdued with a laser spotter instead. Homer's final line says it all : 'How ironic - he ends up blinded after a lifetime of being able to see.'

"The Simpsons" have included a number of Wellesian gags over the years. I fondly recall in one episode Mr. Burns proclaiming in anger "I am Charles Montgomery Burns, I'm no crooked politician!". Even better was a later episode where they combined references to Welles' first two films with Homer exclaiming, "I'm Homer P. Simpson and I will not get my comeuppance!"

I liked an earlier episode of the Simpson's where Mr. Smithers does a song and dance routine similar to the one in Kane for Mr. Burns.


There is a man - a certain man

What is his name? It's Monty Burns!



And there is the episode where Mr. Burns is looking for a childhood teddy bear named BoBo. The title of the episode is called "Rosebud".

"The Simpsons" have included a number of Wellesian gags over the years.

Gee, all that's missing is the bomb scene from TOE - Those Simpsons writers are remarkably well-versed in popular cultural, especially by today's standards, or rather lack thereof. I remember that Kane political campaign spoof... One flagrant imitation Welles for me is what Hitchcock took from TOE to do Psycho (then again I saw a museum expo on Hitchcok displaying how he lifted a Fritz Lang mise-en-scène verbatim).

Cordially,

Mark

Looks like Welles, feels like Welles...

Prince of Foxes is another nice one- (dialog is overall nice - methinks it's the acting that sinks this one) but I believe the maestro directs the two scenes that he's in - 15 minutes of primo Welles audio-visuals - a nice stark, elegant, Othello style - quite a bit of little Welles trademarks stamped in - I'll take that any day of the week... (and twice on Sundays)...

Cordially,

Mark