70th Anniversary of Radio's "The War of the Worlds"

Today marks the 70th anniversary of the radio broadcast of "The War of the Worlds" (aired: October 30, 1938)-- Orson Welles and company's Halloween Eve "fright."

It's so inconceivable in the age of Photoshop and YouTube hoaxes, to think that anyone believed this was a real news report, but there is a definite realism about it (the first half, anyway).

Orson Welles told Peter Bogdanovich (regarding his beforehand feeling of the kind of response the broadcast would get): "The kind of response, yes— that was merrily anticipated by us all. The size of it, of course, was flabbergasting. Six minutes after we'd gone on the air, the switchboards in radio stations right across the country were lighting up like Christmas trees. Houses were emptying, churches were filling up; from Nashville to Minneapolis there was wailing in the street and the rending of garments. Twenty minutes in, and we had a control room full of very bewildered cops. They didn't know who to arrest or for what, but they did lend a certain tone to the remainder of the broadcast. We began to realize, as we plowed on with the destruction of New Jersey, that the extent of our American lunatic fringe had been underestimated."

John Houseman in his memoir Run-Through: "The... hours [following the broadcast] were a nightmare. The building was suddenly full of people and dark-blue uniforms. Hustled out of the studio, we were locked into a small back office on another floor. Here we sat incommunicado while network employees were busily collecting, destroying, or locking up all scripts and records of the broadcast. Finally the Press was let loose upon us, ravening for horror. How many deaths had we heard of? (Implying they knew of thousands.) What did we know of the fatal stampede in a Jersey hall? (Implying it was one of many.) .... Hours later, instead of arresting us, they let us out a back way and we scurried down to the theatre like hunted animals to their hole...."

You can download the broadcast at the Internet Archive.

Link to Wikipedia page.

Orson Welles in "Transformers" (1986)

I ran across this on YouTube (although it's been up for quite some time), in which the makers of the animated Transformers movie from 1986 talk about working with Orson Welles. I've never seen the movie, but clips are shown of it with Welles' narration-- interesting to see: kind of want to see the whole movie now (despite Leonard Maltin's "BOMB" rating).

No News On "Magnificent Ambersons" DVD Release-- Trailer Online

With the two new Welles releases coming up, as noted in my last blog entry, one wonders, when will The Magnificent Ambersons come out on DVD? We're still waiting. And with the recent Metropolis discovery, so many Welles fans are wondering, will Welles' cut of Ambersons ever be discovered? As someone pointed out on Wellesnet.com, the Metropolis print was an actual release of the director's cut. The Magnificent Ambersons, on the other hand, was never released in any other form but the 88 minute version. However, there is a two-second glimpse of one of the most famous "lost" scenes to be found in the trailer-- the boarding house sequence (still above left)-- which can be viewed online at TCM.com.

Three Versions of "Touch of Evil" on One DVD Coming Soon

Finally, a DVD with the original release and the new restored version of Touch of Evil will be coming out on DVD. According to digitalbits.com, the release is slated for 10/7. The DVD will actually include three versions of the film (kind of like the Criterion Mr. Arkadin disc): the 96-minute theatrical version, the 111-minute restored version and the 109-minute preview version. There will be commentary with various participants as well on each version.

Still looking forward to the August release of the Welles' Don Quixote DVD as I noted in my previous blog entry.

Moonlighting Seasons One & Two: Classic Episodes, Part 1 of 5

I ranked eleven episodes of Moonlighting *** or above, here's capsule reviews of the first three:

Season One

• "The Next Murder You Hear" (airdate: 03/19/85) ***
As with the best episodes of the series, a diverting mystery serves as a background to Maddie Hayes and David Addisons’s battle of the sexes. The comic wordplay begins with one terrific silent moment from Maddie following David's utterance of the word “boinked.” This early episode also shows off Addison’s talents for detecting (a little), which helps ground all the craziness. The episode is about a late-night “lonelyhearts” talk show host who’s murdered on the air, and when it hits the front pages, David wants to take the case for publicity; Maddie begins to listen to the radio host's old shows on tape and becomes interested. The plot twist is obvious to Moonligting fans and anyone who's read the credits; a second less obvious twist keeps the episode humming along and into act three. Addison getting drunk at a bar (singing “Respect,” etc.) has its moments and a certain delightful rough-around-the-edges early series episode quality. Contains the classic moment where Maddie finds David in her office, when she pulls her door shut. Not among the very best episodes, but it’s the season one episode that best exemplifies the future formula, including the wacky confrontation/chase-the-killer finale.

Season Two

• "The Lady in the Iron Mask" (airdate: 10/1/85) *** 1/2
Odd, and therefore memorable, series episode in which a woman wearing a black veil, whose face had been disfigured, shows up at the Blue Moon Detective Agency, in order to hire David and Maddie to find the recently paroled man who threw acid in her face (she claims she wants him found because she “always loved him"). This episode seemed to rerun quite a bit while the show was on, so it must have done well in the ratings. It opens hilariously with some off-topic commentary on “9-to-5-er” boredom (When the staff disappears Agnes Dipesto says they’re at lunch and Maddie says “Lunch? It’s not even 10:15?” to which Agnes replies “OK then. Brunch?”). Again the showdown between Maddie and David begins with the oft-repeated argument as to whether the case should be taken, which comes to a dramatic head with some character development from Maddie— she had once been the object of an unhealthy obsession herself. We get back on comedic track when Maddie mentions the phrase “Let’s be friends” prompting David to offer his interpretation of this most-dreaded of female turndowns: “No kissy, no huggy, no horizonty.” A very farfetched series of plot twists and turns mark this episode— that you just go with— punctuated by a Hitchcockian score.

• "The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice" (airdate: 10/15/85) *** 1/2
The black & white episode, the Orson Welles episode, the “Blue Moon” episode. In the old abandoned Flamingo Cove nightclub, whose heydey was in the 1940s, Maddie and David are told about the famous murder that took place there, in which a singer and a trumpet player both blamed each other for her husband’s murder. The episode shows two versions of how the “Flamingo Cove Murder” might have happened— Maddie’s version shot in glossy MGM style and David’s, shot in down-and-dirty Warner Bros. style. This show begins with Addison’s opinion as to why he’s glad that there’s a little dishonesty in the world (and the unexplained logic seems to make sense!). Just before the show goes to black-and-white, Maddie and David have a "car fight" in which he calls her a sexist and she ends up shouting: “Not another word, not another sound, not another peep until we get back to the office!” Then there’s a beat, and David says: “peep.” Back at the office David gives his “sexiest sexist speech” on how he likes to “satirize, scrutinize, fantasize, etc. etc.” Maddie. The main drama is well written and a nice homage, if somehow a shade forced (especially the humor in the second story). Cybill Shepard shines in this episode, particularly in her singing scenes, while Bruce Willis seems out of place. I still think this is a terrific (as well as ambitious) episode, just one I rarely go back to. It was dedicated to Orson Welles, who filmed a brief introduction to explain to the audience that the episode would be in black & white (even then I thought this was absurd— did TV execs think that 1985 audiences were that unsophisticated?). However, because of the silliness of such a necessity, Orson Welles was given a primetime platform to essentially say goodbye— the greatest director of the black-and-white era, espousing the need to take an artistic chance.

Orson Welles's "Don Quixote" Finally Comes to DVD (Region 1)

There has been little mention of this, but the 1992 assemblage of Orson Welles's unfinished Don Quixote is coming to DVD on August 19th. This much maligned attempt at making a feature film from Welles's nearly two decades worth of footage has been little seen. Despite the critical drubbing, I'm very curious to see this film-- just to see if there is even a glimmer of what might-have-been. However, you could argue, that purchasing this DVD validates what's generally considered a mutilation of Welles's work. If I thought it would be a blockbuster DVD I might hesitate, but considering The Other Side of the Wind looks like a bust, Don Quixote might be the only unfinished Welles film I get this year.

Link to Image Entertainment site's Don Quixote page.

Text of 1988 Sight & Sound article from Wellesnet.com on the making of the film.

More at Wellesnet.com including Oja Kodar's issues with the reconstruction.

A piece of the Patty McCormack footage is on You Tube [with odd music added] (none of which is in the 1992 assemblage, apparently):

Orson Welles' "Filming Othello"

Someone has recently posted Filming Othello on You Tube in ten parts. Filming Othello, is, for better or worse, Orson Welles' last film. I saw the film at a revival house on the big screen and found it unwatchable. People fell asleep in the audience. So it was with trepidation that I clicked on part one of it on You Tube.

Othello (1952) was the beginning of the movie-making-as-adventure part of Welles' career, representing the better part of that career. Welles called it "hustle" filmaking but I think he enjoyed it to some extent: not that he enjoyed having to sing-for-his-supper and finance his own films, but that he could provide the fodder for tales he could spin about their making. The film has been dismissed critically by many: in Joseph McBride's critical survey of Welles he calls the movie "severely flawed," "self-absorbed and rhetorically diffuse." When the film was restored, it gained some new respect, however. I like it a lot.

Watching the opening minutes of Filming Othello, you see the elder Welles in full nostalgia mode. He notes the importance of the editing process. He says that a movie could be destroyed in the editing room ("savaged out of existence") and you wince a bit knowing that he is referring to so many of his own mangled works, particularly The Magnificent Ambersons. By the mid-70s when Welles' career as a director was in crisis, I think he enjoyed the moviola because he could spend countless hours creating movies comfortably on a shoestring and be entirely alone for much of their "making" as well. He began to make "Filming The Trial" about his 1962 film (but it was never finished).

Although he sets up a modesty about the merit of his Othello, you get the feeling that he did think highly of it, or at the very least was pleased he made (and completed) it, as he clearly believes that the source material is among the greatest dramas of all time.

Welles seems to have read much of the criticism of the film and has incorporated some of what has been written about it as his intent. To me, the best way to watch this doc. is as a college seminar on Welles' film, only that the professor giving the lecture is Welles himself.

I enjoyed watching Filming Othello much more this second time around, in parts. It's better to think of it as the television special it really was and to consider F for Fake his true swan song.

Here is the embed from You Tube to Part One (I think it will be removed one of these days so watch it soon; but then again I'm also sure the Criterion Collection Othello will come one of these days too, with Filming Othello on it)

More on Orson Welles' "The Other Side of the Wind"

An invaluable interview with Peter Bogdanovich regarding the status of THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND was posted on Wellesnet.com on the 14th. Link.

There has also been a lot more discussion on the Wellesnet boards with a considerable amount of (justified) pessimism regarding the film's eventual completion and release.

Taking the thread from the point of my last posts on the subject, here is the discussion.

I'm leaning myself toward the belief that the movie will "never" be completed until all the parties involved have passed-- and that would just about negate the idea that the film would represent Welles' vision. It's bad enough that Gary Graver is gone, but if the film is not completed in Bogdanovich's, Kodar's, and Frank Marshall's lifetimes it will merely serve as a curiosity to us future old folks. I sincerely hope that it does get that 2009 release though... it's been a long time coming.

"The Other Side of the Wind" Gone with the Wind?

Oh brother, here we go again. For as long as I can remember Peter Bogdanovich has been saying the completion and release of THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND is imminent. As I reported in my blog entry of 11/26/07 it really looked like 2008 was actually going to be the magic year. However, just today I saw a posting on the wellesnet.com message boards (in rumor form) that the Showtime deal is off. Please let this not be true. I do believe that if THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND isn't completed this year, the best we'll ever get is a DVD release of a loosely constructed narrative and a "what might have been documentary," which will hardly satisfy the decades-long wait.

"The Other Side of the Wind" Orson Welles's Final Film Could Get 2008 Release

Yes, it seemed to take forever for the fourth Indiana Jones movie to get off the ground. But when it finally did, the hoopla surrounding its production was intense and will only gain momementum the closer we get to its May 22nd release date. In the meantime, another long-gestating film may get its greatly anticipated release in 2008— except, at least for now, its all being kept under wraps. Reportedly, in some quiet corner of Los Angeles, some post production work is afoot (as per a tidbit posted last month on Wellesnet.com).

Although it's taken 15 years for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull to become a reality, Jones has nothing on The Other Side of Wind (Wikipedia link), which has sat dormant since 1976! The Holy Grail of unfinished Welles projects (and there are many), this film was said by Welles himself to be entirely shot (save for some effects shots) and just needed to be assembled. A truncated rough cut existed at one time (as per the late Gary Graver, cinematographer of the film, who helped put it together; too bad Graver will not get to see the release [he died in November 2006]— at least he had somewhat of a hand in the editing, presuming this workprint was used as a partial template).

The keeper of the flame of The Other Side of Wind is and always has been Peter Bogdanovich, who year after year has promised to complete the film for Orson and his fans. Bogdanovich acted in the film and is seen on the set with Welles and lead actor John Huston in the photo above. Now, it seems that 2008 may indeed see the release of the movie.

The scenes that have been shown (most completely in the documentary Orson Welles: One-Man Band, available on the Criterion Collection DVD of F For Fake) are to me, very promising. I always expected that when the movie finally got released that Welles would get his due in the form of a posthumous Oscar win for Best Director (it would be only his second nomination as director after Citizen Kane!); or that the writers would see fit to give him Best Original Screenplay. I also forsaw a Supporting Actor nod for John Huston. This thinking would all be for naught if the film gets released on Cable TV (Showtime is reputedly footing the bill) instead of a theatrical run.

Oscar talk aside, unfortunately, the movie may not contain all the shots, could be horribly deteriorated (although the negative was kept in a film vault), or the editing may prove too daunting for the film to even be completed, much less award-worthy. There was even apparently some talk that only a documentary would be made of the film as was done with the incomplete It's All True in 1993.

Let's keep our fingers crossed. All of Welles other incomplete projects are simply far too incomplete. The only other feature length film that was attempted to be completed was Welles's Don Quixote. The 1992 reconstruction did not fare well. So this is it.

I hope, too, providing all is well, that the movie gets all the attention it deserves, and that the release is as enthusiastically received by the general public as say Vertigo's re-release/restoration was in 1996.

Sonny Bupp, Last Living Cast Member of "Citizen Kane," Dies at Age 79

Child actor Sonny Bupp (in photo below with Ruth Warrick), who played the son of Charles Foster Kane, died on November 1, 2007 (exactly 66 years and 6 months after Citizen Kane's premiere on May 1, 1941). Bupp appeared in small roles in several Hollywood classics including San Francisco (1936), Lost Horizon (1937), Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940), Sergeant York (1941), and The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941). He was the last of the cast or the crew known to be alive from Citizen Kane.



Click here for short obituary, wikipedia entry, and imdb entry on Bupp.