1962 - THE TRIAL, film version of the Kafka novel

 If you have read Kafka's The Trial or even attempted to read The Trial, one would have to admit Welles stuck very close to the novel in transcribing it's nightmare story for the screen.  

Anthony Perkins is Joseph K, a man being pursued by the authorities for a crime he may or may not have committed.  The issue seems to be that no one will tell him what exactly he has done. Orson Welles plays his lawyer, Romy Schneider is either Welles lover or servant.  Akim Tamiroff  is another of Welles's clients who had gone bankrupt in his encounters with the law.

  

The film is full of Orson Welles's famous baroque touches using light and shadow and has some amazing tracking shots to give the story a real sense of an individual caught up in a bureaucratic mess.

 

Obviously this film is not for everyone, but I would recommend it and place it as one of the more successful films in Welles's eccentric film career.

The screenplay was by Welles and the running time is 118 minutes.

1992 - DON QUIJOTE DE ORSON WELLES, pretty much a travesty

What a mess.  Welles "companion" Oja Kodar, the keeper of Welles unfinished film footage somehow decided schlock/porn Spanish filmmaker Jess Franco was the man to assemble this footage from
his Don Quixote project.  It appears that Welles was never able to get a handle on what type of film he wanted to make.  So Don Quixote along with other films of his remained unfinished.

Franco's assembly of this footage is to put it mildly, atrocious.  Shots don't match, the english dubbing on the soundtrack is horrible and scenes are inserted that were not even parts of Welles footage.  Instead the viewer is stuck with watching endless shots of parades marching down the streets of some Spanish town and a general incoherence that pervades the entire project.

What a viewer comes away with in the end is some very brief glimpses of what might have been.  The lead actor Francisco Reiguera looks like he would have been ideally cast as Don Quixote and as Sancho Panza who else but one of Orson Welles favorite actors Akim Tamiroff.

Still, this film is basically a complete waste of time even if it has footage shot by Orson Welles.

116 minutes.

1958 - TOUCH OF EVIL, on Blu Ray

Touch of Evil  now exists in 3 different versions.  The original Universal release, the preview release, and the reedited version based on a memo Welles sent to Universal after the first preview resulted in Universal deciding to add additional scenes for plot clarification.  I'm most familiar with the original release version however I decided to watch the reedit.  I really didn't see much difference aside from dropping the credits and music during the famous long take at the beginning of the film.

This is Welles at his best.  He has complete control of the actors, atmosphere and some astonishing camera compositions.  It's hard to believe that Universal dumped this film without much marketing support.  You would think just having Charlton Heston in the cast would have been enough motivation to get behind it.

Welles put together a pretty amazing cast, starting with Charlton Heston in makeup as a Mexican police offier.  Janet Leigh is his wife.  Welles is of course the corrupt police Captain Hank Quinlan, Dennis Weaver is to put it mildly an eccentric hotel manager. An old Welles favorite Akim Tamiroff is "Uncle Joe Grandi the head of a criminal gang on a Mexican/American border town.

The cast also had an actor Joseph Calleia a Hollywood actor who Welles had seen perform on the Broadway stage before he went to Hollywood.  Welles never forgot him and was eager to cast him in Touch of Evil.  Calleia is very good as Hank Quinlan's devoted partner.  Finally Welles was able to get Marlene Dietrich to perform an extended cameo in the film and Welles old friend Joseph Cotten shows up in a small role.

This a great film noir, Welles always had a fondness for this genre.  The film is a lot of fun to watch. There is some great quotable dialog when you are not absorbed in the visual.  One of Welles best films.

95 minutes, screenplay by who else, Orson Welles.

1938 - TOO MUCH JOHNSON, the lost Orson Welles sort of silent film comedy.

Not a whole lot to say about this one.  Probably for Orson Welles fans only.  Welles was interested in doing a farce and had the idea to stage silent movie like scenes in between or during acts of the play Too Much Johnson.

Welles filmed for 10 days and edited the film.  Apparently the entire film part of the play was to run around 30 minutes.  Due to a number of reasons, most of which involved money, the film sequences were never shown with the play.   Too Much Johnson was not a theatrical success.  However the idea of merging film and theater while not a new one was another typically audacious one from Welles.

Young Welles directs Too Much Johnson

Welles lifelong friend actor Joseph Cotton was certainly game during the film sequences.  Running around, climbing up on rooftops, zipping down fire escapes.  He certainly went beyond the call of duty when it came to performing for Welles.

Too Much Johnson is proof that Orson Welles was exposed to filming and editing 3 years before Citizen Kane came out.  Welles always portrayed himself has a self taught filmmaker who just magically stepped on a sound stage and produced a masterpiece like Kane.  Finally, it should be noted that this edited version of Too Much Johnson is quite delightful.  Welles was apparently a great admirer of silent films.

66 minutes (edited down around 30 minutes)

1947 - THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI, very disappointing Orson Welles film.

The story goes that Orson Welles ran out of money during the production of some Broadway musical he was directing.  He persuaded Columbia Pictures President Harry Cohn to send him the money and in exchange he would write and direct a noir film with his wife, sexy Rita Hayworth.

Apparently what Harry Cohn got for his money was a talky and confusing mess of a film.  Welles even dared to change Hayworth's look, cutting her her and coloring it blonde. much to Cohn's displeasure.  Cohn demanded lots of cuts and reshooting of scenes but the film never came together.

The Fun House and Hall of Mirrors sequences are brilliant pieces of film making but they occur towards the end of the film and both sequences together are about 10 minutes long hardly worth sitting through this turkey.  You can probably find them on YouTube and save yourself some time.

Considering the mess this film is it would appear that Welles just had no interest in this film.  The Lady From Shanghai is not recommended viewing.

87 minutes

1942 - TORPEDO SQUADRON 8, 1958 - THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH, two short films from famous directors

The stuff that shows up on YouTube never ceases to amaze.  Here are a couple of short films from John Ford and Orson Welles that finally saw the light of day for a general public.  

Torpedo Squadron 8 was filmed before The Battle of Midway.  The squadron was completely wiped out with the exception of one survivor.  Ford had the footage edited and personally presented to the families of the dead men by members of his photographic outfit.  The eight minute film is very John Ford mourning the loss of the men while celebrating the success of the Midway battle.  The film was shot on color 16mm film.

Probably one of the more fascinating finds is this television film The Fountain of Youth written and directed by Orson Welles.  As usual with Welles he takes a small budget and pulls off some interesting visual effects with it.  Welles narrates and appears throughout the film.  In many ways this short film is as interesting and innovative as any film he directed.  This was the pilot for a proposed television series that unfortunately never came together.

Torpedo Squadron 8, 7:46 minutes.

The Fountain of Youth, 28:38 minutes.

1965 - CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT, is one or Orson Welles finest films.

Welles mixes pieces of 5 different plays by Shakespeare to achieve this one of a kind film.  The end result is one of his finest films and one of the best Shakespearean films ever made. 

Chimes at Midnight was a film made for under 1 million dollars, this is Orson Welles as the one man band, acting, directing, and financing the film himself.  Welles ran out of money and pieced the film together, dubbing a lot of the actors himself.  The stunning Battle of Shrewsbury scene was filmed with only 100 extras. 

How's the film?  Well pretty brilliant,  Welles is very good as Sir John Falstaff but equally impressive are John Gielgud as the king, Keith Baxter as his son Prince Hal, and just about everyone else which includes Jeannie Moreau and Margaret Rutherford of all people.  For a film with no budget Welles gets some visually impressive effects filming on location in a Spanish castle.  Editing was always a very important part of an Orson Welles film and Chimes at Midnight is a very well edited film.

This is actually a film based on Shakespeare where you aren't either trying to decode the bard's language or just sitting in front of the screen bored out of your mind waiting for it to come to an end.

Orson Welles directs Chimes at Midnight

An amazing achievement.

117 minutes.

1941 - CITIZEN KANE, some random thoughts.

A few random thoughts about Citizen Kane.

Obviously the most noticeable aspect of the film is the photography of Greg Toland.  Toland used a process called deep focus or as he called it "fixed focus."  Toland kept the f stop of the camera down allowing him to keep everything in focus. This really overly simplifies Toland's contribution to the film.  The photography in Citizen Kane hasn't dated one bit in 70 years and can certainly match anything being done today.

Orson Welles made his name in radio drama, he understood how to use sound to tell a story.  The sound recording and the use of sound and dialog as transitions between scenes is almost as important as the photography.  The creative use of sound as an editing tool still seems unparalleled in film.

Bernard Herrmann's first score for films was also trendsetting.  Herrmann had gotten his start in radio drama so he understood when and when not to use underscoring to develop the drama.  Herrmann primarily used the leitmotif approach in Kane,  small musical phrases mostly played between scenes.  No smothering the film in syrupy music like Max Steiner or Herbert Stothart.

Welles directs and rehearses himself in the musical number

Finally there is Orson Welles.  A man who was possessed of a tremendous ego to put it mildly.  Charleton Heston considered him one of the few geniuses he had ever worked with but also commented on the strange streak of self destructive behavior that he possessed.  It was as if Welles couldn't or wouldn't control himself.  He antagonized the head of almost every Hollywood studio,  the same people who would have to finance his films.

Welles was born to make films and if Welles felt that he "started at the top and worked himself down" he still made some very interesting pictures during his life. 

I had to do it.

In 1971, the critic Pauline Kael attempted to shift a lot of the credit for Citizen Kane to the co-writer Herman J. Mankiewicz.  Mankiewicz was a screenwriter who was usually involved with light comedies and was probably responsible for a lot of the clever and amusing lines in Citizen Kane.

Kael provoked a mini critic war between herself and some of Welles's biggest supporters.

Looking back now it's difficult to see how Kael could have come to the conclusion that an alcoholic screenwriter like Mankiewicz deserved much of the credit for Citizen Kane.  It was almost like she hadn't ever seen an Orson Welles film.

119 still dazzling and impressive minutes.

1968 - THE IMMORTAL STORY, Orson Welles short film

This Orson Welles film was financed by some French television network and was originally supposed to be part one of a two part film.

Welles has always proclaimed his great admiration for the writer Isak Dinesen so it's not entirely surprising that he would film one of her short stories.

What's so interesting about this film is that its not really a "typical" Orson Welles film.  Welles doesn't use his usual bag of film making tricks.  No Gothic black and white photography, no wild editing and the film has a decided lack of melodrama which Welles always appeared to enjoy.  The Immortal Story is also one of the few things Welles shot in color, which was a medium that he apparently never much cared for. 

What Welles has done for a change, is to focus on the story and the acting.  For a Welles film the performances are very restrained.  No Akim Tamiroff overacting or eye rolling this time.  Even "Orson the Great"  under plays his role as the Machiavellian mastermind of the story.

A good short film which at 55 minutes doesn't wear out it's welcome with unnecessary padding in the storytelling.

 Screenplay by Marie Louise Lévêque de Vilmorin and Orson Welles.