My favorite story about Welles…is real slumming. Welles’ cinematographer for “The Other Side Of The Wind”, Gary Graver also had a side hustle as an adult film director. Graver was working on editing an adult film, which kept him from shooting with Welles for a few days. Out of frustration with Graver’s availability, Welles ended up editing one of the sequences himself. That explicit sequence ended up in the completed film, 3am (released in 1975).
Leslie Megahey's 1982 documentary on Welles is excellent. The interview segments with Orson are very entertaining:
No link in your post but I remember playing this over and over again howling with laughter! Thanks. See if I can find a copy…
I would like to add that while I feel that CK deserves all the praise it gets. I don’t feel that Welles’ performance gets mentioned enough.
This scene is a great showcase of how great actor Welles was, not only the voice but his body language is just spot on while playing much older Kane than Welles was. That makeup is just as fantastic as well, better than old age makeup in many much newer movies.
Yesterday I received some Blu-Ray's I wanted to get a hold of for a long time, including Touch of Evil and The Third Man. I saw the theatrical cut of Touch of Evil (though two other cuts are featured; will devour these later) and I was just gobsmacked. Just insane camera work, electrifying performance from Welles. I love those stark noir films that take place in supposedly sunny places. Earlier this year I saw Citizen Kane for the first time and what struck me the most about it was how extremely, ridiculously well it still holds up and the fact that Welles was only in his mid-20's when this creation came to be! Truly an auteur for the ages.
I just watched "Mr. Arkadian" based on this thread. Good film. As previous poster said, filled with great little performances from character actors. Welles must have met actors wherever he went and cast interesting faces when he met them. Welles is great as title character. I would say a model for Kenneth Branagh in "Tenent". Great as an evil person! What a stare! Enjoyed it. Well worth watching. One of fav Welles' film is "The Trial." Great film on a shoestring. I was surprised how good it was. Really top notch. Great Kafka rendering. Free to watch on Internet Archive
The look and set design for The Trial was an accident, Welles said in some interview that the company who were suppose to make sets for the movie hadn't finished them so without money or time they had to improvise.
In one of Welles' many interviews with Peter Bogdanovich, Orson happened to mention that he was made up just as much for the Young Kane as he was for the Old Kane (corsets to hold in his stomach, extra makeup to hide his heavy face, etc.). Bogdanovich was shocked: "You mean you never looked like that [when you were young]!?" Orson replied, "Never! I wish I had! . . . Norman Mailer wrote something or other that, when I was young, I was the most beautiful man anybody had ever seen. Yes! Made up for Citizen Kane! And for only five days!"
These things, at least to me, can be viewed from so many angles. As an outsider looking in it can be very funny...He is so obviously drunk.....maybe the champagne is really good after all! As the other two actors in the clip....was it super hard not to laugh and stay in character? Were they ticked off that Orson was drunk on set? Were they thinking I should be done and gone, C'mon man, get it right already? Maybe they were very excited to work with an actor they really held in high regard only to find him drunk and dottering. Were the director and production crew upset at Orson? or did they take this in stride as just another day on the set with Mr. Wells? Lots of possibilities with clips like this.
When I watched THE LONG HOT SUMMER (1958) just a couple of nights ago Orson Welles played 'Will Varner' and he brought out the knife and the fork . . . and ~chewed~ the scenery!~ Munch. Munch. Munch. Don't believe me? Watch and see!
Absolutely. Loved the matchup of him and Angela Lansbury (the perfect opposite character actress)! Fun sized copy on Dailymotion.
A brilliant but erratic filmmaker. Orson was so mercurial he had a hard time completing things before moving on but always had something brilliant planned. CitiEn Kane, Touch of Evil, The Trial, Chimes at Midnight and Macbeth and F for Fake are among my favorite films. Even The Stranger has moments of brilliance. my only issue with Welles was how dismissive he was of other filmmakers who were equally as talented and created masterpieces that rivaled his-there seemed to be hostility, not because of true artistic differences, but he saw them as revivals and felt threatened by the praise they got. He genuinely could have hated Vertigo, Rear Window, Blow Out, The Seventh Seal but I kind of doubt it. I would have loved Welles the actor to work with Hitch, Antonioni, Bergman, etc.
I think that's what happened with THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS, wayne_k. Orson was off doing something else in a different country at the time "Ambersons" was being edited if I remember rightly and he didn't come back in person to protest the various edits.
Ha. I never got the impression that Welles was jealous of any filmmaker and though he trashed many directors (not without cause or reason) and films (same) I think he said what he honestly felt at the time he said it. He seems to have read and seen everyhing and gave praise to many filmmakers and (smartly) was loathe to name favorites as the history of the medium has seen too many brilliant creators to narrow it down to some top 10 list. And Welles was anything but narrow!
Just watched the multiple versions of Touch of Evil over the last month, Orion’s original plan was always the better film. It’s the difference between a high class terrific b movie (Universal-International’s version) and a GREAT, quirky movie.
