Orson Welles- Many of you know that Orson Welles is my favorite portrayer of the old time radio series The Shadow. As a kid, it was his version on cassette tapes that led me to love The Shadow series. I suppose that it is always nostalgic to think that you are more suited to live in a past era but I truly love the old time radio years. But living in a bygone era is a topic for another day. It was those tapes that led me to love the Shadow character and ultimately resulted in collecting CD’s, comics, movies, etc. Getting back to the theme, today’s topic is Orson Welles and the genius and ultimate sadness that would be associated with him.
Welles had some acting success in Europe primarily playing in some Shakespeare plays which then led to him being signed to perform the Shadow character on the radio in 1937. Orson Welles was only 22 years old and sadly he only performed the role for one year. What I find really interesting about how he performed the role is that he read his lines cold. He actually read the script live during the broadcast without prior study. He felt this gave the Shadow character more depth in the sense that he was able to portray actual emotions as he read his lines live. It was really live as everything at that time was done on-air without the benefit of re-takes. The beauty of this is that it worked and there was nothing forced or fake about his portrayal of the character. The actors that followed Welles were very good but they never quite measured up to the master in my opinion.
Welles success with the Shadow led to the creation of his Mercury Theater group. This group performed many book adaptations on the radio and their stock players would be some future Hollywood familiar names. Some examples are Joseph Cotten(Citizen Kane, The Third Man), Agnes Moorehead(Endora on Bewitched) and John Houseman(The Paper Chase, Ghost Story, or perhaps the Smith Barney commercial where he says “they made their money the old fashioned way…they earned it). Their most well known radio performance would be that of H.G.Wells “War of the Worlds”. The way that Welles choreographed the radio program it seemed that it was real. It arguably caused many people to actually think that the earth was being invaded by Martians. There is no arguing that it put Orson Welles on the map and ultimately gave him, unheard of at the time, total control of his first Hollywood film “Citizen Kane”. That is to say that he was the writer, director, producer and lead actor. Remarkably this came about for him at the age of 25. I can’t imagine such an undertaking at that age. It also created a monster as he became very difficult to work with throughout the rest of his life.
Today you might watch Citizen Kane and find the story a little long. It has often been voted at or near the top of the greatest movie ever made. “Grand Hotel” is often near the top of the list and I can never figure that one out so I can understand how today many might not see the brilliance of this film. Really the beauty of the film is two simple elements. The first is the dialogue. In most of the film there are no pauses for each actor to speak their lines but rather each person is reacting or talking as we do in normal conversations. Somehow even though it appears that they are stepping on each other’s lines the dialogue flows seamlessly. From an artistic perspective, this must have been very difficult to both direct and act. It has to be done just right or the audience will lose sight of the intent of the story. It works so well it is hardly noticed unless you are looking through a critical eye. The second, and most important, is the cinematography. Shadows and lighting, Low level shots, long continuous scenes, perspective shots, scenes cast off reflections of items are just some of the techniques used in the movie. Today these are really common place but for 1941 these were all new and innovative techniques. If you ever have a chance to watch the movie, pay attention to all of these clever camera views and you will get a sense for the real genius of Welles work. If you are a movie freak, like I am, I think you will appreciate it more.
Welles made a few more movies that are good but never could live up to his masterpiece that he achieved at such an early age. In the end I think this haunted and plagued him to the end. He had an endless list of movie projects that were unfinished at the time of his death in 1985. He did make a great impression on me in the film “The Third Man”. He was merely an actor in this Film Noir movie but he claims he wrote his own lines. Even though he was only in the film for about 20 minutes he was magnificent, as is the film. Again Dialogue and cinematography makes this a great movie and I love Film Noir. Welles said in an interview that the role in this movie was the best role that he ever played. That is saying something.
Preparing to write this I watched many interviews with Orson Welles. Obsession is something that I am pretty good at. He never wanted to discuss his movies. He felt that once they were completed he couldn’t fix them and that there was always something that needed fixed. He was sort of reclusive and curmudgeonly as he got older. His interviews tended to wander into stories that really had nothing to do with films but rather about interesting people that he knew. It is clear from the interviews that near the end he had some regrets about his past behavior. He was married to Rita Hayworth for about five years and they had one child. In his last interview he spoke very kindly about her. She had recently been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and his comments were so different than his normal dismissive style. Oddly he died two hours after the taping of the interview (Merv Griffin) of a heart attack.
This leads me to two links. These are funny and sad at the same time. Orson became a little desperate for money and became a voice and product spokesman. There is a well known “Peas” commercial voice- over “rant” that most might have heard. The link below is the rant but is played out by “Pinky and the Brain”. Keep in mind that the voices you hear are actually the real Orson rant but the cartoon has been added for parody. The second is Orson trying to do a wine commercial but is obviously three sheets to the wind. I provide as information only. It is humorous but sad and I think it radically shows somehow that the boy genius could just never overcome his early triumphs. He was a caricature of himself in the end. Not in a good way, like William Shatner, but rather a sad person who endlessly tried to roll the rock back to the top of the hill.
Peas courtesy of Pinky and the Brain:
Paul Masson…Ahhhh the French!
Random Thoughts
Do you think that birds like to fly when it is really windy? I wonder if it delays their arrival time of wherever they are going. I have heard of “Angry Birds” so I was just wondering.
It seems to me that one problem the NFL has is that many of the referees are too old. Now I’m old so I can say this. I am sure they are in better shape than I am but too often they miss calls because the speed of the game has passed them by. The result is too many replays to review obvious plays.
What is the deal with the way Tom Cruise runs? While watching one of the football games this week they repeatedly showed a commercial where they were selling either BMW’s or his latest Mission Impossible movie. I’m not buying either. Anyway, I think Cruise is the only person I know who has the capability to overact running. Classic!
Notable recent deaths- Did you hear about these?
None..Yea!!
New to Netflix Instant Stream:
Mallrats(1995)- Starring: Shannen Doherty, Michael Rooker
Carrie(1976)- Starring: A possessed Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, William Katt
Gods and Monsters(1998)- Starring: Brendan Fraser, Ian McKellen (A very interesting film)
Final Quote
I will finish, as usual, with a quote:
“Keep Ted Turner and his goddamned Crayolas away from my movies”. –Orson Welles
Be careful out there! Peace!
