George Orson Welles (6 May 1915 - October 10, 1985) is an American actor, director, writer and producer who works in theater, radio and film. He is remembered for his innovative work in the third: in theater, especially Caesar (1937), Broadway adaptation of William Shakespeare Julius Caesar ; on the radio, the legendary 1938 broadcast of "The War of the Worlds"; and in the film, Citizen Kane (1941), consistently ranked as one of the greatest films ever made.
At the age of 20, Welles directed a number of high-level stage productions for the Federal Theater Project, including Macbeth adaptation with a fully African American actor, and The Cradle Will Rock's political musicals. In 1937 he and John Houseman founded Mercury Theater, an independent treasury theater company presenting a series of productions on Broadway until 1941. Welles found national and international fame as a director and narrator of a 1938 radio adaptation of the novel HG Wells'> The War of the Worlds appeared for his radio anthology series The Mercury Theater on the Air. This is reportedly causing widespread panic when the listeners think that the invasion by extraterrestrials really takes place. Although some contemporary sources say these panic reports are mostly wrong and exaggerated, they skyrocket Welles into fame.
His first film was Citizen Kane (1941), which he co-co-produced, produced, directed, and starred as Charles Foster Kane. Welles is an outsider of the studio system and only directed 13 long films in his career. He fought for creative control on his projects from the start with major movie studios and later on with various independent financiers, and his films were either edited or remained unreleased. Its distinctive style of direction features a layered and nonlinear form of narration, the use of lighting such as chiaroscuro, unusual camera angles, sound borrowed from the radio, deep focus shots, and long shots. He has been hailed as "the ultimate auteur".
Welles followed up on Citizen Kane with 12 other feature films, most notably including The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), Touch of Evil (1958), and Chimes at Midnight (1966). His other works, such as The Lady from Shanghai (1947) and F for Fake (1973), are also considered good.
In 2002, Welles was voted the greatest film director of all time in two British Film Institute polls among directors and critics. Known for his baritone voices, Welles is an actor on radio and film, Shakespeare stage actor, and a magician famous for performing troop performances during the war years.
Video Orson Welles
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George Orson Welles was born May 6, 1915, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, son of Richard Head Welles (b) Richard Hodgdon Wells, November 12, 1872, near St. Joseph, Missouri, Dec. 28, 1930, Chicago, Illinois) and Beatrice Ives Welles ( Beatrice Lucy Ives, 1 September 1883, Springfield, Illinois, d May 10, 1924, Chicago). He was named after his father's great-grandfather, the influential Kenosha lawyer, Orson S. Head, and his brother, George Head. An alternative story from the source of the first and middle names is told by George Ade, who met Welles's parents on a West Indies voyage towards the end of 1914. Ade traveled with a friend, Orson Wells (no relationship), and both of them sat down on the same table as Mr. and Mrs. Richard Welles. Welles's mother was pregnant at the time, and when they said goodbye, she told them that she really enjoyed their company so that if the boy was a boy, she meant to name it for them: George Orson. The announcement of Welles's birth and a picture of him as a boy were among George Ade's papers at Purdue University.
Despite the prosperity of his family, Welles had difficulty in childhood. His parents split up and moved to Chicago in 1919. His father, who made his fortune as the inventor of a popular bicycle lamp, became an alcoholic and stopped working. Welles's mother, a pianist, played during a lecture by Dudley Crafts Watson at the Art Institute of Chicago to support her son and herself; Oldest son of Welles, "Dickie", was instituted at an early age because he had learning difficulties. Beatrice died of hepatitis at a Chicago hospital on May 10, 1924, right after the ninth anniversary of Welles. Gordon String Quartet, who first appeared at his home in 1921, played at Beatrice's funeral.
After the death of his mother, Welles stopped chasing music. It was decided that he would spend the summer with the Watson family in a private art colony in Wyoming, New York, founded by Lydia Avery Coonley Ward. There he played and made friends with the Aga Khan children, including 12-year-old Prince Aly Khan. Then, in what Welles later described as "busy times" in his life, he lives in an apartment in Chicago with his father and Dr. Maurice Bernstein, a Chicago physician who has become a close friend of both parents. Welles briefly attended public school before his alcoholic father left the business altogether and took him along on his way to Jamaica and the Far East. When they returned, they settled in a hotel in Grand Detour, Illinois, owned by his father. When the hotel caught fire, Welles and his father took to the streets again.
"For three years that Orson lived with his father, some observers wonder who cares who", wrote biographer Frank Brady.
"In some ways, he's never really a young man, you know," said Roger Hill, who became Welles's teacher and lifelong friend.
Welles briefly attended a public school in Madison, Wisconsin, registered in the fourth grade. On September 15, 1926, he entered Todd Seminary for Boys, an expensive independent school in Woodstock, Illinois, that his older brother, Richard Ives Welles, had attended ten years earlier but was expelled for misbehavior. At Todd School, Welles was under the influence of Roger Hill, a teacher who later became Todd's principal. Hill provided Welles with an ad hoc educational environment that proved invaluable to his creative experience, allowing Welles to concentrate on the subject of interest to him. Welles conducted and held experiments and theater production there.
"Todd provides Welles with a lot of valuable experience," writes critic Richard France. "He is able to explore and experiment in an atmosphere of acceptance and encouragement.In addition to a theater, the school radio station is in his hands." Welles's first radio experience was at Todd station, he did an adaptation of Sherlock Holmes written by him.
On December 28, 1930, when Welles was 15, his father died of heart failure and kidney at the age of 58, alone in a Chicago hotel. Shortly before this, Welles had announced to his father that he would stop meeting him, believing that it would encourage his father to stop drinking. As a result, Orson feels guilty because he believes his father has been drunk to death because of him. His father's will left him to Orson to name his guardian. When Roger Hill refused, Welles chose Maurice Bernstein.
After graduating from Todd in May 1931, Welles was awarded a scholarship to Harvard University, while his mentor Roger Hill encouraged him to attend Cornell College in Iowa. Instead of registering, he chose to travel. He studied for several weeks at the Art Institute of Chicago with Boris Anisfeld, who encouraged him to pursue painting.
Welles sometimes returned to Woodstock, a place he finally called when asked in a 1960 interview, "Where is the house?" Welles replied, "I think it's Woodstock, Illinois, if it's everywhere I went to school there for four years If I try to think of a house, that's the way it is."
Maps Orson Welles
Early career (1931-1935)
After the death of his father, Welles went to Europe using a fraction of his inheritance. Welles said that while walking and painting through Ireland, he stepped into the Theater Gate in Dublin and claimed he was a Broadway star. The Gate manager, Hilton Edwards, later said he did not believe him but was impressed by his lack of audacity and auditions. Welles made his stage debut at Gate Theater on October 13, 1931, appearing in the Ashley Dukes adaptation of Jew Suss as Duke Karl Alexander of WÃÆ'¼rttemberg. He performed a small supporting role in the next Gate production, and he produced and designed his own production in Dublin. In March 1932, Welles performed at W. Somerset Maugham's
Welles found his fame and turned to the Todd School writing project that would be very successful, first entitled Everybody's Shakespeare and then, The Mercury Shakespeare . Welles went to North Africa while working on thousands of illustrations for the series of educational books Everybody's Shakespeare, a series that has remained in print for decades.
In 1933, Roger and Hortense Hill invited Welles to a party in Chicago, where Welles met Thornton Wilder. Wilder arranged for Welles to meet Alexander Woollcott in New York, so he was introduced to Katharine Cornell, who assembled a treasury theater company. Cornell's husband, director Guthrie McClintic, immediately put Welles under contract and put it in three dramas. Romeo and Juliet , The Barretts of Wimpole Street and Candida toured the treasury for 36 weeks beginning in November 1933, with the first over 200 the show that took place in Buffalo, New York.
In 1934, Welles got his first job on radio - at the American School of the Air - through actor-director Paul Stewart, who introduced him to director Knowles Entrikin. That summer Welles held a drama festival with Todd School in Woodstock, Illinois, invited MicheÃÆ'¡l Mac LiammÃÆ'³ir and Hilton Edwards from the Dublin Gate Theater to perform with the stage characters of New York in production including Trilby , < i> Hamlet , Drunks and Tsar Paul . At the old firefighting house in Woodstock, he also filming his first movie, an eight-minute title titled The Hearts of Age .
On November 14, 1934, Welles married a Chicago socialite and actress, Virginia Nicolson (often misspelling "Nicholson") in a civil ceremony in New York. To appease the Nicolson people, who were furious at the couple's run, an official ceremony took place on December 23, 1934, at the New Jersey mansion of the bride's godmother. Welles was wearing a costume borrowed from his friend, George Macready.
The revised production of Katharine Cornell Romeo and Juliet opened December 20, 1934, at the Martin Beck Theater in New York. Broadway productions brought 19-year-old Welles (now playing Tybalt) to John Houseman, a theater producer who played a major role in the production of Archibald MacLeish's temple debut, Panic . On March 22, 1935, Welles made his debut on the CBS Radio series The March of Time, performing a scene from Panic for news reports about stage production
In 1935 Welles supplemented his earnings at the theater as a radio actor in Manhattan, working with many actors who would later form the core of his Mercury Theater on programs including Cavalcade of America , < i> Columbia Workshop and The March of Time . "Within a year after his debut, Welles can claim membership in an elite group of radio actors who pay the second after the highest-rated movie stars," wrote critic Richard France.
Theater (1936-1938)
Federal Theater Project
Part of the Job Progressing Operation, the Federal Theater Project (1935-39) is a New Deal program to fund theaters and live art performances and other entertainment programs in the United States during the Great Depression. It was created as an aid step to hire artists, writers, directors and theater workers. Under the national director Hallie Flanagan was formed into a true national theater that creates relevant art, encourages experimentation and innovation, and allows millions of Americans to watch the theater live for the first time.
John Houseman, director of the Negro Theater Unit in New York, invited Welles to join the Federal Theater Project in 1935. Away from unemployment - "I am so employed, I forget how to sleep" - Welles put most of his $ 1,500 in radio income a week into his stage production, passing the administrative red ribbon and installing projects more quickly and professionally. "Roosevelt once said that I was the only operator in history who ever illegally siphoned money into the Washington project," Welles said.
The Federal Theater project is the ideal environment where Welles can develop his art. The goal is work, so he can hire a number of artists, craftsmen and technicians, and he fills the stage with the players. The company for the first production, William Shakespeare Macbeth adaptation with a fully African-American actor, totaled 150. Production is known as Voodoo Macbeth because Welles changed the setting to the mythical island suggesting Haitian court King Henri Christophe, with Haiti vodou meets the rh'le of Scottish magic. The drama was opened on April 14, 1936, at the Lafayette Theater in Harlem and was received with joy. At 20, Welles was hailed as a prodigy. Production then toured nationwide 4,000 miles covering two weeks at the Texas Centennial Exhibition in Dallas.
Next is the Horse Horse Hat, an adaptation by Welles and Edwin Denby of the Italian Straw Hats, a play of five innings by 1851 by Eugène Marin Labiche and Marc -Michel. The drama was presented September 26 - December 5, 1936, at the Maxine Theater Elliott, New York, and featured Joseph Cotten in his first lead role. This is followed by an adaptation of Dr. Faustus which uses light as the main unifying element in the almost black stage, was presented January 8 - May 9, 1937, at the Maxine Elliott Theater.
Beyond the scope of the Federal Theater Project, American composer Aaron Copland chose Welles to direct The Second Hurricane (1937), an operetta with libretto by Edwin Denby. Presented at the Henry Road Completion Music School in New York for the benefit of high school students, production opened on 21 April 1937, and performed three scheduled performances.
In 1937, Welles trained political opera Marc Blitzstein, The Cradle Will Rock . Originally scheduled to open June 16, 1937, in its first public preview. Due to heavy federal cuts in the Works Progress project, the premiere at Maxine Elliott Theater was canceled. The theater is locked and guarded so that materials purchased by the government are not used for the commercial production of the work. In the final step, Welles announced to wait for the ticket holder that the show was moved to Venice, 20 blocks away. Some players, and some crew and spectators, are walking distance. The union musicians refused to perform in the commercial theater for lower non-union government wages. The perpetrators' union states that the production belongs to the Federal Theater Project and can not be done outside that context without permission. The lack of participation of union members, The Cradle Will Rock begins with Blitzstein introducing performances and playing piano accompaniment on stage with several cast members performing from the audience. This impromptu performance is well received by listeners.
Mercury Theater
Breaking with the Federal Theater Project in 1937, Welles and Houseman founded their own treasury company, which they called the Mercury Theater. The name was inspired by the iconoclastic magazine title, The American Mercury . Welles is an executive producer, and the original company includes actors like Joseph Cotten, George Coulouris, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Arlene Francis, Martin Gabel, John Hoyt, Norman Lloyd, Vincent Price, Stefan Schnabel and Hiram Sherman.
"I think he's the best director's talent we've ever had in [America] theaters," Lloyd of Welles said in a 2014 interview. "When you look at Welles production, you see the text has been affected, the performances are amazing, the sets are unusual, music, sounds, lighting, the totality of everything.We have not had anyone like that in our theater, he's the first and the biggest one. "
The Mercury Theater opened on November 11, 1937, with Caesar, a modern adaptation of Welles's dress from the tragedy of Shakespeare Julius Caesar - simplified into the anti-fascist turism that Joseph Cotten later described as "so strong, so contemporary that it makes Broadway in his ears. " The set was completely exposed without curtains, and the brick-wall walls were painted deep red. The scene change is achieved by lighting only. Onstage there is a series of steps; the square is cut into one at intervals and lights mounted underneath, pointing straight up to raise the "light cathedral" at the Nuremberg Rallies. "He performed it like a political melodrama that happened the night before," Lloyd said.
Beginning January 1, 1938, Caesar was performed in the treasury with The Shoemaker Holiday ; both productions move to the larger National Theater. They were followed by Heartbreak House (April 29, 1938) and Danton's Death (5 November 1938). In addition to being presented in a trimmed oratorio version at the Mercury Theater on Sunday night in December 1937, The Cradle Will Rock was at the Windsor Theater for 13 weeks (January 4 - April 2, 1938). ). That was the success of Mercury Theater that Welles appeared on the cover of Time magazine in full makeup as Captain Shotover at Heartbreak House in the May 9, 1938 edition - three days after his birthday 23rd.
Radio (1936-1940)
Along with his work in the theater, Welles works extensively on radio as an actor, writer, director and producer, often without credit. Between 1935 and 1937, he earned as much as $ 2,000 a week, flocking between the radio studios at such a pace that he would arrive just in time for a quick scan of his lines before he aired. As he directed Voodoo Macbeth Welles ran between Harlem and downtown Manhattan three times a day to meet his radio commitments.
In addition to continuing as a repertoire player on The March of Time, in the fall of 1936 Welles adapted and featured Hamlet in the early two-part episode of CBS Radio Workshop Columbia . His appearance as an announcer in the series' April 1937 presentation of Archibald MacLeish's drama verse The Fall of the City is an important development in his radio career and makes the 21-year-old Welles a star overnight.
In July 1937, the Mutual Network gave Welles a seven-week series to adapt Les MisÃÆ' Â © rables . This is his first job as a radio-director-writer, radio debut of the Mercury Theater, and one of Welles's earliest and finest achievements. He found the use of narration on the radio.
"By making himself the center of the storytelling process, Welles cultivated a self-assertive impression that haunted his career until the day of his death," writes critic Andrew Sarris. "For the most part, however, Welles is extraordinarily generous to the other members of his players and inspired the loyalty of them above and beyond the call of professionalism."
That September, Mutual chose Welles to play Lamont Cranston, also known as The Shadow . He performed an anonymous role until mid-September 1938.
Mercury Theater in the Air
After the success of the Mercury Theater theater, CBS Radio invited Orson Welles to create a summer event for 13 weeks. The series began on July 11, 1938, originally titled First Person Singular, with the formula that Welles will play a leading role in every performance. A few months later the show was called The Mercury Theater on the Air . The one-hour weekly show presents a radio drama based on classic literary works, with original music composed and performed by Bernard Herrmann.
Radio adaptation of Mercury Radio from The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells October 30, 1938, brought instant popularity of Welles. The combination of news bulletins from the show with the discontinuous habits of circling callers was then reported to have created a widespread confusion among listeners who failed to hear the introduction, although this level of confusion has been questioned. Panic reportedly spread among listeners who believed in a fictitious news report about the Martian invasion. The myth of results created by combinations reported as facts around the world and underestimated is mentioned by Adolf Hitler in a public speech.
The growing fame of Welles attracted Hollywood deals, luring that independent-minded Welles refused at first. The Mercury Theater on the Air, which had been a supporting show (no sponsorship) was taken by Campbell Soup and renamed The Campbell Playhouse. The Mercury Theater on Air made its final broadcast on December 4, 1938, and The Campbell Playhouse began five days later.
Welles started out from California to New York for two Sunday's The Campbell Playhouse broadcasts after signing a film contract with RKO Pictures in August 1939. In November 1939, the production of the show moved from New York to Los Angeles.
After 20 performances, Campbell begins to train more creative controls and has complete control over the selection of stories. Since his contract with Campbell ended, Welles chose not to go in for the next season. After the broadcast of March 31, 1940, Welles and Campbell separated peacefully.
Hollywood (1939-1948)
RKO Radio Pictures President George Schaefer finally offered to Welles what is generally considered the biggest contract offered to a filmmaker, let alone for untried people. Involving it to write, produce, direct, and perform in two films, the contract subjected the studio's financial interests to Welles's creative control, and damaged all precedents by granting Welles the ultimate cutting right. After signing a summary agreement with RKO on July 22, Welles signed a full 63-page contract August 21, 1939. The agreement was hated by Hollywood studios and constantly ridiculed in the trade press.
Citizen Kane
RKO rejected the first two movie proposals from Welles, but agreed to a third offer - Citizen Kane . Welles co-authored, produced and directed the film, and performed the lead role. Welles compiled the project with screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz, who was writing a radio drama for The Campbell Playhouse . Mankiewicz bases his original outline on the life of William Randolph Hearst, whom he knew socially and became hated after being exiled from Hearst's circle.
After agreeing to his story line and character, Welles provided Mankiewicz with 300 page notes and made him contract to write the first screenplay under the supervision of John Houseman. Welles wrote his own draft, then drastically compacted and rearranged both versions and added his own scenes. The industry accused Welles of underestimating Mankiewicz's contribution to the manuscript, but Welles replied to the attack by saying, "Ultimately, of course, I am the one who makes the drawings, after all - the ones who have to make decisions.I use what I do, want Mank and , rightly or wrongly, retaining what I love about myself. "
The Welles Project attracts some of Hollywood's best techs, including cinematographer Gregg Toland. For the cast, Welles mainly used actors from the Mercury Theater. The filming of Citizen Kane took ten weeks.
The Hearst newspaper banned all references to Citizen Kane and put great pressure on the Hollywood film community to force RKO to override the movie. RKO chief George Schaefer accepted a cash offer from MGM Louis B. Mayer and other big studio executives if he would destroy the negative prints and exist from the film.
While waiting for Citizen Kane to be released, Welles produces and directs the original Broadway production Native Son , a play written by Paul Green and Richard Wright based on Wright's novel. Starring Canadian Lee, the show took place March 24-June 28, 1941, at St. James. The Mercury Production was the last time Welles and Houseman worked together.
Citizen Kane was given a limited release and the film received tremendous critical acclaim. It was voted the best picture of 1941 by the National Board of Review and New York Film Critics Circle. The film earned nine Academy Award nominations but won only for the Best Original Screenplay, which was shared by Mankiewicz and Welles. Variety reports that blocking voting with additional screens eliminates Citizen Kane of Oscars for Best Picture and Best Actor (Welles), and similar prejudices are likely to be responsible for the film's acceptance. no technical rewards.
Delays in uneven film and distribution releases contribute to mediocre results at the box office. After it went its theatically, Citizen Kane had retired to the dome in 1942. In postwar France, however, the reputation of the film grew after being seen for the first time in 1946. In the United States, it began reevaluated after it began appearing on television in 1956. The year was also re-released theatrically, and film critic Andrew Sarris described it as "a great American film" and "works that affect cinema." in depth than any American film since Birth of a Nation . " Citizen Kane is now hailed as one of the greatest movies ever made.
The Magnificent Ambersons
Welles's second film for RKO is The Magnificent Ambersons , adapted by Welles from the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Booth Tarkington. Toland is not available, so Stanley Cortez is called a cinematographer. The meticulous Cortez worked slowly and the movie was behind schedule and over budget. Before production, Welles's contract was renegotiated, depriving him of his right to control the final cut. The Magnificent Ambersons is in production October 28, 1941 - January 22, 1942.
Throughout the filming of the movie Welles also produces a half-hour weekly radio series, The Orson Welles Show . Many of the Journey into Fear
At RKO's request, Welles worked on the adaptation of Eric Ambler's spy thriller, Journey into Fear , co-written with Joseph Cotten. In addition to acting in movies, Welles is the producer. Direction credited to Norman Foster. Welles later said that they were so rushed that the director of each scene was determined by whoever was closest to the camera.
Journey into Fear was in production from 6 January to 12 March 1942.
Work of war
Goodwill ambassador
At the end of November 1941, Welles was appointed goodwill ambassador to Latin America by Nelson Rockefeller, US Inter-American Affairs Coordinator and major shareholder at RKO Radio Pictures. The mission of OCIAA is cultural diplomacy, promoting the solidarity of the world and against the growing influence of axis powers in Latin America. John Hay Whitney, head of the Body Image Division, was asked by the Brazilian government to make the documentary of Rio Carnival's annual celebration that took place in early February 1942. In a telegram December 20, 1941, Whitney wrote Welles, "Personally, believe you will make a great contribution for the solidarity of the hemisphere with this project. "
OCIAA sponsored a cultural tour to Latin America and appointed the intended ambassador including George Balanchine and American Ballet, Bing Crosby, Aaron Copland, Walt Disney, John Ford and Rita Hayworth. Welles actually got a brief explanation in Washington, DC, shortly before his departure to Brazil, and film scientist Catherine L. Benamou, a specialist in Latin American affairs, found that it was "impossible" that he was among the ambassadors who were asked to collect intelligence. to the US government in addition to their cultural duties. He concluded that Welles's acceptance at Whitney's request was "a logical and clear patriotic choice".
In addition to working on his ill-fated movie project, Welles is responsible for radio programs, lectures, interviews and informal talks as part of OCIAA-sponsored cultural missions, considered a success. He talked about topics from Shakespeare to visual art at Brazil's elite meeting, and two intercontinental radio broadcasts in April 1942 were specifically intended to inform US audiences that President Vargas was a partner with the Allies. Welles ambassador missions extended to allow travel to other countries including Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay. Welles worked for over half a year without compensation.
Hope Welles himself for the film is simple. " That's All True will not make any cinematic history, nor is it intended," he then said. "It was meant to be a very honorable execution of my work as a goodwill ambassador, bringing entertainment to the Northern Hemisphere that shows them something about the South."
Everything Right
In July 1941, Welles composed it as an omnibus film that mixes documentaries and doctrines in a project that emphasizes the dignity of labor and celebrates North American cultural and ethnic diversity. It was her third film for RKO, following Citizen Kane (1941) and The Magnificent Ambersons (1942). Duke Ellington was placed under contract to print a segment with a working title, "The Story of Jazz", taken from Louis Armstrong's autobiography in 1936, Swing That Music. Armstrong acted to play himself in a brief dramatization of the history of jazz performance, from its roots to its place in American culture in the 1940s. "The Story of Jazz" will begin production in December 1941.
Mercury Productions bought stories for two other segments - "My Friend Bonito" and "The Captain's Chair" - from documentary filmmaker Robert J. Flaherty. Adapted by Norman Foster and John Fante, "My Friend Bonito" is the only segment of the original It's All True to enter into production. The filming took place in Mexico September-December 1941, with Norman Foster leading under the supervision of Welles.
In December 1941, the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs asked Welles to film in Brazil which would showcase Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro. With the filming of "My Friend Bonito" about two-thirds finished, Welles decided he could change the geography of It's All True and incorporate Flaherty's story into an omnibus movie about Latin America - supporting the Good Roosevelt rule of neighboring Policy strongly recommended by Welles. In this revised concept, "The Story of Jazz" was replaced by the samba story, a form of music with comparable history and one that came to fascinate Welles. He also decided to do a ripped-from-the-headline episode of the epic cruise of four poor Brazilian fisherman, jangadeiros, who has become a national hero. Welles later said this is the most valuable story.
Needed to film Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro in early February 1942, Welles rushed to edit The Magnificent Ambersons and complete his acting scene on Journey into Fear. He ends his lucrative CBS radio broadcast on February 2, flies to Washington, D.C., for a briefing, and then ties together a rough piece of Ambersons in Miami with editor Robert Wise. Welles recorded a movie narration the night before he left for South America: "I went to the projection room around four in the morning, did everything, and then boarded the plane and went to Rio - and the end of civilization, as we know."
Welles left for Brazil on February 4 and began filming in Rio February 8, 1942. At that time it seems that other Welles film projects will not be disturbed, but as film historian Catherine L. Benamou has said, "the appointment of the ambassador will be first in a series of turning points that lead - in 'zigs' and' zags, 'rather than in a straight line - to lose complete Welles' control over both The Magnificent Ambersons and It's All True >, the cancellation of his contract at RKO Radio Studio, the expulsion of his company Mercury Productions from many RKOs, and, finally, the total suspension of It's All True.
In 1942, RKO Pictures underwent major changes under new management. Nelson Rockefeller, a major supporter of the Brazil project, left his board of directors, and Welles main sponsor at RKO, studio president George Schaefer, resigned. RKO takes over Ambersons and edits the movie into what studio considers to be a commercial format. Welles's efforts to protect his version eventually failed. In South America, Welles asked for resources to complete It's All True . Given the limited amount of stock of black-and-white film and still cameras, he was able to complete filming episodes about jangadeiros, but RKO refused to support further production on the film.
"So I was fired from RKO," Welles recalls. "And they made a big point of publicity from the fact that I had gone to South America without a script and threw away all this money, I never recovered from the attack." Then in 1942, when RKO Pictures began promoting the motto of his new company, "The Genius Show: A New Deal at RKO", Welles understood it as a reference for him.
Radio (1942-43)
Welles returned to the United States on August 22, 1942, after more than six months in South America. A week after his return, he produced and ran the first two hours of Bond Bond's seven-hour long beach-to-coast Bond Bond broadcast. Aired on August 29, 1942, at Blue Network, the program was presented in collaboration with the US Treasury, Western Union (which transferred free bond subscriptions) and the American Women Voluntary Service. Featuring 21 bands and stage scores and screens and radio stars, the broadcast generated over $ 10 million - over $ 146 million today - for the war effort.
On October 12, 1942, the Cavalcade of America presented the Welles radio game, Admiral of Ocean Sea, an entertaining and factual display on the legend of Christopher Columbus.
"This includes periods when the unity of the hemispheres is a very important issue and many programs are devoted to the American common heritage," writes broadcast historian Erik Barnouw. "Many such programs are translated into Spanish and Portuguese and broadcast to Latin America, to fend off many years of successful Axis propaganda into the area.The axis, which seeks to drive Latin America against the Anglo-Americans, has constantly emphasized the differences between them, it becomes an American radio task to emphasize their shared experience and essential unity. "
Admiral of Ocean Sea , also known as Columbus Day, begins with the words, "Hello Americans" - the title of Welles will vote for his own series five weeks later.
Hello America, the CBS Radio series, aired November 15, 1942 - January 31, 1943, was produced, directed and hosted by Welles under the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs. The weekly 30-minute program promotes inter-American understanding and friendship, utilizing stacked research for bad luck films, It's All True . The series was produced in conjunction with another CBS Welles series, Ceiling Unlimited (November 9, 1942 - February 1, 1943), sponsored by Lockheed-Vega Corporation. The program is designed to glorify the aviation industry and dramatize its role in World War II. The Welles show is considered a significant contribution to the war effort.
Throughout the wars Welles worked on patriotic radio programs including Command Performance , G.I. Journal , Mail Calls , Nazi Eyes in Canada , Stage Door Diner and Treasure Star Parade .
The Mercury Wonder Show
As early as 1943, two concurrent radio series ( Ceiling Unlimited , Hello Americans ) that Orson Welles made for CBS to support the war effort were over. The shoot has also wrapped up the 1943 film adaptation of Jane Eyre and the cost, in addition to the revenue from her regular guest star role on the radio, made it possible for Welles to fulfill lifelong dreams. He approached the Southern California War Support League and proposed a show that grew into a huge spectacle, part circus and magic show. He offers his services as a wizard and director, and invests $ 40,000 of his own money in an extravaganza he produces with his friend Joseph Cotten: The Mercury Wonder Show for Service Men . Members of the US armed forces are accepted free of charge, while the general public has to pay. The event entertained more than 1,000 service members every night, and proceeds went to War Aid League, charity for military service personnel.
The development of the event coincided with a change of draft status that changed frequently from Welles in May 1943, when he was finally declared a 4-F - unfit for military service - for various medical reasons. "I feel guilty about the war," Welles told Barbara Leaming's biography. "I feel guilty for my civil status." He has been openly rushed about his patriotism since Citizen Kane , when the Hearing press began an ongoing investigation of why Welles was not designed.
The Mercury Wonder Show ran August 3 - September 9, 1943, in an 80x20 foot tent located at 9000 Cahuenga Boulevard, in the heart of Hollywood.
On 7 September 1943, KMPC radio interviewed the audience and cast of The Mercury Wonder Show - including Welles and Rita Hayworth, who married earlier that day. Welles says that The Mercury Wonder Show has been conducted for some 48,000 members of the US armed forces.
Radio (1944-45)
The idea of ​​doing a variety radio show happened to Welles after his success as the replacement host of four sequential episodes (March 14 - April 4, 1943) from The Jack Benny Program, the most popular radio show, when Benny pneumonia was contaminated on a tour performance of military bases. A half-hour variety show aired January 26-July 19, 1944, at Columbia Pacific Network, The Orson Welles Almanac presents comedy sketches, magic, mindreading, music and reading from classics. Many events come from US military camps, where Welles and his treasury company and guests entertain troops with less than The Mercury Wonder Show . The performance of the jazz group of Welles stars united for the show was so popular that the band became a regular feature and an important force in reviving interest in traditional New Orleans jazz music.
Welles was placed on the payroll of US Treasury on May 15, 1944, as an expert consultant during the war, with a $ 1 a year following. On the recommendation of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Finance Minister Henry Morgenthau asked Welles to lead Fifth War Loan Drive, which opened June 12 with a one-hour radio show on all four networks, broadcast from Texarkana, Texas. Including a statement by the President, the program defines the cause of the war and encourages Americans to buy $ 16 billion in bonds to finance the Normandy landings and the most violent phase of World War II. Welles produced additional drive loan war on June 14 from the Hollywood Bowl, and June 16 from Soldier Field, Chicago. America bought $ 20.6 billion in War Bonds during Fifth War Loan Drive, which ended on July 8, 1944.
Welles campaigned passionately for Roosevelt in 1944. A prolific supporter and speaker of the campaign for FDR, he occasionally sent ideas and phrases presidential that sometimes incorporated into what Welles characterized as a "less important speech". One of these ideas was a joke in what came to be called Fala's speech, Roosevelt was broadcast nationally on September 23 to the International Teamsters Union that opened the presidential campaign in 1944.
Welles campaigned for Roosevelt-Truman tickets almost full-time in the fall of 1944, traveling to almost every state that harms his own health and at his own expense. In addition to his radio address, he filled in for Roosevelt, Republican presidential candidate Thomas E. Dewey, at the New York Herald Tribune which was broadcast on October 18 on the Blue Network. Welles accompanied FDR to his final campaign, speaking on November 4 at Boston Fenway Park before 40,000 people, and taking part in a historic historical election campaign aired on November 6 on all four radio networks.
On November 21, 1944, Welles started his association with This Is My Best , a CBS radio series he would briefly create, direct, write and host (March 13 - April 24, 1945). He wrote a political column called Orson Welles' Almanac (later titled Orson Welles Today ) for The New York Post January-November 1945, and advocated the continuation of FDR's New Testament policy and its international vision, in particular the establishment of the United Nations and the cause of world peace.
On April 12, 1945, on the day of Franklin D. Roosevelt's death, the Blue-ABC network assembled all the executive staff and national leaders to pay tribute to the late president. "Among the amazing programs that attracted widespread attention was the special award given by Orson Welles," Broadcasting magazine reported. Welles spoke at 10:10 pm Eastern War Time, from Hollywood, and emphasized the importance of continuing FDR's work: "He does not need homage and we who love him have no time to cry... Our fighting sons and brothers can not stop tonight for marks his death whose name will be given at the age we live. "
Welles presented another special broadcast about Roosevelt's death the following night: "We must move beyond mere death to the free world which is the hope and labor of his life."
He dedicated the April 17 episode of It Is My Best to Roosevelt and the future of America on the eve of the UN Conference on International Organizations. Welles was an advisor and correspondent for the coverage of the Blue-ABC radio network about the San Francisco conference that formed the UN, which took place 24 April to 23 June 1945. He presented a half hour dramatic program written by Ben Hecht on the opening day of the conference, and on Sunday afternoon (April 29 - June 10) he led a weekly discussion of the San Francisco Civic Auditorium.
Stranger
In the fall of 1945 Welles began working on The Stranger (1946), a drama noir film about a war crimes investigator tracking a high-ranking Nazi fugitive into a beautiful New England town. Edward G. Robinson, star of Loretta Young and Welles.
Producer Sam Spiegel originally planned to hire director John Huston, who has rewritten the scenario by Anthony Veiller. When Huston entered the military, Welles was given the opportunity to direct and prove himself capable of filming on schedule and under budget - something he so desperately wanted to do that he accepted an unfavorable contract. One of his concessions is that he will be subject to the studio in a creative dispute.
The Stranger is Welles's first job as a film director in four years. He was told that if the film was a success he could sign a four picture deal with International Pictures, making his own chosen film. Welles was given some level of creative control, and he tried to personalize the movie and develop a nightmare tone. He worked on a general rewrite of the script and wrote a scene at the beginning of the shot image but was subsequently cut by the producers. He filmed in an old shoot which largely thwarted the control given to the editor of Ernest J. Nims under the terms of the contract.
Strangers was the first commercial film to use a documentary recording of a Nazi concentration camp. Welles had seen the tape in early May 1945 in San Francisco, as a moderator of correspondence and discussion at the United Nations Conference on International Organizations. He wrote about the Holocaust recordings in the syndicate column of the New York Post on May 7, 1945.
Completed one day ahead of schedule and under budget, The Stranger is the only movie made by Welles who has been a box office success after bona fide. It costs $ 1,034 million; 15 months after its release, it has grossed $ 3,216 million. Within a few weeks of the completion of the film, International Pictures backed out of the four pictures it promised to Welles. No excuses are given, but the remaining impression that The Stranger will not make any money.
Worldwide
In the summer of 1946, Welles moved to New York to direct the musical Broadway Around the World, a stage adaptation of Jules Verne's novel around the World in Eighty Days with a book by Welles and music by Cole Porter. Producer Mike Todd, who would later produce a successful film adaptation of 1956, pulled out of expensive and expensive production, leaving Welles to support the finances. When Welles ran out of money, he convinced Columbia Pictures president Harry Cohn to send enough money to continue the show, and Instead Welles promised to write, produce, direct, and star in a movie for Cohn at no further cost. The stage show soon failed due to a bad box-office, with Welles unable to claim his tax loss.
Radio (1946)
In 1946, Welles started two new radio series - Mercury Summer Theater in the Air for CBS, and Orson Welles Commentaries for ABC. While the Mercury Summer Theater features a half-hour adaptation of some of the classic Mercury radio events of the 1930s, the first episode is condensed from its worldwide stage drama, and is only Cole Porter's music recording for this project. Several original Mercury actors returned for the series, as well as Bernard Herrmann. Welles invested his income into a failed stage game. Comments is a political vehicle for him, continuing the theme of the New York Post column. Again, Welles did not have a clear focus, until the NAACP brought his attention to Isaac Woodard's case. Welles brought significant attention to Woodard's cause.
The last broadcast of Orson Welles Commentaries on October 6, 1946 marks the end of Welles own radio show.
Madam from Shanghai
The film that Welles was obliged to be rewarded for Harry Cohn's help in financing the stage production around The World was The Lady from Shanghai, filmed in 1947 for Columbia Pictures. Aimed at as a simple thriller movie, the budget skyrocketed after Cohn suggested that the second wife of Rita Hayworth's second wife is alienated.
Cohn dislikes Welles's rough cuts, especially the confusing plot and lack of close-up, and does not sympathize with the use of black music and black comedy from Welles, especially in the cute courtroom scene. Cohn ordered extensive editing and retrieval. After heavy editing by the studio, about an hour of the first piece of Welles was removed, including many scenes of climax confrontation at an amusement park. While expressing displeasure at the cuts, Welles was very surprised especially with the musical score. The film is considered a disaster in America at the time of its release, although the closing of a shot in a mirror hall has since become a noir film test stone. Shortly after the release, Welles and Hayworth completed their divorce.
Although the The Lady From Shanghai has been recognized in Europe, it was not adhered to in the US for decades later, where it is now often considered a classic noir movie. The same difference in reception on the opposite side of the Atlantic was followed by a greater American acceptance of the Chaplin-inspired film of Welles Monsieur Verdoux, originally directed by Welles, starring Chaplin, then directed by Chaplin with the idea that credited to Welles.
Macbeth
Prior to 1948, Welles convinced Republic Pictures to let him direct the low-budget version of Macbeth, which featured highly stylish collections and costumes, and lip-sync actors to pre-recorded soundtracks, one of many cutting techniques the innovative cost of Welles was used in an attempt to create an epic movie from a B-movie resource. The text, adapted by Welles, is a rough reworking of Shakespeare's original lines, which freely cuts and inserts into new contexts through collage techniques and reshapes Macbeth as a clash of pagan and proto-Christian ideologies. Some voodoo ornaments from well-known Welles/Houseman Negro Theater stage adaptations are seen, especially in the characterization of the films of the Strange Sisters, who created the Macbeth statue as a charm to captivate it. From all of Welles - Kane Hollywood production posts,
The Republic initially trumpeted the film as an important work but decided that it did not care about the Scottish accent and lifted its general release for nearly a year after the initial negative press reaction, including the Life ' the movie Welles "really slaughtered Shakespeare." Welles left for Europe, while fellow producer and lifelong supporter Richard Wilson reworked the soundtrack. Welles returned and cut 20 minutes from the film at the request of the Republic and recorded the narration to cover a few loopholes. The film was denounced as a disaster. Macbeth has an influential fan in Europe, especially French poet and filmmaker Jean Cocteau, who praises the "rugged, impolite power" of film and careful design shots, and portrays the character as haunting "the corridors of multiple dreams subways, abandoned coal mines, and cellars destroyed with water. "
Europe (1948-1956)
In Italy he starred as Cagliostro in the 1948 movie Black Magic. The acting star, Akim Tamiroff, so impressed Welles that Tamiroff would appear in four Welles productions during the 1950s and 1960s.
The following year, Welles starred as Harry Lime at Carol Reed's The Third Man , with Joseph Cotten, a friend and associate of Citizen Kane , with a script by Graham Greene and an impressive score by Anton Karas.
A few years later, British radio producer Harry Alan Towers will revive the Lime character in The Adventures of Harry Lime radio series.
Welles emerged as Cesare Borgia in the 1949 Italian film Prince of Foxes, with Tyrone Power and Mercury Theater alumnus Everett Sloane, and as a Mongol Bayan warrior in the 1950 film version of The Black Rose novel (again with Tyrone Power).
Othello
During this time, Welles channeled his money from acting work to a self-funded version of Shakespeare's Othello. From 1949 to 1951, Welles worked at Othello, filmed in locations in Europe and Morocco. The film featured friends of Welles, MicheÃÆ'¡l Mac LiammÃÆ'³ir as Iago and Hilton Edwards as Desdemona's father, Brabantio. Suzanne Cloutier starred as Desdemona and Campbell Playhouse alumnus Robert Coote emerged as an associate of Roderigo Iago.
Filming was postponed several times when Welles ran out of funds and went on to act, recorded in detail in a memoir published by MacLiammÃÆ'³ir. Put Money Into My Wallet. America release prints have a technically defective soundtrack, which has decreased in every quiet moment. Princess Welles, Beatrice Welles-Smith, restored Othello in 1992 for extensive re-releases. The restoration included reconstructing original music of Angelo Francesco Lavagnino, which was initially inaudible, and added an ambient stereo sound effect, which was not in the original film. Restoration proceeded to a successful theater trip in America.
In 1952, Welles continued to find work in England after the success of Harry Lime's radio show. Harry Alan Towers offers another series of Welles, The Black Museum , which lasted 52 weeks with Welles as host and narrator. Herbert Wilcox's director offers Welles a part of the murdered victim in the The Last Trent Case , based on the novel by E. C. Bentley. In 1953, the BBC hired Welles to read an hour of choice from the epic poem of Walt Whitman Song of Myself. Towers hired Welles again, to play Professor Moriarty in the radio series, The Sherlock Holmes Adventure , starring John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson.
Welles briefly returned to America to make his first appearance on television, starring in the Omnibus presentation of King Lear, broadcast live on CBS October 18, 1953. Directed by Peter Brook, the production financed Natasha Parry , Beatrice Straight and Arnold Moss.
In 1954, director George More O'Ferrall offered Welles the title role in the 'Lord Mountdrago' segment of the Three Cases of Murder, starring Alan Badel. Herbert Wilcox cast Welles as an antagonist on Trouble in the Glen across from Margaret Lockwood, Forrest Tucker and Victor McLaglen. John Huston's old friend included him as Father Mapple in the 1956 movie adaptation of Herman Melville Moby-Dick, starring Gregory Peck.
Sir. Arkadin
Her next turn as director is film Mr. Arkadin (1955), produced by his political mentor from the 1940s, Louis Dolivet. It was filmed in France, Germany, Spain and Italy on a very limited budget. Loosely based on several episodes of the Harry Lime radio show, he starred in Welles as a billionaire who hired a man to investigate the secrets of his past. Movie star Robert Arden, who has worked on the Harry Lime series; The third wife of Welles, Paola Mori, whose voice is dubbed by actress Billie Whitelaw; and guest stars Akim Tamiroff, Michael Redgrave, Katina Paxinou, and Mischa Auer. Frustrated by his slow progress in the editing room, Dolivet producer put Welles out of the project and finished the movie without him. Finally five different versions of the film will be released, two in Spanish and three in English. The finished Dolivet version is titled Secret Report . In 2005 Stefan Droessler of the Munich Film Museum oversaw the reconstruction of surviving film elements.
Television project
In 1955, Welles also directed two television series for the BBC. The first is the Orson Welles Sketchbook , a series of six 15-minute shows featuring Welles drawing on a sketch book to illustrate his memories for the camera (including topics such as filming It's All Right and the case Isaac Woodard), and the second is Traveling the World with Orson Welles, a series of six travel notes set in various locations across Europe (such as Venice, Basque Country between France and Spain, and England). Welles serves as host and interviewer, his comments include his documentary facts and his own personal observations (a technique he will continue to explore in later works).
In 1956, Welles completed Gina's Portrait . The tin film will remain in the missing lockers found in hotels for decades, where they were found after the death of Welles.
Return to Hollywood (1956-1959)
In 1956, Welles returned to Hollywood.
He began filming the projected pilot for Desilu, owned by Lucille Ball and her husband Desi Arnaz, who recently bought the former RKO studio. The movie is The Fountain of Youth , based on a story by John Collier. Initially deemed unfit as a pilot, the film was not broadcast until 1958 - and won the Peabody Prize for excellence.
Welles guest star on the television show including I Love Lucy . On radio, he is the narrator of Tomorrow (October 17, 1956), a nuclear holocaust drama produced and synthesized by ABC and the Federal Civil Defense Administration.
The next feature film role of Welles was at Man in the Shadow for Universal Pictures in 1957, starring Jeff Chandler.
Touch Crime
Welles stayed at Universal to direct (and play together) Charlton Heston in the 1958 Touch of Evil film, based on Whit Masterson's Badge of Evil novel. Originally employed only as an actor, Welles was promoted to director by Universal Studios at Charlton Heston's insistence. The film brings together many actors and technicians working in Hollywood in the 1940s, including cameraman Russell Metty ( The Stranger ), makeup artist Maurice Seiderman ( Citizen Kane ), and actors Joseph Cotten, Marlene Dietrich and Akim Tamiroff. The filming went smoothly, with Welles finishing on schedule and on budget, and studio bosses praising the day-to-day activities. However, after the end of production, the studio re-edited the movie, the scene is taken back, and photographed a new exposition scene to clarify the plot. Welles wrote a 58-page memo outlining his suggestions and objections, stating that the movie was no longer his version - it belonged to the studio, but because of that, he was still ready to help with it.
In 1978, a longer preview version of the film was found and released.
When Universal repeated the Touch of Evil, Welles began filming his adaptation of Mexican novel Miguel de Cervantes Don Quixote in Mexico, starring Mischa Auer as Quixote and Akim Tamiroff as Sancho Panza.
Returning to Europe (1959-1970)
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Source of the article : Wikipedia
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