Blast from the past: Orson Welles

[El Presidente]

WELLES ORSON: (1915-1985)

An excellent vintage signed and inscribed 8 x 10 photograph of Welles in a half length pose holding a lit cigar in one hand. With the credit stamp of RKO Radio Pictures Inc., 1945 to the verso. Signed by Welles in dark fountain pen ink to a clear area of the image, 'To Ronnie, Orson Welles'. 

 

[anacostiakat]

A young Orson. 

[Deeg]

What a phenomenal talent.  25 when he wrote, directed and starred in Citizen Kane.  25!

It's funny, I was just thinking about Orson today - specifically "The Third Man".  It's an amazing film, but most amazing is his performance - he's on-screen for only a few moments total, but he totally owns the movie.  Unbelievable presence.  He wasn't the writer or director (though he did write much of his character's dialogue) but it's forever thought of as an Orson Welles movie.

[JohnS]

I agree, Orson Welles was an incredible talent. He effectively became the first successful independent filmmaker, as Hollywood shunned him pretty much. This occurred soon after The Magnificent Ambersons fiasco in 1942 where the film was re-edited and cropped by RKO, excising crucial details to the plot and tacking on a happy ending. Despite this, the work is up there, I believe, as amongst his best. Orson had to go make films in Europe to make his art in the late 40s/early 50s. Another famous attempt at re-integrating into the Hollywood system came undone in 1958 when Universal took away his film, Touch of Evil and re-edited it, excising scenes which are sadly now lost (as they were for the Magnificent Ambersons).

So Orson was back to filming in Europe in the 60's (check out Chimes at Midnight - a brilliant movie in my opinion) and gave himself one last chance to make a film in the USA, this time through independent means, in the 70's. The result was infamous, up there with the controversial re-edit jobs on his famous films by Hollywood studios, The Other Side of the Wind was finally edited and completed in 2018, post-mortem. If you have Netflix do yourself a favour and check out his last completed film - it's a masterpiece!