Orson Welles: Hello Americans (78 page)
Read Orson Welles: Hello Americans Online
Authors: Simon Callow
By the time Raynor’s words appeared, Welles had shot
Othello
, a film that is unquestionably Shakespearean, and an altogether richer achievement than
Macbeth
. It was made over some years, in almost comically adverse circumstances, and the result is profoundly flawed from a technical point of
view; but its surface limitations are turned to advantage, have become part of the fabric of the film in a way that seems intended rather than fortuitous. Welles had begun to take control of more and more elements of the production; he dubs a number of characters, far from inaudibly; sound has become
entirely
a matter for post-production; his editing procedures have become increasingly individual.
He was now an
auteur
in the most literal sense of the word, the author of every frame, dependent on no one except those from he could extract the money to shoot the next scene. In Paris in 1949 he commented on Hollywood from afar: ‘What is needed is more pictures which frankly criticise the shortcomings and weaknesses of America, because nothing stops criticism like self-criticism.’
42
But he himself
was not interested in providing those pictures, having embarked on another project, both broader and more specific, that would preoccupy him for some years, amounting to nothing less than a private exploration into the very heart of film.
Meanwhile, in July of 1948, when the first version of
Macbeth
was close to completion, the warehouse storing the scenery and props from
Five Kings, Shoemaker’s
Holiday, Caesar
and
Heartbreak House
demanded long-overdue back payment of $100 a week; if not received, they threatened to sell the stuff. There was no money available, so they did. Across the letter Dick Wilson has scrawled: ‘So we have lost it! End of era!’ It was indeed, for Welles, in many senses. And it was for Wilson, too. At the height of the struggle to get
Macbeth
completed, Wilson made
a private decision that he must leave Welles’s employ; he was being destroyed by being Johnny-in-the-middle, torn between a director who was behaving capriciously and a studio that was blinkered and rigid. Nor was he being paid; the company’s income was too erratic to guarantee regular wages for him. But money was the least of it for Wilson. Some years later, in the British magazine
Sight and
Sound
, he admitted that he feared – all too understandably – that he was being engulfed by Welles.
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His dream of a partnership with his errant employer proved to be a fantasy; and Mercury Productions, though it remained on the letterhead for a few more years, was never to be the force for innovation in theatre and film that he had returned from his war service to create. Partnership was not a
concept of any relevance for Welles; he was indeed the Welles of Onlyness.
Another epoch-ending note was the final loss of the
It’s All True
material. In September of 1947, the distributor Jerome Hyams of Commonwealth Pictures wrote to Wilson offering to buy the footage from RKO if Welles would finish it. Wilson wrote back excitedly, saying that he felt that it represented ‘Welles’s finest work in the medium.
44
It remains a great love of Welles’s and one on which he someday
intends to lavish a lot of love and labour.’ He summarised the material, emphasising the Carnival sequence (‘there are at least
four
hit tunes included’), not mentioning the extraordinary
Four Men on a Raft
footage; clearly, like RKO, he felt that it was the film’s entertainment value that was central to its appeal, not the epic of Brazilian life. Welles, Wilson said, referring to the treatment
Welles called
Carnaval
, has ‘a good story for it which changes it … to a full feature’. This elaborate new version proposes a framing structure in which the central character, an American engineer, has been shot down. Awakening in the shack of a British missionary, he catches sight of his watch; the past (centring, of course, on the Rio Carnival of 1942) begins to return to him. He dreads remembering,
because everything he recalls implies tragedy and an end of the happiness he dimly recollects. Loss of memory and attendant loss of identity; the relationship of the present and the past; what one was and what one has become – these were recurring and highly significant preoccupations of Welles’s throughout his career; during this same period, indeed, he was also working on a screenplay drawn
from the greatest of all plays about amnesia, Luigi Pirandello’s
Henry IV
. (The central character in his version had become, piquantly enough, an American expatriate.) But
It’s All True
was not to be realised as
Carnaval
or in any other form. ‘Our current schedule would preclude immediate work on it,’ Wilson ended. ‘However, as a future project it is close to our hearts.’
Nothing happened. There
were too many future projects, too many new dreams. As well as that doomed enterprise, and the virgin spools of
Macbeth
, Welles left behind him some emotional detritus when he left for Europe. His second marriage finally and formally came to an end. Rita Hayworth pithily observed that although she had been married to Welles, she never felt that she had a husband. (She also, gamely, claimed that
she ‘couldn’t put up with his genius any more’, a pleasant piece of PR.)
45
The next film on which she worked had a resonant title:
Down to Earth
. Welles himself made no public comment on the matter, which was, after all, no more than legal confirmation of a well-established fact. For some years he had been having an active, varied and glamorous sex life, bedding (among others, according to Mrs
Leaming) a young Judy Garland and a very young Marilyn Monroe; in Europe he had a series of romances with some exceptionally beautiful actresses. It is hard, nonetheless, to view the failure of his marriage to Rita Hayworth as just one of those things, two people who didn’t quite hit it off. Its demise has some parallels with the ruin of his career (and there is no question, however complex the reasons,
that his career in Hollywood was now a wreck).
Welles’s relationship to Hayworth and to Hollywood were not dissimilar. In marrying Rita Hayworth, he attained what millions of men all over the world could only dream of. He set out to get her and he did, effortlessly. She fell deeply in love with him and put herself at his entire disposal. And then he immediately became restless. True, she had
proved somewhat neurotic, unexpectedly demanding and not necessarily the ideal conversational partner. But within months – weeks, he told Barbara Leaming – he started to play the field again, unwilling to make any concession to married life or to engage in any significant way with the remarkable and complex woman to whom he had supposedly committed himself. The marriage started to unravel; within
two years it was in serious trouble. There is no intention of censoriousness in recording these matters. Such things happen. But the pattern of flight is unmistakable, one repeated from his relationship with Dolores del Rio, who – by contrast with Rita Hayworth – was emotionally mature, socially brilliant and a fine artist in her own right. She was neither neurotic nor needy; she simply required commitment
from him. And that he would not give. Any form of limitation, obligation, responsibility or enforced duty was intolerable to him, rendering him claustrophobic and destructive. He could only function as a free agent, untrammelled by partners, children, wives, administrators, accountants, producers, studios, political mentors. He must go his own way. His motto might have been Aleister Crowley’s
‘Do what thou wilt shall be all the law’. In terms of his work as a director, that meant that he had, inevitably, to become an independent film-maker. Confinement, whether personal or professional, was unbearable to Orson Welles. His exploratory urges were central to his nature; he indulged them unceasingly for the rest of his life. Occasionally, something close to a masterpiece would result.
But that was not the purpose of his journey through life. The doing was all. And America in 1947 – when he embarked on his long, if sporadically broken, exile – was not the place in which to do it.
The Mercury Wonder Show
Autumn 1943
Hollywood
Music by Professor Bill and the Circus Symphony
Script by divers hands, edited by Orson Welles
Cast: Marlene Dietrich, Joseph Cotten, Agnes Moorehead, Lola Leighton, Merry Hamilton, Tony Hanlon, Sampson MacDonald, Mary Rouland, Peggy Vaughn, Shifra Haran, Jean Gabin.
Around the World
31 May–3 August 1946
Adelphi Theatre,
New York
Tour: Boston, New Haven, Philadelphia
Adapted by Welles from the novel
Around the World in Eighty Days
by Jules Verne. Music and Lyrics: Cole Porter. Choreography: Nelson Barclift. Settings: Robert Davison. Costumes: Alvin Colt. Circus Arrangement: Barbette. Music Director: Harry Levant.
Cast: Arthur Margetson (Phileas Fogg), Larry Laurence (Passepartout, Groom Clown), Orson Welles
(Dick Fix, Dynamite Gus), Brainerd Duffield (Bank Robber, Benjamin Cruett-Spew, Second Arab Spy, Oka Saka, Sol), Guy Spaull (Police Inspector, Ralph Runcible, Maurice Goodpile), Jack Pitchon (London Bobbie), Genevieve Sauris (Lady), Stefan Schanbel (Avery Jevity, Arab Spy, Mother Clown, Medicine Man), Julie Warren (Molly Muggins), Bernard Savage (Sir Charles Mandiboy, British Consul, Medicine Man),
Billy Howell (Lord Upditch, Sam, Medicine Man, Station Attendant, Sinister Chinese, Dancing Gentleman), Bruce Cartwright (Serving Man, Fireman Clown, Mexican Dancer, Dancing Gentleman), Gregory McDougall (Serving Man, Dancing Gentleman), Dorothy Bird (Merrahlah, Mexican Dancer), Myron Speth (Dancer Fella, London Bobbie, Dancing Gentleman), Lucas Aco (Dancer Fella, Fakir, Sinister Chinese, Jim,
Dancing Gentleman), Eddy Di Genova (Snake Charmer, Monkey Man Clown, Bartender, Singing Gentleman), Victor Savidge,
Stabley
Turner (Snake Charmers), Spencer James (Sikh, Jake), Mary Healy (Mrs Aouda), Arthur Cohen (High Priest), Phil King (Sinister Chinese, Dancing Gentleman), Jackie Cezanne (Lee Toy, Dancing Lady), Lee Morrison, Nancy Newton (Daughters of Joy), The Three Kanasawa (Foot Jugglers),
Adelaide Corsi (Rolling Globe Lady), Miss Lu (Contortionist), Ishikawa (Hand Balancer), Mary Broussard, Lee Vincent, Patricia Leith, Virginia Morris (Aerialists), Ray Goody (Slide for Life), Jack Pitchon, Tony Montell (Roustabouts), Nathan Baker (Father Clown, Dancing Gentleman, London Bobbie, Sinister Chinese), Bernie Pisarski (Child Clown), Cliff Chapman (Bride Clown), Arthur Cohen (Minister
Clown), Jack Cassidy (Policeman Clown), Allan Lowell (Kimona Man, Jail Guard, Singing Gentleman), Gordon West (Fireman Clown, Dancing Gentleman, London Bobbie), Daniel DePaolo (Dragon), Stanley Turner (Attendant), Victoria Codova (Lola), Kenneth Bonjukian, Jack Cassidy, Arthur Cohen, Stabley Turner (Singing Gentlemen), Florence Gault, Natie Greene, Arline Hanna, Marion Kohler, Rose Marie Patane,
Genevieve Sauris, Gina Siena, Drucilla Strain (Singing Ladies), Mary Broussard, Elinore Gregory, Patricia Leith, Virginia Morris, Lee Morrison, Nancy Newton, Miriam Pandor, Virginia Sands, Lee Vincent (Dancing Ladies).
Shrendi Vashtar/Hidalgo/An Irishman and A Jew
15 September 1941. Lady Esther. Featuring Welles, Dolores del Rio, Hans Conried, Osa Mason. Music by Meade Lux Lewis.
The Right Side/The Sexes/Murder in the Bank/Golden Honeymoon
22 September 1941. Lady Esther.
The Interloper/Song of Solomon/I’m a Fool
29 September 1941. Lady Esther.
The Black Pearl/There’s a Full Moon Tonight/Annabel
Lee
6 October 1941. Lady Esther. By Norman Foster, Edgar Allan Poe.
If In Years to Come/Dorothy Parker Poetry
13 October 1941. Lady Esther.
Romance/Shakespearean Sonnet/Prisoner of Assiout
20 October 1941. Lady Esther.
Wild Oranges
3 November 1941. Lady Esther.
That’s Why I Left You/The Maysvill Minstrel
10 November 1941. Lady Esther.
The Hitch Hiker
17 November 1941. Lady Esther. Fletcher.
A Farewell to Arms
24 November 1941. Lady Esther.
Something’s Going to Happen to Henry/Wilbur Brown, Habitat: Brooklyn
1 December 1941. Lady Esther.
Between Americans
7 December 1941. Gulf Screen Guild Theatre.
Symptoms of Being Thirty-Five/Leaves of Grass
8 December 1941. Lady Esther.
The Great Man Votes
15 December 1941. Cavalcade of America. Acting only.
President’s Bill of Rights
15 December 1941. We Hold These Truths.
Mutual Broadcasting System.
St Luke, Chapter Two/The Happy Prince/Christmas Poetry
22 December 1941. Lady Esther.
There are Frenchmen and Frenchmen
29 December 1941. Lady Esther. Guest: Rita Hayworth.
The Garden of Allah
5 January 1942. Lady Esther.
The Apple Tree
12 January 1942. Lady Esther. Guest: Geraldine Fitzgerald.
My Little Boy
19 January
1942. Lady Esther.
American Laughter
25 January 1942. Red Cross Program.
The Happy Hypocrite
26 January 1942. Lady Esther.
Between Americans
2 February 1942. Lady Esther.
Pan American Day
14 April 1942. Broadcast from Brazil.
President Vargas’ Birthday
18 April 1942. Broadcast from Brazil.
The Hitch Hiker
2 September 1942.
Information Please
18 September 1942. Panel game.
Juarez:
Thunder from the Mountains
28 September 1942. Cavalcade of America.
Radio Reader’s Digest
11 October 1942.
Admiral of the Ocean Sea
12 October 1942. Cavalcade of America.
Texaco Star Theatre
18 October 1942. Guest appearance. Featuring Fred Allen, Portland Hoffa, Alan Reed, Benay Venuta. CBS (rebroadcast on the Armed Forces Radio Service).
In the Best Tradition
26 October 1942. Cavalcade
of America.
Flying Fortress
9 November 1942. Ceiling Unlimited.
Brazil
15 November 1942. Hello Americans.
Air Transport Command
16 November 1942. Ceiling Unlimited.
The Andes
22 November 1942. Hello Americans.
The Navigator
23 November 1942. Ceiling Unlimited.
The Islands
29 November 1942. Hello Americans.
Wind, Sand and Stars
30 November 1942. Ceiling Unlimited.
Alphabet: A to C
6 December 1942. Hello Americans.
Ballad of Bataan
7 December 1942. Ceiling Unlimited.
Alphabet: C to S
13 December 1942. Hello Americans.
War Workers
14 December 1942. Ceiling Unlimited.
Slavery – Abednego
20 December 1942. Hello Americans.
Gremlins
21 December 1942. Ceiling Unlimited.
The Bad-Will Ambassador
27 December 1942. Hello Americans.
Pan American Airlines
28 December 1942.
Ceiling Unlimited.
Latin Music
3 January 1943. Hello Americans. Lud Gluskin substitutes for an indisposed Welles.
Anti-Submarine Patrol
4 January 1943. Ceiling Unlimited. Edgar G. Robinson substituted for a still indisposed Welles.
Mexico
10 January 1943. Hello Americans.
Finger in the Wind
11 January 1943. Ceiling Unlimited.
Feed the World
17 January 1943. Hello Americans.
Letter to
Mother
18 January 1943. Ceiling Unlimited.
Ritmos de las Americas
24 January 1943. Hello Americans. Welles indisposed. Latin American dance music conducted by Lud Gluskin.
Flyer Come Home with your Wings/Mrs James and the Pot of Tea
25 January 1943. Ceiling Unlimited.
Bolivar’s Idea
31 January 1943. Hello Americans.
The Future
1 February 1943. Ceiling Unlimited.
The Jack Benny Program
14 March 1943. Welles substitutes for ailing Benny.
The Jack Benny Program
21 March 1943. Welles substitutes for ailing Benny.
The Jack Benny Program
28 March 1943. Welles substitutes for ailing Benny.
The Jack Benny Program
4 April 1943. Welles substitutes for ailing Benny.
The Jack Benny Program
11 April 1943. Welles substitutes for ailing Benny.
Reading Out Loud
3 September 1943.
Mercury Wonder Show Interview
7 September 1943.
The Most Dangerous Game
23 September 1943. Acting only.
The Pepsodent Show
27 September 1943. Starring Bob Hope. Guest appearance.
Philomel Cottage
7 October 1943. Acting only.
Orson Wiles Almanac
26 January 1944. Guest: Groucho Marx.
Orson Welles Almanac
2 February 1944. Guest: Lionel Barrymore.
Orson Welles Almanac
9 February 1944.
Guest: Ann Sothern.
Orson Welles Almanac
16 February 1944. Guest: Robert Benchley.
Orson Welles Almanac
23 February 1944. Guest: Hedda Hopper.
Orson Welles Almanac
1 March 1944. Guest: Victor Moore.
Orson Welles Almanac
8 March 1944. Guest: Lucille Ball.
Orson Welles Almanac
15 March 1944. Guest: Charles Laughton.
Orson Welles Almanac
22 March 1944. Guest: Betty Hutton.
Orson Welles
Almanac
29 March 1944. Guest: Mary Boland.
The Chase and Sanborn Program
2 April 1944. Featuring Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy. Guest Appearance.
Orson Welles Almanac
5 April 1994. Guest: Dennis Day.
Orson Welles Almanac
12 April 1944. Guest: Monty Woolley.
The Marvelous Barastro
13 April 1944. By Ben Hecht. Acting only. Featuring William Spier.
Orson Welles Almanac
19 April 1944.
Guest: George Jessel.
Orson Welles Almanac
26 April 1944. Guest: Carole Landis.
Three of a Kind
27 April 1944. Special appearance in a programme produced on behalf of the US Treasury Department.
Orson Welles Almanac
3 May 1944. Guest: Lucille Ball.
The Dark Tower
4 May 1944. Acting only.
Orson Welles Almanac
10 May 1944. Guest: Jimmy Durante and Aurora Miranda.
Orson Welles Almanac
19 May 1944. Guest: Ann Sothern
Donovan’s Brain (Part I
)
18 May 1944. Acting only.
Orson Welles Almanac
24 May 1944. Guests: Lee Wilde, Lyn Wilde, Lois Collier.
Donovan’s Brain (Part II
)
25 May 1944. Acting only.
The Chase and Sanborn Program
28 May 1944. Featuring Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy. Guest appearance.
Orson Welles Almanac
31 May 1944 Guest: Marjorie Reynolds.
Jane Eyre
5 June 1944. Lux Radio Theatre. Featuring Loretta Young. Directed by Cecil B. DeMille.
Orson Welles Almanac
7 June 1944. Special D-Day programme.
Fifth War Loan Drive
12 June 1944. Written by Welles. Featuring Welles, Walter Huston, Agnes Moorehead.
Orson Welles Almanac
14 June 1944. Special Tex-Arkana programme.
Fifth War Loan Drive
19 June 1944. Chicago.
Orson Welles Almanac
21 June
1944. Guest: Martha O’Driscoll.
Orson Welles Almanac
28 June 1944. Guest: Lynn Bari.
Orson Welles Almanac
5 July 1944 Guest: Lana Turner. Featuring
The Mercury Wonder Show
.
Orson Welles Almanac
12 July 1944. Guest: Susan Hayward.
Orson Welles Almanac
19 July 1944. Guest: Ruth Terry.
The Chase and Sanborn Program
13 August 1944. Featuring Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy. Guest appearance.
Break of Hearts
11 September 1944. Featuring Welles, Rita Hayworth. Produced by Cecil B DeMille. Lux Radio Theatre.
The Dream
23 September 1944. The Inner Sanctum. Acting only.
Now is the Time
6 October 1944.
Philco Radio Hall of Fame
8 October 1944. Hosted by Welles. Armed Forces Radio Service.
The Dark Hours
15 October 1944. The Kate Smith Show.
False Issues and the American President
18 October 1944.
The Chase and Sanborn Program
29 October 1944. Featuring Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy. Guest appearance.
Round Table Political Broadcast
1 November 1944. Sponsored by the Democratic National Committee.
The Chase and Sanborn Hour
5 November 1944. Featuring Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy. Guest appearance.
Philco Radio Hall of Fame
24 December 1944. Armed Forces
Radio Service.
Lobbying/G.I. Bill of Rights/New Year’s/Post War/Epiphany/Shut Eye/Grable/Inauguration
Eight programmes recorded for Eversharp but never broadcast.
All-American Jazz Concert
16 January 1945. Sponsored by
Esquire
. Guest appearance.
Heart of Darkness
13 March 1945. This Is My Best. Sponsored by Cresta Blanca.
Miss Dilly Says No
20 March 1945. This Is My Best. Featuring Welles,
Francis X. Bushman. Guest: Ann Sothern.
A Tale of Two Cities
26 March 1945. Featuring Welles, Verna Felton, Rosemary de Camp. Produced by Cecil B DeMille. Lux Radio Theatre.
Snow White
27 March 1945. This Is My Best. Featuring Jane Powell. Based on the Walt Disney film.
The Diamond as Big as the Ritz
3 April 1945. This Is My Best.
The Master of Ballantrae
10 April 1945. This Is My Best.
Featuring Welles, Ray Collins, Agnes Moorehead, Alan Napier.
I’ll Not Go Back
17 April 1945. This Is My Best.
Anything Can Happen
24 April 1945. This Is My Best.
Special V-E Day Program
7 May 1945.
New York – A Tapestry for Radio
10 July 1945. Columbia Presents Corwin.
French Press: The Liberation of Paris
19 July 1945. Narrator.
What Does the British Election Mean to Us?
9 August
1945. America’s Town Meeting. Special appearance.
Fourteen August
14 August 1945. Columbia Presents Corwin. Written by Norman Corwin.
God and Uranium
19 August 1945 Columbia Presents Corwin. Featuring Welles, Olivia de Havilland.
Victory Extra
2 September 1945. Command performance. Special V-J Day production. Armed Forces Radio Service.
Orson Welles Commentaries
16 September 1945. Sponsored
by Lear Radios.
Orson Welles Commentaries
23 September 1945.
Orson Welles Commentaries
30 September 1945.
Orson Welles Commentaries
7 October 1945.
Orson Welles Commentaries
14 October 1945.
Orson Welles Commentaries
21 October 1945.
Orson Welles Commentaries
28 October 1945
Orson Welles Commentaries
4 November 1945.
Orson Welles Commentaries
11 November 1945.
Orson Welles Commentaries
18 November 1945.
Orson Welles Commentaries
25 November 1945.
Orson Welles Commentaries
2 December 1945.
Orson Welles Commentaries
9 December 1945.
Orson Welles Commentaries
16 December 1945.
Orson Welles Commentaries
23 December 1945.
Orson Welles Commentaries
6 January 1946.
Orson Welles Commentaries
13 January 1946.
Orson Welles Commentaries
20 January 1946.
Orson Welles Commentaries
27 January 1946.
Orson Welles Commentaries
3 February 1946.
Orson Welles Commentaries
10 February 1946.
Orson Welles Commentaries
17 February 1945.
Orson Welles Commentaries
24 February 1946.
Orson Welles Commentaries
3 March 1946.
The Fred Allen Show
3 March 1946. Guest appearance.