Orson Welles talks about Cornelia Lunt

[Onlymusical]

So wonderful. Read his book, "This Is Orson Welles," a book-length interview of Welles by Peter Bogdanovich. Recordings from it are also available for playing online if you look.

[rkettell]

Fascinating man.

[califgirl101]

Incredible! I could listen to Mr. Welles all day or night long! Truly remarkable! I used to have some of Mr. Welles' good movies like , Citizen Kane, The Lady From Shanghai and Touch Of Evil! Now, Touch Of Evil is one of my own personal Welles favorites along with Citizen Kane! Ask me you guys cause I'm a huuuuuuuuge movie buff!

[DigiTrail]

Adolf / not Adolph

[MacJaxonManOfAction]

I find myself not caring whether he's lying or not. Orson is all about conversation, and he was a master of it. He could be sitting here talking about how he once had dinner with Robespierre and the Easter Bunny, I would still listen.

[julianablino]

Any contemporary party of nuts people haven't been taking seriously? Watch out for the tea-baggers!

[n0tyham]

Welles was a true talent. The problem with TV and movies today is that they produce so much of it, they just trot anyone that looks good in front of the cameras. There are a few truly talented actors around, but most of them are uneducated and boorish.

[JakeMabe1]

Who's the idiot that disliked this video?

[scorps666]

@JakeMabe1 It's the grandson of Harry Cohn.

[internezzo]

the Lunts were a couple of . . .

[crawfordc1971]

what an incredible interviewee....fascinating

[Ulysses61]

Orson never met Hitler. Hitler renounced his Austrian citizenship in 1914 when he enlisted in the German army and was never allowed back on Austrian soil until September 21, 1931 for the funeral of his niece, Geli. So Orson (as much as I adore the man and his genius), is telling a tale. Hitler was never in Innsbruck until 1938, thus Orson's story is total balderdash.

[eezysqueezy]

@Ulysses61 You say all this like you were there at the time watching Hitler's every move. There's always the chance you are wrong...

[pensivebosom]

@Ulysses61 I wouldn't be surprised if it is balderdash, but he did say that the rally was "near" Innsbruck; it might have been across the border.

[tami32961]

orson would be discusted with what passes as civil discourse these days

[noodelship]

@tami32961

Orson would be disgusted with what passes as spelling these days as well.

[MinisterKGB]

It takes such a man with such great gravity of personality to downplay hitler . And orson makes (S)Hitler look like the paper boy

[EdMahoney19]

I was disappointed to hear Orson Welles criticize Hitler. If Hitler was so empty, and comical and nuts, why did he achieve such prominence? I think Welles is jealous of Hitler. No personality? Hitler was only the most successful rhetrician of the 20th century. I doubt Welles ever met Hitler.  In between bottles of Cognac he must have imagined meeting Hitler. Why are we supposed to hate Hitler? Because he didn't like Jews? That's not a good reason. This is more Hitler defamation.

[MarthaDelios]

@EdMahoney19

All you need to do to be 'popular' is to find a period of crisis where a society's murderous impulses are unleashed and you find a big audience.There was nothing special about Hitler because he was merely reproducing blind social aggression at the level of political power. Even if generous allowances are made for your kind of idiotic piffle (general standards being so low), still,speaking about a mass murderer, tutored in blind hatred, in a simpleton's terms, beggars belief.

[WhatsReallyGoingOn84]

@MarthaDelios That's what we've all been taught since 1945, but the truth is a bit more colorful. Hitler made many innovations during his period as Leader of Germany, including the first laws for the protection of animals, the first highways, the first measures taken by a nation to prevent cancer, the exaltation of motherhood, the giving of vacation cruises to the middle class, and much more. His economic systems helped Germany become a super-power, and that's why the Allies fought them. Peace:)

[Nemesis7293]

@EdMahoney19 You are an exceptional cunt.

[WhatsReallyGoingOn84]

@EdMahoney19

I know your comment is a year old, but, I must log on and say that I agree with you:)

If only Orson Welles could have experienced the glory and wonder of National Socialist Germany, he and The Leader could have done great things together. It's too bad Welles didn't have access to the Internet, like you and I do, so that he could learn the truth about Adolf Hitler and National Socialism, rather than be shown a skewed view of it from the Allies.

I up-voted your comment. Thanks:)

[TheTubePortal]

@WhatsReallyGoingOn84 It seems you are doing more than merely outlining forgotten history. Am I right on that? It seems you may be giving him a little bit of praise? It's like the old saying that everybody hated Mussolini but at least he could the trains running on time. I don't think there is much about Hitler worth redeeming, although to condemn him blindly as simply the personification of evil is also wrong. He was, after all, a human being. The Catholic Church made him what he was.

[WhatsReallyGoingOn84]

@TheTubePortal Hi:) Yeah, lots of people don't think there was anything redeeming about Mr. Hitler. It's amazing how far history can be skewed. I had to research an awful lot by myself for years before the picture of Hitler became clear to me, more clear than any Hollywood movie or History Channel program. Yes, I was giving him praise. He really helped his people. It's too bad the world didn't understand at the time, and still doesn't. So it goes with many great men. Adolf The Great dot com

[TheTubePortal]

@WhatsReallyGoingOn84 As a Jew I can't praise him. But in your research you likely read that the Roman Catholic Church played a very large role in what he became. The book Mein Kampf was actually written by a Jesuit priest, the National Socialists were sponsored by the Church and after the war started they played both ends against the middle. In the book "Hitler Speaks" which is a compilation of things he'd said a lot of praise goes to Rome, the Jesuits, etc...  including why he hated Jews.

[WhatsReallyGoingOn84]

@TheTubePortal Oh, wow, well that changes everything, and hello to you, sir. His seemingly Jew hatred was largely propaganda for the masses; Hitler knew as I do that there's good and bad people all over, but, more importantly, it's the peoples themselves that need to be preserved. I think the great Jewish people deserve a homeland as much as the Germans. Many Zionists collaborated with National Socialists. Hundreds of thousands of Jews fought for Hitler, and I'd shake their hands.

[WhatsReallyGoingOn84]

@TheTubePortal It's unfortunate that our historical narrative is so negative. I look forward to the time when we can all be ourselves and enjoy each other, Israel for Jews, Germany for Germans, and multi-cultural places for mixing. Then there will be peace. Plenty of Jews fought for and collaborated with National Socialist Germany. They were in agreement that each race deserves their own space in which to develop, and I agree with that. History isn't so black and white. Peace to you, sir:)

[lehighmark]

Very interesting person and life story

[sclogse1]

I wonder what it would be like to have this Orson and the 26 year old Orson together in a conversation....

[TopandTang]

Can you imagine actually meeting FDR, Hitler and Churchill? What a life he lived!

[TheJoeyD27]

Wow Orson is so wise, I wish that he was still around now.

[steveconn]

Great raconteur; great Marshall story.

[dancingdiplodocus]

why is mr aleppo's comment minused? negatived or whatever lyou call it

i think it is a perfectly legitimate comment

[grainofsandfan]

Kiasmus: you are absolutely right. My consciousness did expand listening to him.

Welles died shortly before I flew to Manhattan. I went to the Oak Bar and I asked the bartender who had been there many years who was the most famous person who had been there and he said Orson Welles.

[mariottino]

Thanks to the person that was gracious enough to upload this great piece of work. Welles, Welles, thanks for your presence in life. Leonardo DiCaprio must eat copiously from now on, he needs to portray Mr. Welles

[Zatki]

I love people like Welles who talk at their natural pace in interviews. They dont go for that media concision nonsense.

[SeverusFelix]

Folks are arguing about whether he's lying, but I don't care. I get the impression that, when he lied, he'd do it not to gain advantage but for the joy of lying. I admire a good liar, and Orson Welles was a great liar.

[kiasmus]

Every time I hear him and I feel like a sudden, tremendous expansion of perspective. As if somebody had put me in an observation deck opened to an immense landscape, and that landscape were the whole history of the XXth century.

[Doifebag]

That's Orson's stomach.

[keuts]

I think you (daltman314) are getting confused. He did die after a television interview but a few years after this one took place. (I am sure it's on youtube somewhere)

[Drac39]

Merv Griffin show

[luxgap]

People can say many different things about the life of Kane, I mean Welles. The phenomenal similarity between fiction and reality makes both the master and his masterpiece that much purer and everlasting.

[daltman314]

I'm pretty sure that Orson Welles died two hours after this interview.

[ixat00]

No, he died two hours after doing the Merv Griffin show in 1985.

[MrAleppo123]

umm... Hitler?

welles was friends F delano R, was on good terms with churchill and all those men of ltters

but hitler? maybe he is just sending himjself up a little bit

but then again... this man was really quite extraordinary... he may well have met hitler, after all.

even if he didn't he must have come quite close flying over hostile europe in freezing cold planes whilst on his spying missions

[dojufitz]

I love Orson....but i do find it a bit long..that he met Hitler, Churchill....etc.....and seems a touch dissapointed he didn't have a boozy lunch with Stalin.

He is pulling his ear here which is the body language for fibbing and not liking what you hear.

[thewomandirector]

3:09 He tugged his ear when asked about what he wanted to study anthropology. LIAR LIAR LIAR! ;)

Maybe his ear just itched.

[dojufitz]

Orson was such a fibber - once a journo mentioned that he was related to Bram Stoker - the man who wrote 'Dracula'.....

Orson immediately told the journo - wonderful! I knew him you know.

Now Stoker died in 1912 and Orson was born in 1915.......People were so fearful of Orson - he could say anything and people believed it! lol.....

[garethac81]

Listen to Orson Welles speak long enough, and I get the impression we will learn everything that ever existed to be known.

:)

[giallomadman]

One of the most brilliant and charming men in history. And yes to the above comments, Welles really did have a dinner with Hitler, it was in several docs about his life.

[Xmchord]

Why is whitebarrywhite being downvoted? He/she has a perfectly legitimate argument that has nothing to do with PCness but is about morals.

I agree with him/her

[acmedressform]

I read the memoirs of ernst hanfstaengl, hitler's piano player and I vaguely remember reading something similar to what Orson Welles says. That when he first met Hitler he was surprised because he had no personality. But then when he would give a speech he would transform and enter into some kind of a trance.

[ntvnyr30]

Orson was a star! Compare him to today's so-called "stars" who are absolute dolts.

[TheTubePortal]

@ntvnyr30 Are you referring to the new crop, or to both them and those older stars still living? There are a few good ones still alive with grace and dignity. Morgan Freeman comes to mind. But of the new crop of celebrities most of them are famous for being famous. We live in the time that Andy Warhol predicted where everyone is famous for 15 minutes. I think the pendulum will swing back though. True talent will arise again.

[fralo86]

from what i read on wikipedia, it seems very possible. he was in europe at the time, and in germany.

btw

hitler was not hard to meet in the early 30s, they nazis used to meet in a pub in munchen, also innsbruck is a very small town. in fact the thing i doubt is that there were thousands of supporters in such a small town, as welles says. my grandfather went to university in munchen and told me he bumped several times into hitler, although never spoke to him, and only later realized who he was.

[drummer78]

Didn't he say he was a "student" when he supposedly met him. 15 years old could be about right.

[maxcall]

weren't you listening? His parents started sending him to Europe in his own in his early teens. Sheesh.

[NGS712]

Do you really think Welles bumped into Hitler or is that just another one of his stories? ;)

[naverow]

Leni Riefenstahl was one of the best directors ever and she has paid enough her connection to Hitler I love Welles by the way

[thewhitebarrywhite]

She never ceased to give the impression that she was enamored of him. That was always a problem. She's passed on now (+ 2003) and so the issue of whether she's paid for something or not cannot be helped. Her work in Africa carried the same aesthetic, btw, veneration of the perfect body. A highly intelligent individual in full command of her medium. There's no correlation between such abilities and an aptitude for ethical behaviour.

[naverow]

There is nothing wrong with the Body Perfect idea it is our nature Why is she to blame for admiring beauty as we all do And her filming I find progressive for our days And don't forget the passion for the film making that her and Welles carried Now days movies say the obvious and the pain free

[thewhitebarrywhite]

On the contrary, there is quite a bit wrong with the Body Perfect idea and it plagues our society with a host of ills: eating disorders, body dismorphic disorder, steroid abuse, lining the pockets of plastic surgeons, and the big, bold, and beautiful feeling it is their right to take advantage of thers. That's not civilization. What is natural is imperfection. Why do you think the narrow minded are often drawn to respecting only exteriors. Lets not institutionalize such an idea ever again.

[naverow]

The only thing which is unnatural is trying to say and do the Politically Correct thing I can pretend all you want that i don't care about beauty fearing that you will think i am superficial But i do we all do Flesh is as important as spirit We can't fight nature

[HS22181]

If you are interested in imperfect bodies in art you might enjoy the photography of Diane Arbus. She shot freaks. I have a favorite quote of hers: Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats." I appreciate the work of both Leni Riefenstahl and Diane Arbus.

[mplsmn]

I can easily hang onto every word he says and never get tired or bored!

[jennifersman]

Me too, he was such a great storyteller. Almost like the favorite Uncle or Grandfather you always looked forward to seeing every Xmas.

[buffchique]

Thanks for posting.