Saturday Night at the Movies - Orson Welles part 1 of 3

TV Ontario's 'Saturday Night at the Movies' featurette on Orson Welles.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Orson
• Welles
• film
• lady
• from
• shanghai
• peter
• bogdonavitch
• citizen
• kane

[lehighmark]

oh noes where is part 2 and 3????

[JiffySpook]

@lehighmark Yeah....chock that up to what I believe has been recently termed 'Youtubus Assholus', a disease which manifests itself once corporate takeover abounds it's account members. My apologies...

[ReflectedFlicks]

Robert Wise was the trigger-man who recut Welles' Ambersons, turned genius into jell-o.

He should be very ashamed, very, very ashamed,

destroying another man's work, passion, art.

There should be a law against it, 5-10 yr sentance at least.

[Novak67766]

@Ducatista696 Ahh!, but what became of those 40 minutes!

[Ducatista696]

@Novak67766 according to wise, after the first preview it was decided that they would cut the film again, film some bridge scenes and change the ending.All while Welles was in Rio.This is what happened to the 40 minutes.

[Ducatista696]

No that's not true. It did have two previews but neither was an edit that welles approved. It was cut per welles written instructions to Robert Wise. Welles did not have a copy in Rio. he was promised an editor and edit station but it couldn't happen because of the flying restrictions Wise was given authority by welles to make editing decisions on his behalf and did what he thought was appropriate. It's an old tale that Welles cut the film. He probably put together a rough cut of the film.

[Novak67766]

@Ducatista696

It had two previews, which means it was a finished movie. Some of the audience thought it was the best movie they ever saw, but most thought it was a downer and laughed at Agnes Moorhead's performance. It was removed, cut and and reshot. Don't forget Welles had a copy of the completed movie in Rio. The only hope for us is that it is still in Brazil in a hotel-storeroom, instead of in the Pacific.

[Ducatista696]

@Novak67766 No he didn't. He finished principle photography, but did not edit it. Robert WIse did with some memos from Welles. If Welles had stayed and finished his edit and represented the film in person instead of going to Rio it would have come out more to his vision.

[Novak67766]

@Ducatista696 He did finish the movie! It bombed in preview. He did not abandon it at all. The studio cut it and reshot it to give it a happier (sappier) ending. The first twenty minutes or so are beautiful. There are very few movies that achieve beauty.

[BlindGraphics10]

Thank you for uploading! The Battle Over Citizen Kane is another great documentary n Welles.

[powergirl901]

Oh C'mon, RKO owned the whole thing, employed both Welles and Wise. They could have had anybody cut Ambersons with no problems.

These films were just jobs to most people working then, and Wise is no great artist either. He's just a talented film guy without much ambition. There's thousands like Wise out there.