The third of Callow's books on Welles - I think he intended to go all the way until his death but old Orson was so prolific and all over the shop that he only makes it until Chimes at Midnight.
There is heaps until then, though - the making of Black Magic and The Third Man, the torturous shoot of Othello, the stage production of Othello with Peter Finch, the triumph of his Las Vegas magic show and Moby Dick Rehearsed, the disappointment of King Lear, Harry Lime on radio, the various cameos, Mr Akardian, Touch of Evil, the TV shows, directing Laurence Oliver in Rhinoceros, The Trial.
There were some astonishing achievements in there, especially for someone who never equalled Citizen Kane - Othello, Touch of Evil and especially Chimes at Midnight are all striking films, Moby Dick Rehearsed a terrific play, The Fountain of Youth a remarkable piece of TV. Welles would be consistently dogged by bad luck but also good luck would periodically drop out of the sky eg Charlton Heston pushing for him on Touch of Evil, money just magically appearing for The Trial. He appeared in many terrible films as an actor but just enough good ones to keep him in demand (The Third Man, Compulsion).
Welles could never get it together - Hollywood seemed to welcome him back with A Touch of Evil but post production was so traumatic it seemed to turn the studios off him (he disappeared during the editing yet again); artistic triumphs like Moby Dick Rehearsed were not commercial successes; when given complete artistic freedom and support he resulted in The Trial; he'd make fantastic TV but not given the chance to follow it up; commercial successes like Rhinoceros were hurt by the fact Laurence Olivier effectively banned him from rehearsals; Chimes at Midnight was a masterpiece with no distribution. Again and again one keeps thinking "if only"... "if only" he'd been able to make a second film for Zugsmith at Universal, if only he'd been able to schmooze executives as well as cast and crew, if only a major studio had distributed Chimes. But still, so much of the work survives to thrill us.
After reading Patrick McGilligan's biography on Welles' early years, Callow's nuts and bolts biography work (dates, places etc) suffers in comparison. But he is a wonderful writer and is particularly superb and insightful on Welles' acting, and his theatre work. A fantastic read.
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