THE FILMS OF ORSON WELLES THE FILMS OF ORSON UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Charles Higham BERKELEY, LOS ANGELES. LONDON University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles University of California Press, Ltd. London, England Copyright © 1970 by The Regents of the University of California First Printing, 1970 Second Printing, 1971 First Paperback Printing, 1971 Second Paperback Printing, 1973 ISBN: 0-520-01567-3 cloth 0-520-02048-0 paper Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 72-92677 Printed in the United States of America FOR DAVID BRADLEY AND TOM WEBSTER ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am grateful, first of all, to the chancellor and faculty of the University of California, Santa Cruz, and to the Regents of the University, whose offer of a Regents' Professorship made the writing of this book possible; to David Bradley, who lent me his guesthouse and, most indispensably, his telephone during much of my stay in Hollywood; to Bill Collins, who provided me with opportunities to examine Welles's films frame by frame; to Richard Wilson, who filled in many fascinating details and gave me access to his incomparable vault of Wellesiana, devotedly preserved for thirty years, including the complete set of Mercury files; to Joseph Cotten, who lent me his marvelous scrapbooks; to Arthur Knight, who showed me The Fountain of Youth; to Nathan Scheinwald for The Trial, Philip Jones for Chimes at Midnight, Max Nosseck and Altura and Pacific Films for The Immortal Story; to Vernon Harbin of RKO-Radio Pictures, for help with musical copyright titles in the Kane newsreel. I also owe a debt of a kind to Bernard Herrmann who, after telling me that any interest in Kane today was an absurdity, reluctantly informed me that the libretto of his fake opera Salammbô sprang from an "obscure work of Racine," thus involving me in days of searching until I found it in Racine's most famous play. I am more properly grateful to Mr. Herrmann (and RKO) for permission to reproduce pages of his scores. It is to Hazel Marshall and Charles West of Paramount that I owe my most extraordinary moment in half a lifetime of film-going: the unreeling on a squeaky Moviola of the fabulous lost footage of If s All True, the cinematic equivalent of the treasure of King Solomon's mines or the lost city of the Incas. Others who helped are far too numerous to list, for seemingly half the civilized world has an interest in, and special stories about, Orson Welles. I must, though, thank the following for much that was invaluable: Anne Baxter, Joseph Biroc, William Castle, John Col- lier, Stanley Cortez, Floyd Crosby, Brainerd Duffield, Alexander Golitzen, Bill Harmon, Viola Lawrence, Milton and Gitta Lubowiski, Russell Metty, Agnes Moorehead, Mark Robson, Karl Struss, Howard Suber, Lurene Tuttle, Harold Wellman, Robert Wise, and Colin Young. I am also particularly indebted to The New York Times for much indispensable factual material, and to Herbert Lightman for background on Lady from Shanghai. For illustrations, I am grateful for the cooperation of Altura Films, Joseph Biroc, David Bradley, Brandon Films, Sheila Whitaker and the National Film Archive, Columbia Pictures, Joseph Cotten, Floyd Crosby, George Fanto, A1 Gilks, Shifra Haran, Robert Hughes, Arthur Knight, Para- mount Pictures, Republic Pictures, Willard Morrison, the Museum of Modern Art, Alex Phillips, RKO, Universal Pictures, and Richard Wilson. ILLUSTRATIONS In most instances the content of illustrations will be self-evident by reference to the adjoining text. The following guide covers those few uncaptioned stills where identification may present a problem, or where particular details would seem useful. Page 19. Bottom. Cut scene in the newspaper office. Page 50. Top left and top right. Examining pre-production sketches. Bottom right. Stanley Cortez. Page 59. Top right. The sewing circle. Page 71. Note reference to Shifra Haran, Welles's secretary. Page 78. Jack Moss at left. Page 80. Eustace Wyatt at right. Page 83. Note wind machine. Page 87. Welles's companion is Linda Battista. Page 90. Top right. Jacare'. Page 91. Middle right and bottom. Funeral in Fortaleza for a young fisherman. Page 93. Selecting music for It's All True. Page 94. Top right. Picador from My Friend Bonito. Bottom right. "Hamlet." Page 95. The picador sequence. Page 98. From a rare still; the smudges, regrettably, are on the original. Page 99. Grande Otelo. Page 102. Konstantin Shayne, Edward G. Robinson, Billy House. Page 112. Aboard Errol Flynn's yacht. Acapulco, 1946. Errol Flynn, Nora Eddington Flynn, Rita Hayworth, Orson Welles, Richard Denning, William Castle. Page 117. Top left and right. Locations at Green Hell. Page 118. Location at Acapulco. Page 147. Top right. Robert Arden at left. Bottom right. Robert Arden and Paola Mori at right. Page 149. Top left. Katina Paxinou. Top right. Akim Tamiroff, Robert Arden. Page 152. Top left. Russell Metty is at far right. Remainder of page. Set by Alexander Golitzen and Robert Clatworthy. Page 153. Top right. Zsa Zsa Gabor. Page 157. Top left. Mercedes McCambridge is at far right. Page 160. Top right. Arnaldo Foa at left. Page 162. Top right. Arnaldo Foa at left. Pages 196- 197. Scenes omitted from Magnificent Ambersohs. AUTHOR'S NOTE This book is not intended to be a biography of Orson Welles — though a good one is long overdue. Nor does it cover his multifarious activities in theater, radio, tele- vision, magic, ballet, and vaudeville, and as an actor in the films of other directors. It concentrates wholly on Welles's films themselves and is intended as a descrip- tive and critical study of these works, breaking with the format only to provide information about the cir- cumstances of their production. Accounts of events in the films are not intended to be all-inclusive, but rather to illuminate the most dramatically significant scenes. The exception is the treatment of Citizen Kane; here, in order to examine the very complex and beautiful structure of the work, I have separated considerations of its narrative patterns and its visual construction. Accurate credits for Welles films are hard to achieve; those appearing on prints of the films are frequently inadequate. It is a curious part of the Welles puzzle that many significant contributors to a work have gone unacknowledged —• Welles's own name appears nowhere on the credits of Journey into Fear, at his own wish. The credits as given in this volume result from my at- tempt to fill such gaps. I apologize to any craftsman whose name may be omitted. Since the first edition of this book appeared, supposed inaccuracies in the text have been alleged by Peter Bogdanovich in the New York Times and by Richard Wilson in Sight and Sound. (Bogdanovich is the co- author, with Welles, of a forthcoming book, and Wilson was Welles's assistant for many years.) I have carefully considered their charges, and have rejected them; this new edition contains no significant alterations. As for their implication that I have injured Orson Welles's pro- fessional opportunities by the tone and matter of this book, let posterity be the judge. CHARLES HIGHAM Sydney-Los Angeles-Santa Cruz- San Francisco-Los Angeles-Sydney- Los Angeles: 1967-1971 .