Read The Magic World of Orson Welles Online
Authors: James Naremore
John Houseman's comments, here as elsewhere, are quoted from
Run-Through: A Memoir
. Welles's newspaper column is quoted from the
New
York Post
, where it appeared on weekdays between January 22 and June 15, 1945. See also “The Big Show-Off,” by Jerome Beatty,
American
(Feb. 1947). I obtained background information on
Around the World, The Lady from Shanghai
, and
Macbeth
from interviews with Richard Wilson.
Albert Zugsmith's recollections of
Touch of Evil
appear in an interview with Todd McCarthy and Charles Flynn in
Kings of the Bs
(New York: Dutton, 1975). Henry Mancini is interviewed in the AFI
Dialogue on Film
(Jan. 1974). Dennis Weaver is quoted from the AFI “Life Achievement Award” program. See also Stephen Heath, “Film and System,”
Screen
(Spring/Summer 1976).
Welles's interviews with André Bazin appeared in
Cahiers du Cinema
in June and September 1958. See also Micheál MacLiammóir,
Put Money in Thy Purse
(London: Methuen, 1952). Jack Jorgens's essay on
Othello
is found in Gottesman's
Focus on Orson Welles
. Welles's essay in
The Fortnightly
is titled “Thoughts on Germany” and was published in March 1951. The novel
Mr. Arkadin
appeared originally in French with Welles's name as author and was published by Gallimard, Paris, in 1954. An unauthorized translation was issued by W. H. Allen, London, 1956.
On Kafka, see Georg Lukács,
Realism in Our Time
(New York: Harper and Row, 1964); see also Ernst Fischer,
The Necessity of Art
(London: Penguin Books, 1963), and Walter Benjamin,
Illuminations
(New York: Harcourt Brace, 1968). A script of
The Trial
, together with Welles's interview on the film with
Cahiers du Cinéma
, has been published by the Modern Film Script series (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1970).
For commentary on the Henry plays, see William Empson's “Double Plots” in
Some Versions of Pastoral
(New York: New Directions, 1950). See also C. L. Barber,
Shakespeare's Festive Comedy
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1959). Welles's comments on the film appeared in
Cahiers du Cinema
in English
(Winter 1965). Pauline Kael's essay is collected in
Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1968).
Welles is quoted from a brief interview reported by David Ansen in
The Real Paper
, Boston, January 22, 1977. See also the special issue on Welles published by
Positif
, no. 167 (March 1975). Background on the production of
F for Fake
appears in
Ãcran
(Feb. 1975). Raymond Williams is quoted from
Culture and Society
(New York: Harper and Row, 1958). Joseph McBride's report “The Other Side of Orson Welles” is in
American Film
(July-Aug. 1976).
Unless otherwise indicated, the quotations in this chapter are taken from documents in the Welles archive of the Lilly Library in Bloomington, Indiana. Edward W. Said is quoted from
The World, the Text, and the Critic
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1983), 31â53. Robert Lewis's comments on Welles were made at a New York University symposium in May 1988. Roland Barthes's essay “From Work to Text” was translated by Josue V. Harari and appeared in
Textual Strategies
, edited by Harari (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1979), 73â81.
Bates, Robin. “Fiery Speech in a World of Shadows: Rosebud's Impact on Early Audiences.”
Cinema Journal
(Winter 1987): 3â26.
Bazin, André. Orson
Welles: A Critical View
. Translated by Jonathan Rosenbaum. New York: Harper and Row, 1978.
Bordwell, David, and Kristin Thompson. “Style in
Citizen Kane
.” In
Film Art
(New York: Knopf, 1986).
Brady, Frank.
Citizen Welles
. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1989.
Carringer, Robert L.
The Making of Citizen Kane
. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985.
Comito, Terry, ed.
Touch of Evil
, screenplay by Orson Welles. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1984.
France, Richard.
The Theater of Orson Welles
. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press, 1977.
Higham, Charles.
Orson Welles: The Rise and Fall of an American Genius
. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1985.
Leaming, Barbara.
Orson Welles: A Biography
. New York: Viking Press, 1985.
Lyons, Bridget Gellert, ed.
Chimes at Midnight
, screenplay by Orson Welles, adapted from Shakespeare. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1988.
McBride, Joseph.
Orson Welles: Actor and Director
. New York: Harvest Books, 1977.
Naremore, James. “The Trial: The FBI vs. Orson Welles,”
Film Comment
(Jan.-Feb. 1991): 22â27.
Pells, Richard H. “The Radical Stage and the Hollywood Film in the 1930s.” In
Radical Visions and American Dreams
. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1984.
Rosenbaum, Jonathan. “The Invisible Orson Welles: A First Inventory.”
Sight and Sound
(Summer 1986): 164â71.
Sartre, Jean-Paul. “
Citizen Kane
.” Translated by Dana Polan.
Post Script
(Fall 1987): 60â65.
Simon, William G., ed.
Persistence of Vision
, no. 7 (1989), special issue on Orson Welles.
Stainton, Audrey. “
Don Quixote
: Orson Welles's Secret.”
Sight and Sound
(Autumn 1988): 253â56.
Thomson, David. “Orson Welles and
Citizen Kane
.” In
America in the Dark
. New York: William Morrow, 1977.
Welles, Orson.
The Big Brass Ring
, screenplay with Oja Kodar, preface by James Pepper, afterword by Jonathan Rosenbaum. Santa Barbara: Santa Teresa Press, 1987.
Wollen, Peter. “
Citizen Kane
.” In
Readings and Writings
. London: Verso, 1982.
Anderegg, Michael.
Orson Welles, Shakespeare, and Popular Culture
. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999.
Anile, Alberto.
Orson Welles in Italy
. Translated by Marcus Perryman. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2013.
Beja, Morris, ed.
Perspectives on Orson Welles
. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1995.
Benamou, Catherine L. It's All True:
Orson Welles's Pan-American Odyssey
. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007.
Berg, Chuck, and Tom Erskine, with John C. Tibbetts.
The Encyclopedia of Orson Welles
. New York: Checkmark Books, 2003.
Berthome, Jean-Pierre, and François Thomas.
Citizen Kane
. Paris: Flammarion, 1992.
âââ.
Orson Welles at Work
. London: Phaidon, 2008.
Bessy, Maurice.
Orson Welles: An Investigation into His Films and Philosophy
. Translated by Ciba Vaughan. New York: Crown Publishers, 1971.
Biskind, Peter, ed.
My Lunches with Orson: Conversations between Henry Jaglom and Orson Welles
. New York: Metropolitan Books, 2013.
Callow, Simon.
Orson Welles: Hello Americans
. London: Jonathan Cape, 2006.
âââ.
Orson Welles: The Road to Xanadu
. London: Jonathan Cape, 1995.
Carringer, Robert L.
The Magnificent Ambersons: A Reconstruction
. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993.
âââ. “The Scripts of
Citizen Kane
.”
Critical Inquiry
5 (1978): 369â400.
Casale, Gherardo.
L'Incantesimo e Compiuto: Shakespeare Secondo Orson Welles
. Turin: Lindau, 2001.
Conrad, Peter.
Orson Welles: The Stories of His Life
. London: Faber and Faber, 2003.
Drössler, Stefan, ed.
The Unknown Orson Welles
. Munich: Filmmuseum Munich and Belleville Verlag, 2004.
Estrin, Mark W.
Orson Welles Interviews
. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2002.
Feder, Chris Welles.
In My Father's Shadow: A Daughter Remembers Orson Welles
. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2009.
Gottesman, Ronald, ed.
Perspectives on Citizen Kane
. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1996.
Haylen, Clinton.
Despite the System: Orson Welles versus the Hollywood Studios
. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2005.
Heyer, Paul.
The Medium and the Magician: Orson Welles, the Radio Years
. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2005.
Ishaghpour, Youssef.
Orson Welles: Cineaste Une Camera Visible
, 3 vols. Paris: Editions de la Difference, 2001.
Koch, Howard.
The Panic Broadcast
. New York: Avon Books, 1970.
McBride, Joseph.
Orson Welles
. Rev. and exp. ed. New York: Da Capo Press, 1996.
âââ.
Whatever Happened to Orson Welles? Portrait of an Independent Career
. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2006.
McGilligan, Patrick.
Young Orson
. New York: HarperCollins, 2015.
Mulvey, Laura.
Citizen Kane
. London: BFI, 1992.
Naremore, James.
An Invention without a Future: Essays on Cinema
. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014.
âââ, ed.
Orson Welles's
Citizen Kane. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
Orson Welles on the Air: The Radio Years
. New York: Museum of Broadcasting, 1988.
Perkins, V. F.
The Magnificent Ambersons
. London: BFI, 1999.
Rippy, Marguerite H.
Orson Welles and the Unfinished RKO Projects: A Postmodern Perspective
. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2009.
Rosenbaum, Jonathan.
Discovering Orson Welles
. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007.
Tarbox, Todd.
Orson Welles and Roger Hill: A Friendship in Three Acts
. Albany, GA: BearManor Media, 2013.
Thomson, David.
Rosebud: The Story of Orson Welles
. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996.
Welles, Orson, and Peter Bogdanovich.
This Is Orson Welles
. Edited by Jonathan Rosenbaum. New York: HarperCollins, 1992.
Welles, Orson, and Roger Hill, eds.
The Mercury Shakespeare
. New York: Harper, 1939.
Welles, Orson.
The Cradle Will Rock: An Original Screenplay
. Santa Barbara: Santa Teresa Press, 1994.
Welles, Orson. Mercury Theatre Collection. Lilly Library, Bloomington, Indiana.
Zunzunegui, Santos.
Orson Welles
. Madrid: Ediciones Catedra, 2005.
I have not attempted to catalogue Welles's extensive work in theater, radio, and television; for a partial account of these appearances, the reader may consult the special issue of
Persistence of Vision
listed in the additional bibliography. The following list was compiled from a number of sources, including Joseph McBride's
Orson Welles
, Peter Noble's
The Fabulous Orson Welles
, Charles Higham's
The Films of Orson Welles
, and the filmography by Henry Moret printed in
Ãcran
, February 1976. A few items do not appear in other publications.
The Hearts of Age
(1934)
Directors: Orson Welles and William Vance
Cast: Orson Welles, Virginia Nicholson, William Vance
A four-minute, 16mm film made in Woodstock, Illinois.
A copy may be seen in the Library of Congress film archives.
Too Much Johnson
(1938)
Producers: Orson Welles and John Houseman
Associate Producer: Richard Wilson
Director: Orson Welles
Assistant Director: John Berry
Script: Orson Welles, from the play by William Gillette
Photography: Harry Dunham and Paul Dunbar
Editors: Orson Welles, Richard Wilson, William Alland
Cast: Joseph Cotton (
Augustus Billings
), Virginia Nicolson (
Lenore Faddish
), Edgar Barrier (
Leon Dathis
), Ruth Ford (
Mrs. Billings
), Arlene Francis (
Mrs. Dathis
), Mary Wickes (
Mrs. Battison
), Eustis Wyatt (
Faddish
), Guy Kingsley (
Macintosh
), George Duthie (
Purser
), Orson Welles (
Cop
), John Berry, Howard Smith, Augusta Weissberger, John Houseman, Marc Blitzstein, Herbert Drake, Richard Wilson, Judy Holliday.
Production Company: Mercury Theatre. 16mm, intended for the Mercury stage production of the Gillette play, but incompletely edited and not shown publicly until 2014. 40 mins.
Citizen Kane
(1941)
Director: Orson Welles
Script: Herman J. Mankiewicz, Orson Welles, and (uncredited) John Houseman
Photography: Gregg Toland
Camera Operator: Bert Shipman
Art Direction: Van Nest Polglase, Perry Ferguson
Special Effects: Vernon L. Walker
Set Decoration: Darrell Silvera
Music: Bernard Herrmann