OW
We had one shot that we would put John Russell on a flag-pole hanging on to his camera. And there's one shot where I fall could never be duplicated because the stuntman and all that, we paid him so much for doing it. The next day at the studio, we put in all the sound effect over a black film in order to make Russell think that he had forgot to rack over (laughing) That was the sort of cruelty that was common on the set in those days. And we were all very forgiving. It doesn't matter, we would do it again tomorrow night. He gets so scared. (laughing)
v.o
In 1943 Welles and Joseph Cotten had co-written and starred a thriller, Journey into Fear. There were rumors that Welles had taken more than passing-interest in the direction.
OW
The books about me which give me credit for that picture are wrong because it's really Norman Foster's picture. And he deserves any credit that's going. And if you've seen the picture before they cut out what didn't advance the action, you'd realize what a good movie he made, in spite of my performance, but it was supposed to be that way. It wasn't unconsciously.
(Lady from Shanghai's played)
v.o.
In 1947 Welles went tropical with the exotic thriller called Lady from Shanghai. Travelogue scenery, luxury living, but shot through with Welles own sense of parody and the bizarre.
(Lady from Shanghai's played)
v.o.
And from his supporting players, Glen Anders, he cook performances that go right to the edge.
(Lady from Shanghai's played)
v.o.
When he first viewed Lady from Shanghai, producer Harry Cohn offered any one in the room $1000 to explain the plot to him. Not even Welles took him up for it. The gossip column try to make rumor that it's because the co-star was Welles recently divorced wife, Rita Hayworth. And the circumstances of making the film in the first place was almost as bizarre as the story. Welles had actually left the movie for year, and returned to the theater to lose a lot of money to put in on a new musical. It was called Around the World in 80 Days.
OW
I put all my money into it. Before the opening in Boston, the costumes were sitting in the railway station, and there's $55,000 to pay for them or they wouldn't go to the theater for the opening night. I was sitting in the box-office, trying to think who can send me the $55,000 in the next 3 hours. I thought Harry Cohn, only the one with the courage to do it. I called him up and I said, "Harry, I've got the greatest story that you've ever read!" And I turn a paperback around that a girl was reading in the box office, it was called The Man I Killed. I said to him, "It's called The Man I Killed. You send me $55,000 in two hours and I'll make the picture, and I will write it, I will direct it, and I will act in it." $55,000 came. I did Around the World in 80 Days. Lost a fortune on it. But we had a musical and some people went to see it 7 times. I think it was the best thing I've ever did in the theatre. But it was fan actual disaster. And I had divorced from Rita. She came to me and said she wants to make my picture. I want you to came back with me. And Harry said to me, "I want you to do that with Rita, for her sake." That turned from 5 weeks to a big super movie. The plot was essentially the plot from the book, which I've never read. So the theory which have been printed a thousand times that this was an act of vengeance against Rita, that it was a great device which I was going to degrade her is non-sense because all that was in the book. She's read the book and wanted to play this character, so she was an actress.
LM
You build her up...
OW
Yes, of course. And put her in the gutter at the end.
(Rita Hayworth's scene)
LM
You do seem to me kind of want a balancing act between drama, melodrama, and parody...
OW
And I am bored with story that don't seem to me balance things, like you walk in a highway with a story, instead of on a tight-rope. I'm bored with it.
LM
Were you to some extent setting out to make a critic the very kind of film that the studio wouldn't like because you have the leading man who was stupid enough to get himself into the situation, the part you played you had a sort of sex-goddess playing a parody almost.
OW
Yes. Yes of course there's that element.
(end of part7)
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