v.o.
His secret purpose is to cover up his track simply by disposing every contact the investigator make. Welles played the mysterious Arkadin.
OW
But that film was taken away from me completely. And was totally destroyed in the cutting. That is the real disaster of my life. Flawed masterpiece, how are you, there's you flawed masterpiece. Mr. Arkadin, I hate to think about it.
v.o.
The beginning of one of Welles most spectacular opening sequences, it develops into a 3 minutes 20 seconds crane-shot. Welles had been living and working in exile in Europe for 10 years, when he returned to Hollywood in 1958 to create almost by accident, one of his most unforgettable screen performances, and one of the finest crime film ever made. The script had been originally sent by Universal to Charlton Heston under the title Badge of Evil.
CH (Charlton Heston)
It was a fairly routine police story. But even if it had been a better script, as I point it out to them, with the exception of western they've been making police stories longer and oftener than any other single-zoner. Therefore it's extremely difficult to come up with a script, as a script will survive on its own, I said the director is even more important than this. I said, "who's gonna direct it?" They said, "We haven't picked out a director yet. But we'll have Orson Welles to play a part, though" This was on a long-distance phone. After a static-filled pause I said, "Why don't you have him direct it? He's a pretty good director, you know." The reaction at first was a prolonged silence as if I'd suggested my mother to direct the film. And after a while they said, "Yeah, that's right! We'll get back to you."
OW
They quickly called me back again and said, "Will you direct this picture? We can't pay you anymore." I said I'll direct it, but if also I get to write it, every word of it, an entirely new script. They said, "Yes!" So I had 3 weeks before we start. I have about 12 secretaries round the clock and made entirely new script.
CH
Orson then proceeded to write the entire script in about 10 days by himself, which I knew he would. Vastly improved the script and his part, which I knew he would. Touch of Evil is really about the decline and fall of Captain Quinlan, Orson's part. My part, the Mexican lawyer, Vargas, serves as a witness.
(Touch of Evil's playing)
LM
It must be physically the most grotesque character...
OW
Yes, it was pretty grotesque. And I gave a dinner-party, not long after I started the picture for all my old producers, friends, big-stars, all the Hollywood brigades. I came a little late. So they were all there drinking before I sit down. In order to arrive in time in my make up and costume. And they all said, "How are you, Orson? You looking great." You know I was absolute monster.
(Touch of Evil's playing)
OW
They didn't know they had Marlene Dietrich. She turned up in Russia they said, "That's Marlene Dietrich." I call her up and said, "You're in this picture?" She said, "Yes." I said, "What's your salary?" She says, "You don't put my name on the picture, that's the minimum. You put my name on, see Mitch." So they saw their agent, they were delighted. It was roses all the way, until the gate closed on me. It's still a mystery I have no idea what that was about.
v.o.
Once again, Welles was barred from post-production of his own film and cuts were made in it.
LM
Why again in this case were you shut out from...
OW
I have no idea it's never been explained. Because they love the rushes. Every day the head of the studio came to me wanted me to come to their office and sign it, deal for several pictures and all that great stuffs. Then they saw the rough-cut of it and they were so horrified and they wouldn't let me into the studio. And nobody ever explained what horrified them. Heston had won an Oscar, and he was a great star, and they released it without press-release, without the press showing that it was a B-picture in America. And it was shown in Brussels right afterward at World Fair and got the prize of Best Picture of the Year. And the Belgian distributor who had put it in the contest against the will of the studio and had worked for Universal for 20 years was fired. And then open a small theatre, Publicist, for grand 2 years. It had made a lot of money, even for America. To their tremendous rage, the last the want is success. And they never explained it to me. Chuck Heston doesn't know, they never told him, they certainly never told me. They don't know what it is. It's too dark for them, too strange, I think. I don't think we would have that reaction now. A little too tough, a little too black, but that's a guess, I just don't know.
CH
Orson really, it seems to me, just want to work. At the same time, there's something in him that drives him to alienate the people with the money. Perhaps, there's a subconscious treat that makes him resent, that unlike painter who if he had to could work in a supermarket bagging groceries and earned the money to buy a paints, that as a director he cannot do that. He must somehow persuade the studio to give him money. And perhaps on some subconscious level has never been able to accept this. I cannot believe that he would not had been more successful than he has been at getting them ti giving him the money to make a film. There's a myth in the film community, for example, that Orson is an unreliable director, with no disrespect to directors like Mike Nichols, Michael Cimino, Spielberg, Coppola, Orson hasn't spent as much in all his films in his life as they have wasted only in one film. And this is a simple statement of fact, and I dare say they'd subscribe to it. Touch of Evil not a great film but certainly one that's marked with touches of brilliance, were shot on the shortest schedule I've ever worked on, and it came in unscheduled and slightly over-budget. The budget was less than a million dollars.
Interviewer
It was so much of it there's little room for maneuver, I mean, the opening shot was just one shot. Did he cover himself?
CH
Nope. We spent all night...
(end of part10)
No comments:
Post a Comment