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Orson Welles: Hello Americans

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Cinema mavens and simple movie fans can rejoice: the second volume of Simon Callow's scrupulously researched biography of Orson Welles has been published. The first volume, The Road to Xanadu, took Welles from his birth through the release of his first film, Citizen Kane (1941). This volume takes up immediately after Kane, and traces the arc of Welles' career until 1947, when he went into self-imposed exile in Europe for more than 20 years. Not only does the volume cover films--The Magnificent Ambersons (sliced to a shadow of Welles' intention); the Brazilian epic, It's All True, aborted and never really completed; the spectacular The Lady from Shanghai, again destroyed by the studio with inept editing and awful soundtrack and the half-baked, yet fascinating Macbeth--but it also covers Welles' career as a political pundit, a fuzzy leftist, just before the horrors of the House Un-American Activities Committee . . . an event that contributed to his flight from the United States.
Callow is really magnificent biographer. His work on Charles Laughton (Charles Laughton: A Difficult Actor) really set the benchmark for both scholarship and humanity in dealing with a public figure in the arts. That Callow is primarily known as an actor and director proves renaissance men really do exist. (For those of you fuzzy on his looks, he was the hirsute gay man in Four Weddings and a Funeral.) This massive, 400+ page volume on the middle period of Welles' life is day-to-day detailed beyond one's wildest wish, yet fully captures both Welles' humanity and his follies. Callow is not quick to judge any of his subject's foibles, yet doesn't shrink from reporting Welles' sometimes callous and outre' work habits. Apparently, Welles suffered from a chronic inability to finish something, perhaps less it be judged. As a result, films were edited after he left a project to work on another, then never edited as well as the only film he ever really completed, Citizen Kane.
That Welles may have been an American tragedy--destroyed by the potential engendered in his youth, and never able to come up to the standard he himself had set--is left unspoken by Callow, but Welles' genius is keenly illustrated. Simon Callow is a man who clearly knows the
entertainment business better than most, and this biography is illuminating, touching, and, ultimately, heartbreaking.

Simon Callows' second volume examining the life of Orson Welles looks at Welles' career and personal life after the release of "Citizen Kane" as he prepared and shot his second film The Magnificient Ambersons", toured South America as part of a goodwill gesture, made a film in South America that wouldn't be completed during his life time ("It's All True"), romanced Rita Hawyworth and discovered that critical darlings could also be commercial pariahs. "Kane" created quite a bit of scandal with William Randolph Hearst's newspapers attacking the film, refusing to carry ads and Hearst even had a consortium of Hollywood heavyweights approach RKO with an offer to buy the film outright so that they could destroy the negative.

Welles wasn't trying to recreate the success of "Citizen Kane" in Callow's view. Welles was trying new and different ways to tell stories with every film, play and radio show he did. He desperately wanted to experiment and his restless spirit did just that. He would reach that rarified air of critical success again with "Touch of Evil" (at least in France) and a handful of other classic films. Callow discusses Welles' career with penetrating insight into both the man, all of his foibles and his strengths which he inexplicably would undermine.As Callow points out Welles lacked the talent to harness his own talent and focus it the way that lesser artists might do.

Welles approached each new subject with zest imbued each film with his restless creativity only to have studios ("The Magnificent Ambersons"), producers ("The Stranger")and even himself ("Macbeth") undermine his work. The second volume ends with "Macbeth" as Welles went overseas to act in Europe. Welles edited "Macbeth" while in Rome shooting another movie as a performer. Ultimately Republic had their version of the film (nearly 90 minutes) as did Welles (112 minutes)and the director himself seemed to lose interest in his baby. Lost in the wake of Olivier's spectacular "Hamlet" Welles' film received mixed reviews with some loving it(the French) while others found it lacking (the American and UK press).

If many of the films that Welles made in the wake of "Kane" didn't quite live up to its epic grandeur it had more to do with the fact that Welles had mastered that particular story so well. There were many parallels between Welles' life and that of Kane; he understood the story at the core of Kane all too well. He continued to have mixed successes from "Ambersons" to "The Trial" and all have their merit and featured inventive work. This second volume gives us Welles the whirlwind; Welles the world traveler truly without a home and paints a vivid Welles the human.

Callow brings to this volume his keen insight. The reader will have to have patience though as there are some areas that fascinate Callow more than they might some readers and as a result he spents a bit too much time focusing on certain years at the expense of others. Still, Callow is nothing if not complete in his examination of Welles professional, personal life and the sometimes uneasy mix between the two. I'd recommend Callow's book because like the first volume it's the most insightful and intelligent glimpse into Welles' life yet.

Callow brings his unique insight as an artist and actor to this book as with the first and it informs it with great insight and observations. My only complaint is that Callow covers a very brief period of time with the book (however complete)and that we have to wait for a third (and perhaps a fourth)book to completely cover this remarkable artists life. It will be worth it but it will also be quite a wait at this pace.

Calling Orson Welles a Falstaffian figure seems like an understatement when reading Simon Callow's second of what he envisions to be a trilogy of books he is authoring on the life of the wildly eccentric, painfully brilliant filmmaker. That Welles is a subject worthy of a trilogy is almost beside the point as his epic fall from grace after the artistic summit of "Citizen Kane" has been fodder for a number of biographers and film historians. Published almost a decade after his first book, the fascinating "The Road to Xanadu". Callow's treatment in his second book is significant is that he portrays the film auteur as the victim of neither insensitive Hollywood studio moguls nor Welles' own megalomania. Rather, in a balanced, professionally-oriented book, Callow shows both factors coming into play time and again throughout his subject's career. What is particularly enlightening about Callow's research is how he concludes it was Welles' political preoccupations that took his attention away from his creative energy.

The author paints an intriguing portrait of a young New Deal liberal strictly anti-Fascist and very pro-Roosevelt. In fact, his political causes were so engulfing that they it would make his film productions often interminable and obviously uneconomical. The book covers the period between 1941, the year "Citizen Kane" was released, and his self-imposed exile to Europe in 1947. In that relatively fruitful period, Welles produced five films, three stage shows and worked consistently in radio. He was also a prolific journalist, a much sought-after public speaker and an enthusiastic political activist constantly supporting Roosevelt's issues. The most interesting part of the book is that first year when the 26-year old Welles made the much-maligned "The Magnificent Ambersons"; produced and acted in the dark mystery, "Journey into Fear"; and traveled to Brazil to scout locations for two months before coming up with the story for his soon-to-be-aborted film, "It's All True". The key turning point occurred when his patron and protector, George Schaefer, was ousted as production chief of RKO and Welles' legendary Mercury Theatre started to fall apart.

Callow vividly describes how RKO cut "The Magnificent Ambersons" by over a third, eliminated Bernard Herrmann's music score and inserted a ludicrous happy ending. The result was a film no one liked no matter how brilliant individual sequences were, and unsurprisingly, it failed miserably at the box office. While the RKO studio executives had an excuse to minimize Welles after this fiasco, it remains that the filmmaker had a degree of accountability in letting these lapses occur while having moved on to his next film in Brazil. This pattern would repeat himself throughout the filmmaker's career with an almost necessary inevitability. Callow, however, falls short in accusing Welles of allowing his genius overwhelm him in such a destructive manner, and that seems appropriate given the textured portrait the author provides here. A fascinating read even if Callow carefully avoids much of Welles' colorful personal life.

HURRAH FOR CALLOW! A long and rewarding read with actor/author Callow in fine form as he reviews Welles from within the man himself, while weighing every scene and line-reading of Welles's works from The Magnificent Ambersons to Macbeth. This includes a close survey of all of Welles' radio and theatre works as well, which are weighed from within the art of acting. This is a book Welles himself would enjoy though it often takes him vastly to task. If the book has a problem it's that Callow spent ten years writing it and, now at age 78, I fear I may not be around to read the concluding volume(s)--and I'm sure two volumes will emerge from Callow's fine sifting of research materials at the Lilly Library's Welles Collection at Indiana University. As an aside, while reading this bio, I happened upon Callow's brief but inspired appearance in Howard's End as the pompous lecturer on Music & Meaning at the picture's opening where Boham Carter "steals" an umbrella, and caught him bouncing about bareassed at a country swimming hole in A Room with a View. Finally, Callow's work on stage and film sets (and his fine earlier biography of Charles Laughton) gives him special insight into each of the Welles works he studies: lighting, editing, makeup and so forth. Hey, he writes well too, no academese. Now if only Criterion would bring out Chimes at Midnight.

Well, I just finished reading HELLO AMERICANS, Callow's second volume in his Orson Welles bio series, and I have to say, it's a good read.

Thanks to a vast amount of research, Callow really details what happened to Welles after CITIZEN KANE. Particularly good is the section on THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS and IT'S ALL TRUE. Up until now, I've read a lot about this time period in Welles' life, but never has it ever quite made sense; Callow finally manages to do that. He also has cogent things to say about THE STRANGER, THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI, MACBETH, Welles' political aspirations (which were all-consuming from about 1942 to 1947), and the various theatrical presentations Welles attempted (including AROUND THE WORLD).

Callow doesn't flinch from describing Welles the man, either, a figure capable of inspiring both devotion (Korda, Wilson, Wallace) and hatred (McDowell, Koerner, Fier). And Callow is the most insightful biographer in that he sees both the Wellescentric point of view and that of the studios (paticularly good passages can be found on p. 364 of the 1st edition).

My only complaint is that some of the quotes Callow uses from Welles' films are inaccurate (is he writing from memory?), and, once or twice, he describes things in the films that I don't remember ever happening (but maybe that's me). However, in summarizing Welles ("Confinement, whether personal or professional, was unbearable to Orson Welles"), I feel he has hit the nail on the head, and such insights more than make up for any small errors that may be present.

In short, this is worth reading, and I look forward to Volume III.

For me, this was as much an introduction to a witty author as a way of tracing the fall of Orson Welles' career. I had never read any of Simon Callow's previous books, I was more familiar with his work as an actor, but only sightly.

I've missed something. His voice in prose is bright, and the light he throws on Welles here (and presumably in the first volume, which I intend reading) doesn't allow his subject to hide.

He's clearly sympathetic to Welles, but he doesn't let that sympathy overwhelm his perceptions. His observations on acting and directing have the added weight of someone who has, shall we say, dipped a toe or two in that pool...

The second volume of Simon Callow's admirable biography of Welles does full justice to Welles's work in radio, which extended far beyond his Mercury Theater On the Air. A great read about a great artist.

Orson Welles volume II "Hello Americans" (title taken from an Orson Welles radio program of the 1940s) is a fine sequel to his first volume on the behemoth Welles called "Orson Welles: The Road to Xandau". This volume covers the years from 1941 to 1947. Callow has promised a third and final volume to the series covering the years from 1947 to the death of Welles in 1985.
The book begins with triumph for the boy genius! Welles saw his first and best film "Citizen Kane" given the royal treatment at a fabulous premier as he escorted the lovely Mexican actress Dolores del Rio on his fleshy arm. Welles would lose the support of top brass at Columbia Pictures never repeating the acclaim garned by Kane.
Orson Welles went to Brazil for the filming of "It's All True" which was supposed to be a film promoting good will with our American neighbors as the war clouds in Europe were about to break unleashing the horror of World War II, Welles arrived in South America where he played, cavorted, drank, ate and danced at carnival time. The film withered on the vine to the disgust of his creative associates and Hollywood executives. After over 100 pages of dense writing by biographer Callow we learn that nothing came of this project. The failure of his South American film was a signal that Welles was losing his popularity. As a cinematic genius he would continue to experiment with film the rest of his life producing a good deal of failures tempered by some successes. The last quarter century of his life would be spent in Europe.
Welles failed to win plaudits for the chopped up "The Magnificent Ambersons" which is still a fine filming of the Booth Tarkington chronicle of the rise and fall of a wealthy Indiana family in the early years of the twentieth century. His film "Journey Into Darkness" was a so-so film while the artistic "The Lady from Shangai" with ex-wife Rita Hayworth in the lead is considered an imperfect classic. Welles dyed Miss Hayworth's hair blonde for her starring role as a mysterious murderess. The scene in the Fun House with the mirror imagery is classic film.
During World War II Welles became a spokesperson for the administration of FDR. Welles was a liberal Democrat who spoke out against racial discrimination. Welles, to his great credit, was free of racial prejudice,
Welles toyed with politics writing a current events column for a newspaper syndicate and going on good will tours for Uncle Sam. He was not drafted but did consider himself a patriotic American. He was never a Communist.The McCarthy era gave him the willies leading to his leaving the states in 1947. Welles filmed the Shakespearean play "Macbeth" which was compared unfavorably to the Laurence Olivier hit
"Hamlet".
Orson Welles had less than an admirable character. He was a serial cheater during marriage to his second wife the stunningly beautiful sex goddess Rita Hayworth. The couple had a child named Rebecca but Welles was not interested in playing daddy. He had affairs with Lena Horne, Judy Garland and a legion of other ladies. He was a braggart with a Texas size ego who could be explosive and crude. Welles wanted you to do it his way or hit the highway. On the other hand, he could be witty, charming, kind and supportive of good causes. The man was as are repeatedly told a "genius" whatever that word is supposed to mean.
One wishes that Simon Callow would be able to finish volume three of his magnus opus on Orson Welles. Welles is essential for anyone wanting to explore cinema in the twentieth century. Simon Callow is his excellent biographer. Well done work of biography.

Appropriately for a book on Welles, there is some nifty sleight-of-hand here. Simon Callow's excellent writing and meticulous marshaling of facts distract us from seeing what should become plainer and plainer with each chapter: Welles is really not worth this kind of extended treatment. One great film, a handful of interesting clips thereafter, and a personal life not especially to be differentiated from that of many a spoiled, "infante terrible" hardly justifies 1200 pages...and counting. With ten years between volumes, the pushing-60 Mr.Callow will readily be exonerated if he abandons the project, and taxes his finite resources no further therein.