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David Hare on Touch of Evil:
"the 70s’/“preview” cut. Unlike the 98 version it drops the short, tacky ‘Explanatory dialogue” two shots with Heston and Leigh which are also visually jarring as AD Jerry Hopper shot them with a bog standard flat 50mm lens, whereas Metty shot the entire picture for Welles with an extremely wide angle 18mm lens (for speed, lighting and long takes.)"

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Stefan Andersson wrote: Wed May 21, 2025 5:04 pm David Hare on Touch of Evil:
"the 70s’/“preview” cut. Unlike the 98 version it drops the short, tacky ‘Explanatory dialogue” two shots with Heston and Leigh which are also visually jarring as AD Jerry Hopper shot them with a bog standard flat 50mm lens, whereas Metty shot the entire picture for Welles with an extremely wide angle 18mm lens (for speed, lighting and long takes.)"

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I'll have to disagree with him, especially the point on Mancini's score in the opening - if one got used to it over decades of viewing, I can see how removing it would be irksome, but I have a tough time going back to it. To me, it trades in sounds and diegetic music that helped establish the local culture and atmosphere for something that sounds very much like the mainstream pop music in America at the time. It's not bad music, but it loses a lot of personality for me and feels a lot more conventional.

Beatrice Welles sure knows how to make his father roll over his grave by authorizing the use of his voice through AI for the app Storyrabbit

dx23 wrote: Wed May 21, 2025 11:55 pmBeatrice Welles sure knows how to make his father roll over his grave by authorizing the use of his voice through AI for the app Storyrabbit

His likeness had already been licensed to a startup George Lucas was involved with about 7-8 years ago. I think they also had deals with the estates of Bogart/Bacall and a number of other actors

beamish14 wrote: Thu May 22, 2025 1:01 am His likeness had already been licensed to a startup George Lucas was involved with about 7-8 years ago. I think they also had deals with the estates of Bogart/Bacall and a number of other actors

One thing is likeness, the other one is use his voice to "create" new stuff. Ethically shameful and something I'm pretty sure Welles would have railed against

dx23 wrote: Thu May 22, 2025 1:41 am

beamish14 wrote: Thu May 22, 2025 1:01 am His likeness had already been licensed to a startup George Lucas was involved with about 7-8 years ago. I think they also had deals with the estates of Bogart/Bacall and a number of other actors

One thing is likeness, the other one is use his voice to "create" new stuff. Ethically shameful and something I'm pretty sure Welles would have railed against

I think the goal with Lucas’ endeavor was to insert deceased actors into advertisements and new films. Presumably, they could be fed new lines by living performers

Didn't something like this happened already in the late 90's when Lipton Ice Tea used Burgess Meredith's likeness and voice for some "Rocky" theme ads?

dx23 wrote: Thu May 22, 2025 3:44 am Didn't something like this happened already in the late 90's when Lipton Ice Tea used Burgess Meredith's likeness and voice for some "Rocky" theme ads?

Yes, it was a stop-motion ad produced by Will Vinton Studios (now Laika)

There's also the Audrey Hepburn Galaxy chocolate ad. Which did not impress Alex Cox back in the day.

colinr0380 wrote: Sat May 24, 2025 5:59 pm There's also the Audrey Hepburn Galaxy chocolate ad. Which did not impress Alex Cox back in the day.

Gene Kelley dancing with a vacuum cleaner in 1997 is the earliest that I can recall. He’d only been dead a few years, too

Fred Astaire, but same difference.

Gene Kelly did get it done to him as well though with this 2005 ad, remixed by Mint Royale (more famous for their From Rusholme With Love song) which was successful enough for the sample to turn into a full track

colinr0380 wrote: Sat May 24, 2025 7:16 pm Gene Kelly did get it done to him as well though with this 2005 ad

That looks fucking awful. Nothing wrong with the choreography per se, but the way they've incongruously grafted Gene Kelly's face on to it is horrid on so many levels.

Its the CGI version of the Bruce Lee face in Game of Death!

hearthesilence wrote: Wed May 21, 2025 7:17 pm

Stefan Andersson wrote: Wed May 21, 2025 5:04 pm David Hare on Touch of Evil:
"the 70s’/“preview” cut. Unlike the 98 version it drops the short, tacky ‘Explanatory dialogue” two shots with Heston and Leigh which are also visually jarring as AD Jerry Hopper shot them with a bog standard flat 50mm lens, whereas Metty shot the entire picture for Welles with an extremely wide angle 18mm lens (for speed, lighting and long takes.)"

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063684905019

I'll have to disagree with him, especially the point on Mancini's score in the opening - if one got used to it over decades of viewing, I can see how removing it would be irksome, but I have a tough time going back to it. To me, it trades in sounds and diegetic music that helped establish the local culture and atmosphere for something that sounds very much like the mainstream pop music in America at the time. It's not bad music, but it loses a lot of personality for me and feels a lot more conventional.

I’m not sure what Mr. Hare is claiming here. Yes, the ‘98 reconstruction includes one scene (and a one-shot exchange) not directed by Welles but the 70s - discovered “preview version” actually contains much more of the unnecessary explanatory footage not written/directed by Welles and rightfully deleted for the ‘98 reconstruction. I do agree that the flatter cinematography during this one scene is a poor match for the rest of the film.

That one scene is required for the film’s plotting to make sense as it replaced a scene directed by Welles with similar dialogue and Welles’ footage no longer exists. As to the additional one-shot insert (a brief exchange between Heston and Mort Mills in the downtown hotel), Welles acquiesced that it was a decent aside and a good photographic match so didn’t request it be removed.

New info about a Brazilian Holy Week procession filmed for It´s All True, and an upcoming documentary on the subject:
https://wellesnet.com/unseen-brazil-footage/

The Wellesnet message board has been shut down

Apparently it was a long time coming: "...as online habits have shifted and social media platforms have become the primary space for discussion, participation in the message board has significantly declined. In recent months, activity dropped to just a handful of posts, and the board had become increasingly difficult to maintain. The aging software was no longer compatible with newer site infrastructure and, unfortunately, contributed greatly to repeated site crashes."

You guys are very lucky you have a healthy message board here. The Asian bot attacks at Wellesnet were relentless and finally dragged us down for good. I don't want to sound too bitter since Ray Kelly did a heroic job of trying to save the board, but it finally got to be too much, and so what we're left with is Wellesnet Facebook, which is nice, although comparing the Wellesnet Message Board to Wellesnet Facebook is, to me, like comparing a library to a bulletin board.

Fortunately, a pretty decent amount of the message board can still be read at Archive.org, more specifically here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20250516002 ... om/phpbb2/

Wellesnet message board is online again.

There is a new discussion thread re: Don Quijote:
https://www.wellesnet.com/phpbb2/viewto ... 9ab#p30089

Quotes from first post in the thread:
"Oja won against Mauro /Bonanni/ who then had to return all of his DQ footage to her, I think since that time she has had all of the DQ materials: Welles's, Mauro's, Suzanne Cloutier's, and all the footage collected by Patxi Irigoyen and Jesus Franco from around the worl for the 1992 debacle. But of course that 1992 version suffered from not having the material that Mauro had, especially the Party McCormick material which included the opening scene and the cinema scene."
"But the signs from the Oja camp habr not been promising. Oja, apparently having given up on the project and traumatized from her 1992 disaster, has given up on even raising the money to preserve the film on safety stock and/or digitizing it. In addition, she apparently hasgiven complete control of the DQ project to her nephew Sacha Welles (it's not clear why her nephew has the surname Welles) who, unsurprisingly with zero experience in film preservation/reconstruction, has accomplished absolutely nothin in the ensuing years."


Also, Jonathan Rosenbaum on Don Quijote in an interview with Film International August 2025:
"Catherine Benamou and I have convinced Oja Kodar to let a Spanish film archive, the one in Madrid, have Welles’ Don Quixote. Oja finally got all the footage back after a lot of lawsuits. I’m glad it will be preserved and am hopeful it will soon become possible to see. The best material, none of which is in the awful Jesús Franco version, tends to be the scenes with Patty McCormack. I haven’t seen everything, but from what I’ve seen, I think it’s a more important film than The Other Side of the Wind..."
Full interview (not much more on Welles) here:
https://filmint.nu/jonathan-rosenbaum-i ... -monovich/

I recall that someone (Criterion?) had released a Laserdisc containing several of Orson Welles' radio plays, including "Heart of Darkness."
Are some of these radio plays available on any DVD or CD anywhere?

A few have been included as extras on Criterion's releases of The Magnificent Ambersons and Citizen Kane. If you're not set on a physical media option, there's a nice digital collection from Indiana University.

Matt wrote: Sun Aug 31, 2025 10:30 pm A few have been included as extras on Criterion's releases of The Magnificent Ambersons and Citizen Kane. If you're not set on a physical media option, there's a nice digital collection from Indiana University.

I will second the recommendation for the Indiana collection. I have been systematically going though all his old shows, and they are most often great. This collection also has the best quality of these recordings I have ever heard, and that includes a few physical media releases. There are hours of great stuff in there!

Matt wrote: Sun Aug 31, 2025 10:30 pm A few have been included as extras on Criterion's releases of The Magnificent Ambersons and Citizen Kane. If you're not set on a physical media option, there's a nice digital collection from Indiana University.

Thanks, Matt.

Also on Criterion releases there is the Mercury Theatre radio version of Rebecca on the disc of the Hitchcock film, and the infamous 1938 broadcast of War of the Worlds on the disc for the 1953 film.