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Orson Welles first shocked the world in 1938 when, with the Mercury Theater, he convinced radio listeners that aliens had landed and were invading New Jersey. Welles was 23 and The War of the Worlds made broadcast history. Hollywood immediately sent an invitation to the Boy Wonder and gave him a cart blanche to create another masterpiece. The result: Citizen Kane (1941).
But Welles never again reached that pinnacle of success. Within a few years Hollywood had turned its back on the genius director. So he financed small films made outside of Hollywood with roles he took on in studio projects. Of course, when Welles was on the set of another director's film, it was clear who was in charge. Movies like Journey into Fear (1942) and Jane Eyre (1944) bear his stylistic influence, but they are the shadow of the director Hollywood had banished. /intro by Jeremy Geltzer
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TCM spoke with Ruth Warrick, who played the first Mrs. Charles Foster Kane in Welles' masterpiece. She reminisced about the man behind the legend and life on the set. Warrick was interviewed in July, 1997.
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RUTH WARRICK: Oh yes, ah well, he adored his mother. And she was a very big factor in his creative life. She believed that a child in utero was capable of learning, so she played classical music, she read poetry, she read Shakespeare to him and as soon as he was born she started doing the same thing with him. And she felt that that really did influence him and I think perhaps it did, because certainly he was extraordinary in both of those fields and by the time he was five years old. He could do Shakespeare by the time he was five years old.
He was so creative, anything he took up--he was a painter, he was a pianist; he was a writer, he could've been anything but, of course, he was a great theater man and a great actor. But once he got that gadget [the movie camera], as he said, with so many possibilities, then he said, she's a very expensive mistress but once you've got 'er you can't get rid of 'er ever.
Orson was a beautiful man, he was not only a genius as a director, an actor, a writer but as a person he was bigger than life and I don't mean just in girth. He was a wonderful, wonderful mind and a wonderful disposition. He loved actors and most directors don't'cha know they consider us sort of in the way and a problem (laughs). He loved talent of any kind and he was very generous and he made you feel you could do anything.
People are always asking me, did I know Citizen Kane was going to be a landmark? No I did not and I didn't care. I couldn't have cared less. I think Orson knew it was going to be important, but after all it was my first movie, and I was so thrilled to be in a movie, and with Orson Welles, I mean that was my prize right there. You know they always say live in the moment. I was away from my family, I was alone in Hollywood, and could give all my time and all my thought to the movie, which I certainly did, and I loved every minute of it. But it was a very relaxed set.
First of all it was a closed set. Now, I had no idea what that meant until I made pictures after that. There was absolutely nobody allowed on the set except the cast and the director and the producer couldn't come on, and nobody, not any of the brass. The biggest people in RKO couldn't. No publicity people. No columnist, no newspaper people, nothing, and it believe me, it's a big difference (laughs) when you have all this hustle and bustle with everybody coming and going and wanting your time and wanting your attention.
In fact, whenever anybody did come on, Orson had softball and some gloves, and they would start throwing the ball around, and then he'd say, "if you don't want us to waste time get off the set and we'll go back to work." That was his edict and he was able to enforce it. Nor was anybody allowed to see rushes. Which was a very unknown thing, because everybody, as soon as you finished, went to see the rushes from the day before. In a way it was helpful because you could judge your performance and what was going on and how it was happening, if you wanted to make any changes in your character or your make-up or your whatever. But he thought that with our not being used to it, we'd be too self-conscious and he was probably right. Anyway none of us saw one single foot of film until we saw it on the screen when it was opened.
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6 Thursday
9:00 AM The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) A possessive son’s efforts to keep his mother from remarrying threaten to destroy his family. Oscar® nominations for Best Picture, Supporting Actress (Agnes Moorehead), Cinematography and Interior Decoration. Tim Holt, Joseph Cotten, Dolores Costello, Agnes Moorehead. D: Orson Welles. BW 89m. CC
10:30 AM The Tartars (1960) A barbarian army attacks Viking settlements along the Russian steppes. Orson Welles, Victor Mature, Folco Lulli. D: Richard Thorpe. C 84m. LBX
12:00 PM Journey Into Fear (1942) A munitions expert gets mixed up with gunrunners in Turkey. Joseph Cotten, Orson Welles, Dolores del Rio. D: Norman Foster. BW 69m.
2:00 PM King of Kings (1961) Epic retelling of Christ's life and the effects of his teachings on those around him. Narrated by Orson Welles. Jeffrey Hunter, Siobhan McKenna, Robert Ryan. D: Nicholas Ray. C 161m. LBX CC
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