After many alarums, excursions and orthopaedic diversions, I am delighted to announce our reopening, in which we will be commemorating the centenary of Orson Welles (1915 - 1985).
On Saturday June 13th 2015 we will be screening Too much Johnson (1938) and the Lady from Shanghai (1948), and on Saturday July 4th 2015 we will be screening Touch of Evil.
TOO MUCH JOHNSON (1938)
We open the evening with a screening of some recently discovered film that Welles had shot three years before Citizen Kane. The film was designed to be seen in the intervals between the three acts of his stage production of a rapid-fire farce of mistaken identities. It has recently been put together as a feature film.
Too much Johnson (1938) is a silent slapstick comedy. The prologue features Joseph Cotten doing Harold Lloyd antics through the streets and across the rooftops of New York City, in a lively tribute to silent comedy and Keystone Kops chaos. Two shorter sequences open the second and third acts of the play with chases and duels. Despite its being such an early film (Welles made it when he was 23 years old) and a silent comedy, there are already numerous hints of the genius of Orson Welles.
THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI (1948)
This quintessential film-noir features a blonde Rita Hayworth starring alongside producer, director and screenwriter (and second husband) Orson Welles. His cinematic genius is evident in this thrilling story involving lust, betrayal and murder. As always, Welles designed innovative but tricky shots for his cinematographer, in this case Charles Lawton. In one sequence, Welles had Lawton shoot what biographer Charles Higham called “the longest dolly shot ever seen on the screen.” It required Lawton to keep Welles and Hayworth in focus throughout the duration of a three-quarter mile carriage ride. An even more interesting sequence, one that has taken its place in film history, is the funhouse scene. Here, Welles created an insane maze of mirrors, composed of 2,912 square feet of glass, eighty mirrors seven by four feet. They were one-way, allowing Lawton to shoot through them. The film has recently been digitally remastered and we will be screening the BluRay edition.
TOUCH OF EVIL (1958)
Screenwriter and director Orson Welles gives one of his greatest performances as Hank Quinlan, the corpulent and corrupt head of police in a sleazy town on the U.S.-Mexico border. A bomb explodes at the border crossing at the conclusion of a dazzling extended opening shot. Mexican official Mike Vargas (Charlton Heston) clashes with Quinlan during the investigation, jeopardizing the safety of Vargas’ new bride, Susie (Janet Leigh). The film, which also stars Marlene Dietrich, Zsa Xsa Gabor and Akin Tamiroff, deals with racism, police corruption, and sexual confusion in an atmosphere so gorgeously sleazy that the very air is filled with blowing garbage.
The studio removed Welles from the production during the editing phase but he immediately wrote a lengthy memo requesting several changes in editing and sound - work that has been carried out in this digitally remastered version that is now available in a BluRay edition.
