Best Orson Welles film (as director)

Nah, I love Anthony Perkins in the role, and the extra dialogue Welles wrote.

it's fine on its own

Poor Peter Bogdanovich couldn't understand how Kafka could be funny -- yet another example of the illiteracy of film directors.

feel bad saying this since OW is my favorite film guy for life but 'the trial' doesn't really work for me, the 'before the law' opening aside.

Certainly love the fact that Perkins was cast in the role, but it doesn't turn out to be as good as you think.

ppl who voted for Arkadin or F for Fake: banned from filmwatching
― Dr Morbius, Thursday, August 7, 2008 8:11 AM (2 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Awarded a long-overdue SB for this comment.

oh, cmon

and remember, Starman is John Carpenter's best.

And there's another one.

I really don't think it works that way, Pope Eric

Rest assured: I SB'd you both.

I'd like to re-poll this one. Also S&S '12 if Kane takes that one.

wau, ya woulda made a "great dictator"

(based on an idea by Orson Welles)

And you would've made a great court jester.

(based on a genre of film by untalented hacks)

the vessel in yer pestle

I really think I may have been wrong about Jerry Lewis.

Rent/dl/steal and watch "Black Magic", fellow film geeks. Have fun!

havent seen The Trial since i was a kid, but i thot it was amazing then

yeah the trial is good. saw it first while stoned out of my head and really dug it: the soviet bloc style tower blocks, the weird frisson with the chix, the running around latticed mazes casting crazy shadows, the play on the psycho persona with the nervous repressed nice young man free of crime this time if still moved to temper, the bizarre variation on the kafka ending

Dennis Perrin on growing old w/ Ambersons:

http://dennisperrin.blogspot.com/2012/05/lost-in-amber.html

well and beautifully said.

Yeah, Macbeth definitely not on the same playing field as Chimes at Midnight.

But still much better than I expected from a movie shot in 3 weeks in salt mines.

and much better than Othello.

fond memories of his Macbeth. I guess I should get around to seeing the Magnificent Ambersons one of these days

Didn't realize DVD was now available as a standalone.

I remember Roddy McDowall being kinda terrible in Macbeth... Othello all the way among Shakespeares.

Yeah, Roddy isn't going to make a great king.

Will get back to you to call you totally insane, Morbs, when I finally get around to Othello.

tsk tsk, you have become what I was merely rumored to be....

That's a throne you will never vacate.

Not only does Macbeth boast one of Welles' few good performances, the one by Jeanette Nolan is almost as good.

no, I do what's necessary and leave. xp

oh, you go envision Cary Grant as Titus Andronicus!

"one of Welles' few good performances"

Hah, OK, so that's what it looks like when I do that.

I get my jollies envisioning Archie as Rosalind.

Hah, OK, so that's what it looks like when I do that.

insightful?

i maintain that OW never made any bad films, but 'macbeth' is better than 'othello'

I, too, haven't seen a "bad" Orson Welles movie yet.

The Stranger probably.

Bad performances he's got, er, tons of.

If performances like his are bad, I don't really give a care about good ones.

He's hopeless playing a straightforward love scene (e.g. Tomorrow is Forever).

Well, yeah, who wants to see that? (Tho I was surprised at how rowr he was -- by his standards -- early on in Macbeth.)

I rewatched Ambersons last night; I always forget that's Anne Baxter as Cotten's daughter. She was allegedly 18 or 19. That scene where she faints in the drugstore AFTER Welles swings the lens away from her... who did THAT, ever, in Hollywood?

Tim Holt's fine as Georgie, as written at least. Love the way he says "Umph, strawberry shortcake" in the kitchen with Aunt Fanny.

The George-Mom relationship really isn't that compelling for an Oedipal drama tho. A near-great amputee of a movie, still.

Cotten is magisterial in a quiet sad way that's always killed me.

and that's after he's introduced slapstickily, exhibiting male fashion habits of 1900, then taking a pratfall.

the Baxter-Cotten chat about Indians is one of my favorite throwaway surreal bits in movies.

well, it's pretty thematically relevant, tho I'm not sure if the chief who gets set adrift is Morgan or George...

(I wonder if it's in Booth Tarkington)

there's a bit in the Thomson bio where he observes that Welles make Tarkington as deep as Henry James whereas most screen adaptations of James look like...Tarkington.

btw I still own this on VHS recorded from the local PBS station twenty years ago