Other Unfinished Projects
A major component of Welles’ career was unfinished projects, most of them films. He was a polymath, interested in a huge array of classic works to adapt as well as to material for documentaries. He would pile his plate high but never clean it, except by finally, grudgingly tossing the remains of particular items into the trash when it was clear they just couldn’t be chewed and swallowed.
Ironically, his Hollywood career began with an unfinished project. Welles was interested in adapting the Joseph Conrad novel because of its commentary on the abuses of power. In 1939 he went to Hollywood and inked a three-movie deal with RKO, with Darkness as the first scheduled production.
One snag that manifested itself immediately was that Welles was still highly-committed to work on the radio. Campbell Playhouse was now full-steam ahead on the heels of the “The War of the Worlds” spectacle. This caused delays on the film’s production, since Welles was working on it only between flights to and from New York, where the radio show was produced.
In the fall of ‘39, Welles received a hiatus from radio work and hunkered down to work on the movie. His concept was to tell the story in point-of-view shots, with the viewer seeing the film’s world as Marlow. This was ahead of its time; it would’ve probably kicked Hollywood in the pants to one degree or another, and may have been a reason the studio finally red-lighted the project.
Another stylistic innovation was Welles’ plan to play both Marlow and Kurtz. While there is evidence of him toying with casting someone else, he would later say his final decision was to play the dual role himself.
Welles wanted the shooting to be done on location, but budget constraints led RKO to demand studio use instead. Welles was against using fake backdrops and other studio tricks, and he later told biographer Barbara Leaming “it was almost as definitive a reason why we didn’t do Heart of Darkness as the fact that we couldn’t get $50,000 to $75,000 off the budget.”
In December of ‘39, not only did Welles get divorced from his first wife, but he also got divorced from Heart of Darkness. He was grossly over budget, and RKO was reportedly turned off by anti-fascist sentiments, that by that time had to be read as anti-Hitler, not a stance the studio has stomach for.
The Smiler With a Knife
When one film with political overtones gets the axe, come right back with another film (this time, also with political overtones). The second one has to work, right?
Welles began casting for The Smiler With a Knife at the end of 1939, as soon as RKO pulled the plug on Heart of Darkness. He brought in a frequent actor Everett Sloane, as well as Ray Collins, John Emery, and George Coulouris. The only problem with this was a big one: no money with which to pay them. The RKO money had been blown on Heart of Darkness.
He was also at the date by which he should’ve completed his first RKO picture (New Year’s Day, 1940), without having begun shooting whichever project would end up being that first picture.
He began doubting that Smiler was right as one of the three movies he owed RKO, and decided to cancel it without having shot a frame. Instead, he would write and shoot Citizen Kane.
It’s All True
One of Welles’ “biggest” unfinished projects, in terms of how much time he sank into it and how developed it was, conceptually, was It’s All True, which you can read about here.
Other Unfinished Projects
Here are a few other projects in which Welles invested some moderate amount of time, with serious intentions of finishing:
The Big Brass Ring--Another victim of the Kodar Curse, this screenplay from 1982
was a collaboration between Welles and the intrepid sculptor. It unwinds the story of an Italian journalist probing the story of a U.S. Presidential hopeful ruined by a homosexuality scandal. Welles attempted to cast, in the lead role, Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty, and Clint Eastwood.
The Deep--The footage for this film project was actually shot, though never released. The script was an adaptation of Charles Williams’ 1963 crime novel Dead Calm. It starred Laurence Harvey, and when he died, in 1973, the project was put on hold indefinitely.
Treasure Island--This refers to a feature film adaptation of the R.L. Stevenson novel, one that Welles intended to direct. He wrote two versions of a screenplay, but didn’t shoot any footage. A version of his second script ended up being shot by John Hough, with Welles in an acting role as Long John Silver.
Minor Unfinished Projects
These are closer to ideas, projects on which Welles spent less time and that didn’t get off the ground at all.
Monsieur Verdoux--this got only as far as a first draft under the auspices of Welles. However, Charlie Chaplin, who was going to star in Welles’ production, bought the rights and did see a version to completion
Cyrano de Bergerac--This project was the baby of Alexander Korda, for whom Welles was going to direct. He also chipped in on a screenplay with Ben Hecht. Korda, a man after Welles’ own heart, ran out of money for the project, and sold it to Columbia, who took Welles off the project
Moby Dick--Welles was interested in the classics, this one among them. This project was a film version of a play Welles staged in 1955. The play was filmed--presumably performed as a play and just shot, rather than being shot in the manner of a traditional film--but the footage seems to have slipped this mortal coil.
One-Man Band--A Welles one-man show filmed to be a segment on a London TV special.
Welles was working on DON QUIZOTE intermittently until his death in 1985. The film was eventually edited by Jesús Franco and was released in 1992. It did not include all the footage shot for the film and received mixed reviews.
ReplyDelete