Long-Lost Orson Welles Film Found In Italian Warehouse

[xchrom]

http://www.businessinsider.com/lost-orson-welles-movie-too-much-johnson-premieres-in-october-2013-8



Orson Welles' "Too Much Johnson," a long-lost three-part slapstick comedy that he directed in 1938, has been found in an Italian warehouse and is being restored for its U.S. premiere in October.

The George Eastman House film and photography museum will screen the silent film on Oct. 16 in Rochester, NY., following the restoration's world premiere on Oct. 9 at Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, an Italian film festival devoted entirely to silent cinema.

"Too Much Johnson" was originally intended to be used in conjunction with Welles’ stage adaptation of an 1894 play by William Gillette at Welles' New York City playhouse, the Mercury Theatre. The three shorts were planned to be screened as prologues to each act of the play, but the prints were never finished.

Joseph Cotten was cast in the lead role, with supporting roles going to Mercury Theatre actors, including Eustace Wyatt, Edgar Barrier, Ruth Ford, Arlene Francis, Mary Wickes, Orson Welles and his wife, Virginia Nicholson. The play opened without the film in 1938 on Aug. 16 and flopped.



Read more: http://www.thewrap.com/movies/article/orson-welles-lost-film-discovered-italy-premiering-us-october-109111#ixzz2bNe9Rtxv

[frazzled]

1. The most interesting aspect to me ...

is not the film itself, but that it was produced as an element of a stage production. I doubt anyone was doing that kind of "multimedia" theater at the time. Sort of Wooster Group avant la lettre.

We wouldn't see moving images as part of stage design, in theater and dance, until the 1960s.

[xchrom]

2. that stood out to me as well -- leave it to orson. nt

[surrealAmerican]

6. It makes me hope somebody ...

... will stage a production using the film.

[Zorra]

3. Rosebud...

[Bluenorthwest]

4. Joseph Cotton was a Mercury Theater company member, not an 'outside star'

This play came just after The Cradle Will Rock and just before War of the Worlds.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cradle_Will_Rock

I'm very excited to see this film. Very.

[Ikonoklast]

5. Never knew that Welles wrote and directed early porn films.

Learn something knew every day.

[90-percent]

7. William Gillete has a really cool castle in Connecticut

http://www.ct.gov/deep/cwp/view.asp?a=2716&q=325204

Although the kiddie train on the property isn't in use anymore.....

I like finding things that have been lost to history. Reminds me of being a liberal. (<-----snark)

-90% Jimmy