Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Orson Welles

War of the Worlds & Martian Movie Music

This week on “Picture Perfect,” with Halloween only days away, my thoughts turn to Grover’s Mill, the community located not far outside of Princeton, NJ, that became the focal point of Orson Welles’ notorious radio adaptation of H.G. Wells’ “The War of the Worlds.”

On October 30, 1938, Welles’ Mercury Theatre presented the classic’s dramatization after the manner of “breaking news,” with simulated live reports interrupting a program of regularly scheduled dance music. What the alleged reports described was chilling – a Martian invasion of rural America by hostile aliens bearing fiery weapons and poisonous gas. The whole story was authenticated, in real time, by a “Professor Richard Pierson of Princeton Observatory.”

Those who tuned in late or were only half-listening completely freaked out, and reacted in a manner unimaginable in an era of social media. Panicked mobs choked the streets, phone lines were jammed, and police flooded CBS Studios. Welles had dropped the biggest firecracker right in the middle of a United States already on edge, thanks to widespread access to radio reports of mounting tensions in Europe.

You might say Welles’ (and Wells’) fame skyrocketed. Orson Welles would match his early notoriety a few years later with his Hollywood debut, as producer, director, co-writer, and star of “Citizen Kane,” which inflamed William Randolph Hearst, while H.G. Wells’ novel has remained his most popular, the work having been adapted to film several times.

We’ll hear music from the classic 1953 version, produced by George Pal, with music by Leith Stevens; then the Steven Spielberg blockbuster, from 2005 (titled, simply, “War of the Worlds”), with music by John Williams.

After that, we’ll take it to the Red Planet, when an American astronaut is stranded with his test monkey, in 1964’s “Robinson Crusoe on Mars,” with music by Van Cleave.

Finally, we’ll turn to Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter. Why Disney dropped “of Mars” from the title – something that would have actually elaborated on the subject matter, for uninitiated – is anybody’s guess. The belated 2012 adaptation was undertaken 100 years after the character was introduced.

Unfortunately, the intervening decades robbed Burroughs’ creation of much of its freshness, with dozens, if not hundreds, of science fiction novels and movies having plundered the author’s pulp treasure trove. “John Carter” was less striking than it might have been, but the film was certainly not the train wreck the press made it out to be. Michael Giacchino’s score concludes the hour on a romantic note, a welcome relief after dodging so many Martian heat rays.

I hope you’ll join me for this interplanetary exchange program (albeit not always a peaceful one), on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, this Saturday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

October 16, 2021
“Cradle Will Rock”: Welles & Blitzstein’s Labor Day Coup

For Labor Day, Marc Blitzstein and Orson Welles stick it to the Man – or Mr. Mister, as the case may be – with “The Cradle Will Rock.”

The Philadelphia-born Blitzstein is probably best remembered for two things: for supplying the fine English translation/adaptation of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s “The Threepenny Opera;” and for being the composer of this incendiary entertainment.

Not long before “Cradle”s scheduled premiere, on June 16, 1937, the Brechtian, pro-labor musical was shut down by the Works Progress Administration, allegedly due to budget cuts. However, the padlocks on the theatre, the security guards, and the unwillingness to release props or costumes seemed to bolster assertions that the play was censored for being too radical.

One must never toss a bone like that to Orson Welles. Welles turned it into a publicity coup by leading a 21-block march to a much larger theatre, where “The Cradle Will Rock” skirted union restrictions by scrapping the orchestra and having the actors perform their parts from the audience, while Welles and Blitzstein presided from the stage.

The stunt worked so well that the show was able to secure a private backer and all subsequent performances were done in the same manner, with the actors in the audience. The producer, John Houseman, was elated that such a practical solution should prove to be the key to the show’s success.

“There has always been the question of how to produce a labor show so the audience feels like it is a part of the performance,” he commented. “This technique seems to solve that problem and is exactly the right one for this particular piece.”

The success of “The Cradle Will Rock” led Welles and Houseman to form the Mercury Theatre.

But don’t take my word for it. Blitzstein tells the story himself in this reminiscence of the first performance of “The Cradle Will Rock.”

PHOTO (left to right) Blitzstein, Welles, and Lehman Engel in 1937

September 6, 2021
Magnificent Ambersons Lost Cut Found?

If this project is successful, it will be the most exciting cinematic discovery since the complete “Metropolis” was uncovered in Buenos Aires in 2008. Then maybe Orson Welles and Robert Wise will be reconciled in heaven.

After shooting wrapped for “The Magnificent Ambersons” in 1942, Welles took off for Rio de Janeiro to begin work on his next project, entrusting Wise, his editor, to carry his plans to fruition – which he dutifully did. However, following a disastrous preview screening, Wise suddenly found himself in an awkward position. RKO ordered him back into the editing booth to reconfigure Welles’ original blueprint, this time under hardnosed studio supervision. Furthermore, he was instructed to shoot a new ending. Needless to say, Welles and Wise, both nominated for Academy Awards for “Citizen Kane” (Welles won, with Herman Mankiewicz, for his screenplay), would never work together again.

In all, 43 minutes of footage were cut from “The Magnificent Ambersons” and melted down for nitrate during World War II, dashing any hope that the film might be restored to its original version.

Until now.

Could we actually see “The Magnificent Ambersons” in the form Welles originally intended?

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April 13, 2021
Shakespeare Italian Style on Film

William Shakespeare certainly has legs. As England’s greatest playwright, his works have been performed, more or less continuously, for 400 years. He’s trod the boards of the Globe, and he’s circumnavigated the globe. This week on “Picture Perfect,” the Bard gets the “the boot,” with film adaptations scored by composers from the Italian Peninsula.

Just about everyone knows about Orson Welles’ difficulties in Hollywood after skewering William Randolph Hearst in “Citizen Kane.” For flying too close to the sun, all at once cinema’s boy wonder was persona non grata. As a result, Welles spent the bulk of his career trying to secure his own funding and devise creative solutions when the money ran out.

There is plenty of ingenuity on display in Welles’ “Othello” (1949). The film was shot on and off in Italy and Tunisia over a period of three years, as Welles periodically halted production to earn yet another paycheck by acting in somebody else’s picture. When at a point the costumes were repossessed, Welles pivoted by staging a key sequence in a Turkish bath, with the actors clad only in towels.

For the music, Welles employed Angelo Francesco Lavagnino, a classically-trained musician who turned to film in the 1950s. He was soon to become one of the best-known Italian film composers of the era. Lavagnino would be engaged by Welles for several other projects, including a television movie of “The Merchant of Venice.”

Lavagnino received very little or even no payment for his work with Welles, though he was honored to collaborate with the legendary director. For his part, Welles was only too happy to work with Lavagnino, whose music he admired, certainly. But there was an additional incentive in that, in Italy, it was the practice that record companies would pay for everything – orchestration, copying parts, and recording – since they kept the rights.

“Chimes at Midnight” (1965), Welles’ compilation of the Falstaff plays, this time a Spanish-Swiss production, was also scored by Lavignino. Welles’ performance in the picture is considered to be one of his finest. Also in the cast were John Gielgud, Jeanne Moreau, and Margaret Rutherford. Vincent Canby of the New York Times wrote that “Chimes at Midnight” “… may be the greatest Shakespearean film ever made, bar none.” Lavagnino modeled much of his score on Early Music, since Welles had used a lot of it on the temp track.

Much less frugal was Franco Zeffirelli, who enjoyed notable success adapting the Bard, both for film and the operatic stage. He directed a lively version of “The Taming of the Shrew,” with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, and an inexorable one of Verdi’s “Otello,” with Placido Domingo recreating one of his most celebrated roles.

Ennio Morricone was Zeffirelli’s composer of choice for “Hamlet” (1990). The film featured a venerable supporting cast, with Glenn Close, Ian Holm, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Bates and Paul Scofield, and Mel Gibson did a surprisingly respectable job as the lead. At the time, Gibson was known for his action roles.

Zeffirelli’s biggest success with Shakespeare came with “Romeo and Juliet” (1968). Much was made of the fact that the film’s leads, Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey, were closer than usual to the age of the characters in the play. “Romeo” became one of the great date movies and retains its broad appeal. The score, by Nino Rota, spawned a popular hit, “A Time for Us.”

All the world’s a stage! I hope you’ll join me for “Shakespeare Italian-Style,” on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, this Saturday evening at 6:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

March 6, 2021
Gilded Age Novels: Soundtracks & Stories

“The Gilded Age” was a term coined by none other than Mark Twain to describe the era spanning, roughly, from the end of Reconstruction (after the Civil War) to the turn of the 20th century. He didn’t mean it as a compliment. A gilded age is one that conceals serious social problems beneath a veneer of gold. This week on “Picture Perfect,” we look past the dazzle to focus on music from films inspired by novels from, or about, the period.

“The Heiress” (1949) was adapted from a play by Ruth and Augustus Goetz, which in turn was based on the book “Washington Square,” by Henry James. Olivia De Havilland plays the “plain Jane” heiress of the title, Ralph Richardson her overbearing father, and Montgomery Clift, the adventurer who may or may not be out for her fortune. De Havilland won an Oscar for her portrayal, as did the music, by Aaron Copland.

“The Age of Innocence” (1993) was written by one-time James correspondent, his close friend, Edith Wharton. The book was published in 1920, but looks back to the 1870s, its story dealing with the impending marriage of an upper class couple and the appearance of a disreputable interloper who threatens their happiness. The title is an ironic play on the contrast between the outward manners of New York society and its inward machinations. The novel earned Wharton a Pulitzer Prize, the first ever to be awarded to a woman. The film was something of a curve ball from director Martin Scorsese, who made his reputation on arguably meaner streets. Veteran composer Elmer Bernstein provided the lovely, Brahmsian score.

“The Magnificent Ambersons” (1942) is based on another Pulitzer Prize winner, this time by Booth Tarkington, from 1918. The novel is part of trilogy that traces the declining fortunes of three generations of an aristocratic Midwestern family. With industrialism on the rise, the Ambersons’ “old money” wealth and prestige wane.

“Ambersons” was only the second film directed by Orson Welles. Sadly, the financial failure of “Citizen Kane” and Welles’ uncompromising artistic vision caused the project to be removed from his control and re-cut by the studio, shaving a full hour off the original running time. It says something about the strength of Welles’ material that what survives yet remains a magnificent achievement.

The score was by Bernard Herrmann, CBS staff composer from Welles’ radio days. Herrmann had followed Welles to Hollywood to supply the music for “Kane.” With the trimming of “Ambersons,” his score was drastically edited and half the music removed. The famously irascible Herrmann, who had just written his Academy Award winning music for “The Devil and Daniel Webster,” was so angry that he threatened legal action if his name was not removed from the credits. (The studio complied.)

The action of “Mr. Skeffington” (1944), based on a 1940 novel by Elizabeth von Arnim, begins at a point some consider to be the twilight of the Gilded Age, the eve of World War I. Bette Davis stars as a woman so enamored with her own beauty, and the suitors it attracts, that she fails to value the affections of the man who eventually becomes her husband. Mr. Skeffington, played by Claude Rains, is a Jewish financier, riding high in the ‘teens, but his fortunes change when he’s caught in Europe during the rise of the Nazis.

Davis and Rains both earned Academy Award nominations for their work. The vivid score is by Franz Waxman. Davis was going through a period of emotional turmoil during the filming, so that she was allegedly insufferable to be around throughout the entire shoot. Someone finally poisoned her eyewash. When the police questioned the director, Vincent Sherman, he wished them good luck with their investigation. “If you asked everyone on the set who would have committed such a thing, everyone would raise their hand!”

Certainly all that glitters is not gold. We peel back the veneer of prosperity, this week, with “Novels of the Gilded Age,” on “Picture Perfect,” this Friday evening at 6:00 EDT on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

PHOTOS: The late Olivia de Havilland (left), as Catherine Sloper (upper right), and posing with her Oscar for “The Heiress”

August 14, 2020

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