RKO 281 Page #2

Synopsis: Coming to Hollywood as a celebrated boy genius featuring a spectacular career arc in New York including his radio hoax War of the Worlds, Orson Welles is stymied on the subject for his first film. After a dinner party at Hearst Castle, during which he has a verbal altercation with William Randolph Hearst, Welles decides to do a movie about Hearst. It takes him some time to convince co-writer Herman J. Mankiewicz and the studio, but Welles eventually gets the script and the green light, keeping the subject very hush-hush with the press. The movie is about an aging newspaper publisher who controlled his enemies as ruthlessly as he controlled his friends; and whose mistress was destined for fame. When a rough cut is screened, Hearst gets wind of the movie's theme and begins a campaign to see that it is not only never publicly screened, but destroyed.
Genre: Biography, Drama
Director(s): Benjamin Ross
Production: HBO Video
  Won 1 Golden Globe. Another 13 wins & 27 nominations.
 
IMDB:
7.1
Rotten Tomatoes:
93%
R
Year:
1999
86 min
442 Views


NEWSREEL VOICE:

With Lament Cranston in one pocket and his own

radio show. The Mercury Theater of the Air, our Boy

Wonder filled the night with his resounding tones.

And on October 30th of 1938, he became what he felt

destined to be:
a household name.

What started out as a roguish Halloween prank became the most famous

radio show in the history of the galaxy!

Images of the WAR OF THE WORLDS broadcast and panic: listeners huddling

next to their radios; telephone switchboards lighting up; New Jersey

State Motorcycle Troopers zooming down rural roads; cars clogging the

highways. As we hear:

NEWSREEL VOICE:

THE WAR OF THE WORLDS sent this nation spinning

into a frenzy. Nine million listeners clasped their

loved ones close and looked to the skies with

horror. Unlucky listeners near the epicenter of the

"invasion" -- rural New Jersey -- ran screaming into

the night, sure a monstrous alien and a fiery death

awaited them around every corner! The mischievous

Boy Wonder had fooled us all!

Newsreel footage of a packed press conference with Welles the day

following the broadcast:

WELLES:

(contritely)

Of course ... of course ... if I had known the

panic the broadcast was causing -- well I would have

stopped! I never meant for any of this to happen and

I feel just horrible!

Quick newsreel clips of Welles leaving the press conference with

Houseman. We see them slip into a taxi. Inside the taxi we can just

glimpse Welles exploding with laughter.

NEWSREEL VOICE:

How long, oh how long could it possibly be before

the sunny land of dreams tried to harness the

combustible power of this showman, this impresario,

this best of all possible Boy Wonders?!

Images of Welles posing and shaking hands with GEORGE

SCHAEFER:

Schaefer is an intense, compact man in his early 50's. His nickname in

Hollywood is "The Tiger" -- both for his admired tenacity and his

feared temper. He is a moral and ethical man; John Adams in a Brooks

Brothers suit.

As we hear

NEWSREEL VOICE:

The winner in the Welles derby was George Schaefer,

the head of RKO Pictures. With a contract

unimaginable before The Days Of Orson, Mr. Schaefer

captured the whirlwind snared the beast, roped the

tyrant!

Images of Welles and Schaefer: Welles signing his contract; smiling to

Schaefer; Schaefer making a speech; Welles joking with reporters. As we

hear:

NEWSREEL VOICE:

Eyebrows raised and jaws dropped all over

Hollywoodland when the terms of the deal that lured

The Great Orson came forth: the Boy Wonder could

produce, write, direct and star in his own projects

with budgets up to $500,000 a picture! He would have

total control over the shooting of the picture and

the finished product. The studio, well, they just

paid the bills. Meanwhile, the insiders of filmland

were skeptical.

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John Logan

John David Logan (born September 24, 1961) is an American playwright, screenwriter, film producer, and television producer. more…

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Submitted by aviv on January 31, 2017

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