0:00:15 > 0:00:18Orson Welles was a giant of a man in every sense -
0:00:18 > 0:00:20big talent, big personality,
0:00:20 > 0:00:22big achiever.
0:00:22 > 0:00:24In theatre, radio and films,
0:00:24 > 0:00:27Welles was one of the 20th century's dominant forces -
0:00:27 > 0:00:30a flamboyant figure who lived life to the full.
0:00:30 > 0:00:34Welles' masterpiece was of course Citizen Kane,
0:00:34 > 0:00:38which he directed at the tender age of 26.
0:00:38 > 0:00:41But he had already established himself as a young genius,
0:00:41 > 0:00:43and something of a maverick,
0:00:43 > 0:00:48with the international success of the notorious War Of The Worlds
0:00:48 > 0:00:51radio broadcast. He talks about it here,
0:00:51 > 0:00:55in the 1955 episode of a BBC series called
0:00:55 > 0:00:57Orson Welles' Sketch Book.
0:01:00 > 0:01:03Well, we did on the show exactly what would have happened
0:01:03 > 0:01:06if the world had been invaded.
0:01:06 > 0:01:09We had a little music playing and an announcer coming on and saying,
0:01:09 > 0:01:11"We interrupt this programme to bring you
0:01:11 > 0:01:13"an announcement from Jersey City...
0:01:13 > 0:01:16"Jersey City has just fallen."
0:01:16 > 0:01:19Take you back to our studio, a little organ music,
0:01:19 > 0:01:21then another interruption, and so on.
0:01:21 > 0:01:24We did all of that very carefully, and exactly reproduced, as I say,
0:01:24 > 0:01:26what would have happened -
0:01:26 > 0:01:30thinking to make the whole thing more effective.
0:01:30 > 0:01:33But we had no idea how effective it would be,
0:01:33 > 0:01:37because about halfway through the show, as we were continuing,
0:01:37 > 0:01:40with the script in front of us,
0:01:40 > 0:01:43we saw that in the control room,
0:01:43 > 0:01:46there were a great many policemen, and every moment more...
0:01:46 > 0:01:49I had no idea that I'd suddenly become...
0:01:49 > 0:01:53a sort of national event. And it was immediately after our show
0:01:53 > 0:01:56went off the air that Walter Winchell, who was on a...
0:01:56 > 0:01:58on a rival network,
0:01:58 > 0:02:01and had heard about how all the telephone lines had been jammed,
0:02:01 > 0:02:04and all the excitement was going on,
0:02:04 > 0:02:07went on the air on his network, on his...
0:02:07 > 0:02:10programme of news commentary, and said,
0:02:10 > 0:02:14"Mr and Mrs America, there is no cause for alarm!
0:02:14 > 0:02:18"America has not fallen! I repeat - America has not fallen!"
0:02:18 > 0:02:21It was only a little while ago that I...
0:02:21 > 0:02:26again ran into some... workers, some welfare workers,
0:02:26 > 0:02:31Quakers and Red Cross people, who had been up in the Black Hills of Dakota,
0:02:31 > 0:02:34some five or six weeks after this broadcast...
0:02:35 > 0:02:38..persuading the people to leave the mountains and go back home
0:02:38 > 0:02:41because the Martians really hadn't come.
0:02:41 > 0:02:45And some... Oh, I think four or five years later,
0:02:45 > 0:02:48I was on the air doing a show...
0:02:50 > 0:02:52..a very polite show, with a lot of people,
0:02:52 > 0:02:56choruses singing and so on - well, that's a typical,
0:02:56 > 0:03:00solemn Sunday broadcast on...
0:03:00 > 0:03:03commercial sound radio in America at the time,
0:03:03 > 0:03:06with full choir and orchestra and everything else.
0:03:06 > 0:03:09And for some reason, at this time, this particular Sunday,
0:03:09 > 0:03:11that I've illustrated,
0:03:11 > 0:03:14we were doing a patriotic broadcast
0:03:14 > 0:03:16with excerpts from Walt Whitman and I don't know what else...
0:03:16 > 0:03:19Norman Corwin, all the rest of it,
0:03:19 > 0:03:22choirs humming melodically and so on.
0:03:22 > 0:03:26And I was in the midst of some... hymn of praise
0:03:26 > 0:03:30to the American corn fields, or something of the kind,
0:03:30 > 0:03:36when suddenly a gentleman darted into the radio studio,
0:03:36 > 0:03:39held up his hand and said, "We interrupt this broadcast
0:03:39 > 0:03:41"to bring you an announcement.
0:03:43 > 0:03:45"Pearl Harbour has just been attacked."
0:03:46 > 0:03:50And of course, this very serious and terrible news was never believed -
0:03:50 > 0:03:53not for hours - by anybody in America, because they all said,
0:03:53 > 0:03:55"Well, there he goes again.
0:03:55 > 0:03:59"Rather bad taste - was funny once, but not a second time."
0:04:01 > 0:04:04I suppose we had it coming to us, because, in fact,
0:04:04 > 0:04:07we weren't as innocent as we meant to be...
0:04:07 > 0:04:09when we did the Martian broadcast. We WERE fed up...
0:04:11 > 0:04:14..with the way in which everything that came over this new
0:04:14 > 0:04:17magic box, the radio, was being swallowed.
0:04:18 > 0:04:21People, you know, do suspect what they read in the newspapers,
0:04:21 > 0:04:23and what people tell them, but when the radio came -
0:04:23 > 0:04:25and I suppose now television -
0:04:25 > 0:04:29anything that came through that new machine was believed.
0:04:30 > 0:04:34So, in a way, our broadcast was an assault on the, er,
0:04:34 > 0:04:38credibility of that machine - we wanted people to understand
0:04:38 > 0:04:41that they shouldn't take any opinion...
0:04:42 > 0:04:46..pre-digested, and they shouldn't swallow everything that...
0:04:46 > 0:04:49came through the tap, whether it was radio or not.
0:04:51 > 0:04:54But as I say, it was only a partial experiment -
0:04:54 > 0:04:57we had no idea of the extent of the thing.
0:04:57 > 0:05:00I certainly personally had no idea what it would mean to me.
0:05:00 > 0:05:04Because, in fact, my life - I'm now going back to the time
0:05:04 > 0:05:07of the actual broadcast - my life was threatened.
0:05:09 > 0:05:11There was somebody, as a matter of fact, who kept
0:05:11 > 0:05:14telephoning about every quarter of an hour, saying,
0:05:14 > 0:05:17"You will die on the opening night of your play."
0:05:17 > 0:05:19As a matter of fact, the opening night was the night
0:05:19 > 0:05:21after the broadcast - it was a play called Danton's Death,
0:05:21 > 0:05:25that we did in my theatre, and which incidentally was a horrible flop.
0:05:25 > 0:05:28At the end, I had to stand in front of the curtain,
0:05:28 > 0:05:30and deliver a speech in the character of Saint-Just
0:05:30 > 0:05:34on the subject of something - I think it was the French revolution.
0:05:34 > 0:05:37Anyway, I had to be alone in front of the curtain
0:05:37 > 0:05:39in a blazing white spotlight...
0:05:40 > 0:05:43..and I promise you that I'd never been so terrified in my life.
0:05:44 > 0:05:46I had to come out in front of this audience, waiting
0:05:46 > 0:05:49for the sound of a pistol being cocked,
0:05:49 > 0:05:53some angry, er... victim of our broadcast
0:05:53 > 0:05:56shooting at me, deliver this speech.
0:05:56 > 0:06:00But what actually... What actually happened was that...
0:06:01 > 0:06:03..as I stood in front of the curtain,
0:06:03 > 0:06:06there was a little spill from the spotlight - I could see
0:06:06 > 0:06:08the front row in the audience.
0:06:08 > 0:06:11There was a man sitting in the front row who looked up at me...
0:06:11 > 0:06:12Did I say the play was a flop?
0:06:12 > 0:06:14People didn't like it and they were probably right.
0:06:14 > 0:06:17..who looked up at me as I opened my mouth to speak,
0:06:17 > 0:06:20raised his hand, looked at his wristwatch, looked at me, and went...
0:06:20 > 0:06:22HE SIGHS DEEPLY
0:06:24 > 0:06:27Folded his arms. Well, I assure you that...
0:06:27 > 0:06:29I would rather have been shot!
0:06:31 > 0:06:33At least that's the way I felt about it.
0:06:33 > 0:06:36The notoriety that came with War Of The Worlds
0:06:36 > 0:06:39had Hollywood throwing itself at Welles.
0:06:39 > 0:06:42He was offered a contract guaranteeing him
0:06:42 > 0:06:46total artistic freedom to make the film of his choice.
0:06:46 > 0:06:49What he chose was Citizen Kane.
0:06:49 > 0:06:53Welles co-wrote, produced and starred in Kane,
0:06:53 > 0:06:58and his directing broke new ground, changing cinema for ever.
0:06:58 > 0:07:01It wasn't a hit when it came out,
0:07:01 > 0:07:05but quickly came to be considered one of THE great movies,
0:07:05 > 0:07:07and stories of how it was made
0:07:07 > 0:07:12continuously fascinate television interviewers and audiences.
0:07:12 > 0:07:15Is it true that when Citizen Kane was being made,
0:07:15 > 0:07:18that people actually tried to stop it being made?
0:07:18 > 0:07:21And is it true that Randolph Hearst, the newspaper tycoon,
0:07:21 > 0:07:25took it as an attack on himself, and tried to stop it being shown?
0:07:25 > 0:07:29To the first part of your question, there was indeed
0:07:29 > 0:07:32a definite effort to stop the film during shooting
0:07:32 > 0:07:37by those elements in the studio who were attempting to seize power,
0:07:37 > 0:07:39because in those days, studio politics,
0:07:39 > 0:07:43particularly RKO and indeed many of the big studios in Hollywood,
0:07:43 > 0:07:46were very much like Central American republics.
0:07:46 > 0:07:49There were revolutions and counter-revolutions
0:07:49 > 0:07:52and every sort of palace intrigue, and there was a big effort
0:07:52 > 0:07:54to overthrow the then head of the studio,
0:07:54 > 0:07:59who was taken to be out of his mind, because he'd given me this contract,
0:07:59 > 0:08:02which made the making of these films possible...
0:08:02 > 0:08:06And stopping me, or proving my incompetence,
0:08:06 > 0:08:08would have won their case.
0:08:08 > 0:08:11He, er... Mr Hearst was quite a bit like Kane,
0:08:11 > 0:08:15although Kane isn't really founded on Hearst in particular -
0:08:15 > 0:08:17there are many...
0:08:17 > 0:08:20many people sat for it, so to speak.
0:08:20 > 0:08:21But he was like Kane,
0:08:21 > 0:08:25in that he wouldn't have stooped to such a thing.
0:08:25 > 0:08:27But he had many hatchet men -
0:08:27 > 0:08:30editors and representatives of this great network
0:08:30 > 0:08:33of newspapers all over the country.
0:08:33 > 0:08:36INTERVIEWER LAUGHS And to get in good with the chief
0:08:36 > 0:08:39there was a good deal of very strong hatchet...
0:08:39 > 0:08:42Including an effort to frame me on a criminal charge,
0:08:42 > 0:08:45which a policeman was good enough to tell me about -
0:08:45 > 0:08:49as sensational and silly and dangerous and gangsterish as that.
0:08:49 > 0:08:51Was Mr Hearst's staff absolutely wrong?
0:08:51 > 0:08:54When you say it was based on that kind of man,
0:08:54 > 0:08:58was he really stronger in your mind than just being that kind of man?
0:08:58 > 0:09:01Well, let me ask you if you think he was libelled.
0:09:01 > 0:09:03- Well, I don't know HIM, you see. - I see, yes.
0:09:03 > 0:09:08Well...do you think that the figure of Kane himself
0:09:08 > 0:09:11is a deeply unsympathetic figure...?
0:09:11 > 0:09:15- No.- In the Soviet Union, for example, the film has been forbidden,
0:09:15 > 0:09:19general distribution, because this important capitalist
0:09:19 > 0:09:23and newspaper tycoon and anti-social and crypto-fascist figure, et cetera,
0:09:23 > 0:09:25to quote all the slogans,
0:09:25 > 0:09:28is too sympathetic, and for that reason it's not shown,
0:09:28 > 0:09:31- never has been.- When you read about Citizen Kane,
0:09:31 > 0:09:33a lot of the things you read suggest that it was
0:09:33 > 0:09:36a very big social document, a massive attack
0:09:36 > 0:09:39on big American institutions of the day. Now, I've always seen it
0:09:39 > 0:09:41rather as a story, to be honest. Naturally, any story
0:09:41 > 0:09:43has got its implications, but I've seen it as a story.
0:09:43 > 0:09:46I'd like to know what your intentions were - did you mean it
0:09:46 > 0:09:49as a social document or as a story?
0:09:49 > 0:09:51I... I must confess...
0:09:51 > 0:09:55to having to... I must answer this in a way that I loathe.
0:09:56 > 0:09:59I must admit that it... was intended...
0:09:59 > 0:10:02consciously as a sort of social document,
0:10:02 > 0:10:04as an attack on the acquisitive society.
0:10:04 > 0:10:08And indeed on acquisition in general.
0:10:08 > 0:10:09But I didn't think that up
0:10:09 > 0:10:12and then try to find a story to match the idea.
0:10:12 > 0:10:13Mmm.
0:10:13 > 0:10:18Of course, I think the storyteller's first duty is always to the story.
0:10:19 > 0:10:22Which makes it all the more ironic that it should have been
0:10:22 > 0:10:24- stopped in the Soviet Union? - Yes, but of course
0:10:24 > 0:10:26it wasn't at all a Communist picture or a Marxist picture.
0:10:26 > 0:10:30It was an attack on property and acquisition of property
0:10:30 > 0:10:34- and...- And the corruption.- Yes, and of the acquisitive society
0:10:34 > 0:10:38of a man who... of real gifts and real charm
0:10:38 > 0:10:42and real humanity, who destroys himself and everything near him,
0:10:42 > 0:10:44because, er...
0:10:45 > 0:10:49You know, tired old words, Mammon and all - that really was.
0:10:49 > 0:10:52Now, when you made this film, you were only, er...
0:10:52 > 0:10:5525, weren't you? I mean, everybody knows that you had
0:10:55 > 0:10:59the most astonishing contract that Hollywood has ever provided.
0:10:59 > 0:11:03- Ever!- Yes. Not financially speaking - in terms of authority and rights.
0:11:03 > 0:11:06- Yes.- Financially it wasn't extraordinary in any way at all.
0:11:06 > 0:11:08It was extraordinary in the control it gave me
0:11:08 > 0:11:11- over my own material.- You had total control.- Total control.
0:11:11 > 0:11:14So much so that the rushes - which I perhaps
0:11:14 > 0:11:16should explain to...
0:11:16 > 0:11:18- Mmm, yep.- ..are the pieces of film
0:11:18 > 0:11:20that are shown at the end of the day's work,
0:11:20 > 0:11:23as I'm sure you understand, and are always checked
0:11:23 > 0:11:25by everybody in the studio - department heads and the bankers
0:11:25 > 0:11:29and distributors and everything, long before there's a rough cut...
0:11:29 > 0:11:32But under my contract the rushes couldn't be seen by anyone.
0:11:32 > 0:11:36And indeed the film couldn't be seen until it was ready for release.
0:11:36 > 0:11:40I got that good a contract because I didn't really want to make a film.
0:11:40 > 0:11:42Well, you'd better develop that.
0:11:42 > 0:11:45And when you don't really want to go out to Hollywood - at least this was
0:11:45 > 0:11:48true in the old days, the golden days of Holywood...
0:11:48 > 0:11:50When you honestly didn't want to go,
0:11:50 > 0:11:53then the deals got better and better. In my case, I didn't want money,
0:11:53 > 0:11:56I wanted authority, so I asked the impossible,
0:11:56 > 0:11:59hoping to be left alone, and at the end of a year's negotiations,
0:11:59 > 0:12:04- I got it.- Yes.- Simply because there was no real vocation there.
0:12:04 > 0:12:07My love for films began only when we started work.
0:12:07 > 0:12:10What I'd like to know is, where did you get the confidence from
0:12:10 > 0:12:14- to make them with such...? - Ignorance! Sheer ignorance, you know.
0:12:14 > 0:12:16There's no confidence to equal it.
0:12:16 > 0:12:19It's only when you know something about a profession,
0:12:19 > 0:12:23I think, that you're timid or careful...
0:12:24 > 0:12:26- ..or...- How does this ignorance show itself?
0:12:26 > 0:12:29I thought you could do anything with a camera that the eye could do,
0:12:29 > 0:12:32or the imagination could do.
0:12:32 > 0:12:34And if you come up from the bottom in the film business
0:12:34 > 0:12:39you're taught all the things that the cameraman doesn't want to attempt
0:12:39 > 0:12:42for fear he will be criticised for having failed.
0:12:42 > 0:12:43- Yes.- And in this case
0:12:43 > 0:12:47I had a cameraman who didn't care if he was criticised if he failed,
0:12:47 > 0:12:50and I didn't know that there were things you couldn't do.
0:12:50 > 0:12:54So I... Anything I could think up in my dreams
0:12:54 > 0:12:56I attempted to photograph.
0:12:58 > 0:13:00You got away with enormous technical advances, didn't you?
0:13:00 > 0:13:03Simply by not knowing that they were impossible -
0:13:03 > 0:13:05- or theoretically impossible.- Yes.
0:13:05 > 0:13:09And of course, again, I had
0:13:09 > 0:13:12a great advantage, not only in the real genius of my cameraman,
0:13:12 > 0:13:15but also in the fact that he, like all great men, I think,
0:13:15 > 0:13:18who are masters of a craft, told me right at the outset
0:13:18 > 0:13:21that there was nothing about camera work
0:13:21 > 0:13:23that I couldn't learn in half a day,
0:13:23 > 0:13:26that any intelligent person couldn't learn in half a day.
0:13:26 > 0:13:29- And he WAS right.- It's true of an awful lot of things.
0:13:29 > 0:13:31Of ALL... You know, of every, you know,
0:13:31 > 0:13:35the great mystery that requires 20 years doesn't exist
0:13:35 > 0:13:37in any field.
0:13:37 > 0:13:42- And certainly not in the camera... - I'd just like to look for a moment,
0:13:42 > 0:13:45and have a look at this clip...
0:13:47 > 0:13:50FURNITURE CRASHES TO THE FLOOR
0:13:56 > 0:13:58GLASS SMASHES
0:14:13 > 0:14:16SMASHING OF GLASS AND CROCKERY
0:14:32 > 0:14:34What I'd like to ask you about that -
0:14:34 > 0:14:37it's rather a technical question, in a way...
0:14:37 > 0:14:40Er, when you were making that sort of scene,
0:14:40 > 0:14:43and that sort of shot, did you ever feel nervous
0:14:43 > 0:14:46that maybe you'd gone too far? I put myself in your shoes.
0:14:46 > 0:14:48If I'd made that, I'd be terrified
0:14:48 > 0:14:51that I was just on the point of toppling over into farce,
0:14:51 > 0:14:53that I'd made the room too large...
0:14:53 > 0:14:55Do you have this sort of anxiety?
0:14:55 > 0:14:58No, because the room IS that big.
0:14:59 > 0:15:00What room is that big?
0:15:02 > 0:15:04Awfully pompous answer - his room.
0:15:04 > 0:15:07- Yes! Pompous question, perhaps. - No! Not at all.
0:15:07 > 0:15:10You're quite right, and I SHOULD have had that fear.
0:15:10 > 0:15:13But I do feel that a man like Kane is very close to farce,
0:15:13 > 0:15:16and very...and very close to parody,
0:15:16 > 0:15:18very close to burlesque.
0:15:18 > 0:15:21And that's why I tried every sort of thing,
0:15:21 > 0:15:24from sentimental tricks to, er,
0:15:24 > 0:15:26an attempt at genuine humanity...
0:15:28 > 0:15:30..to keep him always counter-balanced.
0:15:30 > 0:15:33But of course anybody who could build a place of that kind...
0:15:33 > 0:15:37- Yes.- ..you know, is very close to, er...
0:15:37 > 0:15:39- low comedy.- Of course he is.
0:15:39 > 0:15:42When eventually Kane was made, it was an enormous success,
0:15:42 > 0:15:45as all the world knows, and it's gone on being a success,
0:15:45 > 0:15:48and it's a long time ago now - have you ever regretted
0:15:48 > 0:15:50that so great a success came so early?
0:15:50 > 0:15:54Well, I've regretted early successes in many fields,
0:15:54 > 0:15:57but I don't regret that in Kane, because
0:15:57 > 0:16:01it was the only chance I ever had of that kind.
0:16:01 > 0:16:04I'm glad I had it at any time in my life.
0:16:04 > 0:16:06- I wish I had it more often.- Mmm.
0:16:06 > 0:16:09I wish I had, you know, a chance like that every year -
0:16:09 > 0:16:12- there'd be 18 pictures... - Yes - not just one.- Yes.
0:16:12 > 0:16:15- Two - Ambersons. - Two. ..except Ambersons.
0:16:15 > 0:16:17The end of it, there's a very serious
0:16:17 > 0:16:20piece of surgery involved there - change.
0:16:20 > 0:16:22- Which wasn't done by you...- No.
0:16:22 > 0:16:26There are two short scenes in it I didn't write, or direct,
0:16:26 > 0:16:29and over three reels were taken out in their entirety,
0:16:29 > 0:16:33and they were, in my view, the reason for making the film.
0:16:33 > 0:16:36Not simply good reels, but the whole film was a preparation
0:16:36 > 0:16:40for those reels, which were too tough, and too, er...
0:16:40 > 0:16:43in those days, too hard-boiled...
0:16:44 > 0:16:46..for the exhibitors' tastes.
0:16:46 > 0:16:49And by the time I returned
0:16:49 > 0:16:52from South America - that's a long story I won't go into -
0:16:52 > 0:16:56to supervise the release of Ambersons,
0:16:56 > 0:17:00RKO had fallen into the hands of the counter-revolutionary forces.
0:17:01 > 0:17:04And I no longer was invited into the cutting room.
0:17:05 > 0:17:08- You've been denied the cutting room before.- Several times.
0:17:08 > 0:17:10- Just recently, on Touch Of Evil. - Yes.
0:17:10 > 0:17:16That's happened really quite often to...to extremely, er...
0:17:17 > 0:17:20..individual film-makers. I'm not saying -
0:17:20 > 0:17:23it isn't a qualitative thing, it's a style.
0:17:23 > 0:17:26And there's a certain kind of film-maker
0:17:26 > 0:17:29who really wants to make the film entirely on his own.
0:17:29 > 0:17:34And that sort of fellow is the sworn enemy of the...system.
0:17:35 > 0:17:39- So, there...- And the system is at great pains
0:17:39 > 0:17:41to denigrate such a person.
0:17:42 > 0:17:45Not only myself but many people like myself. And that's happened
0:17:45 > 0:17:48in Russia as well as here...in America, it's happened in England,
0:17:48 > 0:17:51it happens everywhere in varying degrees.
0:17:51 > 0:17:54Seeing that this sort of thing happens, er...
0:17:54 > 0:17:58They rightly regard the artist as the enemy of their profession,
0:17:58 > 0:18:01- you see.- What do you think of Hollywood, Orson?
0:18:01 > 0:18:04I'm not at all against Hollywood.
0:18:04 > 0:18:06Not at all. It's a...
0:18:06 > 0:18:09It's a...er...I think a remarkable community with a great history,
0:18:09 > 0:18:12and a very entertaining place to work in.
0:18:14 > 0:18:16The obvious things against it are so obvious,
0:18:16 > 0:18:19there's really no need to list them over again.
0:18:19 > 0:18:22Anything you can say about Hollywood is true - good and bad.
0:18:22 > 0:18:25There's no extreme statement - it doesn't apply, I think.
0:18:26 > 0:18:28I have heard it suggested that Citizen Kane
0:18:28 > 0:18:30is in some sort of sense autobiographical...
0:18:30 > 0:18:33The notion that Kane himself is some sort of
0:18:33 > 0:18:37version of myself, I'd really fail to recognise.
0:18:38 > 0:18:41Maybe out of blindness, but it seems to me that Kane is a, er...
0:18:41 > 0:18:42er...
0:18:43 > 0:18:45..everything that I'm not.
0:18:46 > 0:18:48Good and bad.
0:18:49 > 0:18:53After Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons,
0:18:53 > 0:18:56Welles fell out with the studios.
0:18:56 > 0:18:59He directed his estranged wife Rita Hayworth
0:18:59 > 0:19:03in The Lady From Shanghai, but it was a financial disaster.
0:19:03 > 0:19:05The rest of his career would see him
0:19:05 > 0:19:08struggle to make the films he felt passionate about,
0:19:08 > 0:19:12funding his own productions with money earned from acting roles.
0:19:12 > 0:19:16It was on the 1959 film Ferry To Hong Kong
0:19:16 > 0:19:18- that- I- got to work with him,
0:19:18 > 0:19:21and found him to be...funny,
0:19:21 > 0:19:25warm, generous... and sometimes difficult!
0:19:25 > 0:19:28And he was a great storyteller,
0:19:28 > 0:19:30as he demonstrates here, talking about his childhood
0:19:30 > 0:19:33with David Frost in 1970.
0:19:33 > 0:19:37Who had the greatest influence on you, your mother or your father?
0:19:37 > 0:19:40My mother. She died before my father did,
0:19:40 > 0:19:43she died when I was eight, but no question about it -
0:19:43 > 0:19:45she was an absolutely extraordinary woman.
0:19:45 > 0:19:48She sounds fantastic, she was... She was an imprisoned suffragette...
0:19:48 > 0:19:53Yes, and pacifist, she was a violent radical,
0:19:53 > 0:19:56a great concert pianist and beauty.
0:19:56 > 0:19:59She was one of those... A crack shot!
0:19:59 > 0:20:01- Crack shot?- Everything, you know.
0:20:01 > 0:20:03She really was quite a super lady.
0:20:03 > 0:20:05- That's incredible.- Yeah.
0:20:05 > 0:20:08In fact, you were reading fluently when you were two,
0:20:08 > 0:20:11- according to... - No!- Not true?- Of course not!
0:20:11 > 0:20:13- No? No?! - LAUGHTER IN AUDIENCE
0:20:15 > 0:20:17When I was three!
0:20:18 > 0:20:21LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE
0:20:23 > 0:20:25Were you...? Ha-ha!
0:20:25 > 0:20:28They also say you...you'd memorised speeches from King Lear
0:20:28 > 0:20:30by the time you were seven - is that true?
0:20:32 > 0:20:34I don't know, maybe I had.
0:20:34 > 0:20:36It doesn't seem the right part at that age, but...
0:20:36 > 0:20:39LAUGHTER
0:20:39 > 0:20:43But of course I began my career pretending to be older than I was.
0:20:43 > 0:20:47I started, I was just 16, and I pretended to be 25.
0:20:47 > 0:20:51And I played, er, 60-year-old men.
0:20:51 > 0:20:53That was in Ireland... So I suppose I was getting in practice
0:20:53 > 0:20:56when I was doing Lear at seven - if it's true...
0:20:56 > 0:21:00You also threatened... Is this true that you once threatened,
0:21:00 > 0:21:04because of music lessons, to throw yourself out of a hotel window?
0:21:04 > 0:21:07Yes, again that was my mother.
0:21:07 > 0:21:10That'll show you the kind of strength of character she had.
0:21:10 > 0:21:13We were in the Ritz hotel...
0:21:13 > 0:21:16She didn't give the piano lessons...
0:21:16 > 0:21:17exercises and all that.
0:21:17 > 0:21:22She got a lady in. In this case it was a poor, unfortunate spinster,
0:21:22 > 0:21:26and I saw I could bully her, you know?
0:21:26 > 0:21:28So I said, "I don't want to do any more scales and if you make me
0:21:28 > 0:21:31"do another scale I'm going to kill myself."
0:21:31 > 0:21:37And the spinster really fed me so well on that...
0:21:37 > 0:21:39when another scale was asked for,
0:21:39 > 0:21:41I went out, and there's a balcony,
0:21:41 > 0:21:44and I climbed over the balcony and stood like this,
0:21:44 > 0:21:47holding over the thing, and when you're very young,
0:21:47 > 0:21:49you don't believe in death.
0:21:49 > 0:21:52All you see is the people standing around and saying, "Now we're sorry."
0:21:52 > 0:21:54LAUGHTER
0:21:54 > 0:21:56"Aw, we shouldn't have done that to him."
0:21:56 > 0:21:59You don't think you're going to suffer, THEY'RE going to suffer.
0:21:59 > 0:22:01So I was ready to go, you know.
0:22:01 > 0:22:02LAUGHTER
0:22:02 > 0:22:05And this poor music teacher ran
0:22:05 > 0:22:08into my mother, who was in another room,
0:22:08 > 0:22:10and said, "He's out there, he's going to jump,
0:22:10 > 0:22:12"he's going to kill himself."
0:22:12 > 0:22:15My mother thought to herself, "If I come in and run at him,
0:22:15 > 0:22:17"he might be idiotic enough...
0:22:17 > 0:22:19"to jump."
0:22:19 > 0:22:23So I just heard this voice from the other room which said,
0:22:23 > 0:22:26"Well, if he's going to jump, let him jump."
0:22:26 > 0:22:27LAUGHTER
0:22:27 > 0:22:31And my mother had the strength of character enough to say that.
0:22:31 > 0:22:34And she told me the story later and she waited...
0:22:34 > 0:22:36There was a long pause and then she heard,
0:22:36 > 0:22:38"Da-da-da-da, dee-dee-dee-dee..."
0:22:38 > 0:22:40LAUGHTER
0:22:40 > 0:22:42APPLAUSE
0:22:47 > 0:22:49And it was in Ireland you first acted, wasn't it?
0:22:49 > 0:22:51Yes, that was to get out of school.
0:22:51 > 0:22:54I had a scholarship for Harvard. I'm a dropout.
0:22:54 > 0:22:57The only way... I'd been painting in Ireland
0:22:57 > 0:23:00and it got to be winter
0:23:00 > 0:23:03and the days were getting short and so was my money,
0:23:03 > 0:23:05and I knew I would have to go back to America
0:23:05 > 0:23:09and go to this dreaded school of learning.
0:23:09 > 0:23:11So I went backstage
0:23:11 > 0:23:14to the Gate Theatre and told them I was a famous star
0:23:14 > 0:23:16from the New York Theatre Guild
0:23:16 > 0:23:19and just for the fun of it I'd like to stay with them
0:23:19 > 0:23:20and play a few leading roles.
0:23:20 > 0:23:22FROST LAUGHS
0:23:24 > 0:23:27Now, you can only do that
0:23:27 > 0:23:29if you don't believe
0:23:29 > 0:23:31that it matters, if you don't care.
0:23:31 > 0:23:33I had no desire to be an actor. If I had,
0:23:33 > 0:23:36I would have said, "Could I have a spear to hold?" You know...
0:23:36 > 0:23:39But because I didn't think... It was ridiculous
0:23:39 > 0:23:41that I would be an actor in my life, I just said,
0:23:41 > 0:23:42"I AM a leading actor." Why not?
0:23:42 > 0:23:45And I began as a leading actor. I played a star part
0:23:45 > 0:23:47the first time I ever walked on the stage.
0:23:47 > 0:23:51And I have been working my way down ever since.
0:23:52 > 0:23:56He was joking there, but Welles DID have his downs...
0:23:56 > 0:23:58with films that flopped
0:23:58 > 0:24:02and a long list of projects that never got off the ground.
0:24:02 > 0:24:04But he always bounced back.
0:24:04 > 0:24:07And as new generations of film fans
0:24:07 > 0:24:09came to his early works for the first time,
0:24:09 > 0:24:11his reputation grew -
0:24:11 > 0:24:16a fact he discussed in an interview with Michael Parkinson in 1973.
0:24:16 > 0:24:18I asked you that question about heroes, actually,
0:24:18 > 0:24:23cos I know to a lot of people, if I asked them that question, they would say you were their hero.
0:24:23 > 0:24:26I can't imagine why but I love hearing it.
0:24:26 > 0:24:28- You love hearing it, do you? - LAUGHTER
0:24:28 > 0:24:31I sincerely can't see how anybody could make a hero of me.
0:24:31 > 0:24:33As I've never yet been called it, I must ask you this,
0:24:33 > 0:24:36and you've been called it many times - you've been called a genius.
0:24:36 > 0:24:37Many times...
0:24:37 > 0:24:41It's just one of those words, you know.
0:24:41 > 0:24:42I suppose there have only been
0:24:42 > 0:24:44two or three geniuses in this century.
0:24:44 > 0:24:46- We all know who they are.- Really?
0:24:46 > 0:24:49I suppose, yes... Einstein and Picasso and somebody
0:24:49 > 0:24:53in China we haven't heard about, you know.
0:24:53 > 0:24:57- So you don't accept the...?- Oh, I accept anything I get!
0:24:57 > 0:24:58LAUGHTER
0:24:58 > 0:25:01But, between friends, there aren't many of them.
0:25:01 > 0:25:05I really wouldn't want to try to edge my way
0:25:05 > 0:25:08into an elevator
0:25:08 > 0:25:13that was "for geniuses only...going up", you know?
0:25:13 > 0:25:16You were talking earlier about experts.
0:25:16 > 0:25:21I suppose your experts would be ..film critics would be...
0:25:21 > 0:25:23would call themselves experts.
0:25:23 > 0:25:26Now, they judged a film of yours,
0:25:26 > 0:25:28twice running, the best film ever made.
0:25:28 > 0:25:31That shows you how crazy experts are!
0:25:31 > 0:25:33LAUGHTER
0:25:33 > 0:25:37No, I think it shows you how fundamentally sound film criticism is...
0:25:37 > 0:25:38LAUGHTER
0:25:38 > 0:25:40..in this day and age.
0:25:40 > 0:25:43No, I never talk about critics
0:25:43 > 0:25:45because there isn't anything
0:25:45 > 0:25:47to be said about them.
0:25:47 > 0:25:50If they criticise you, anything you say is sour grapes.
0:25:50 > 0:25:54And if they like what you do, you should shut up, you know.
0:25:56 > 0:25:59There's no way of criticising the critics.
0:25:59 > 0:26:01- Do they ever wound you?- Deeply, yes.
0:26:01 > 0:26:04I can remember every bad notice I've ever had.
0:26:04 > 0:26:07I can remember one I got when I was 18 years old,
0:26:07 > 0:26:09in Salt Lake City,
0:26:09 > 0:26:12when I played Marchbanks with Katherine Cornell
0:26:12 > 0:26:16and I was described as "a sea-calf whining in a basso profondo".
0:26:16 > 0:26:20And I'm sure it's an absolutely accurate description
0:26:20 > 0:26:23of that performance, which must have been abominable.
0:26:23 > 0:26:26But it still goes through my head before I go to sleep at night,
0:26:26 > 0:26:29along with a thousand other litanies of the same kind.
0:26:29 > 0:26:32I have a misfortune...
0:26:34 > 0:26:39It isn't out of modesty. It's, I suppose, some form of masochism.
0:26:39 > 0:26:42If so, it's the only thing that I'm masochistic about,
0:26:42 > 0:26:45but I do remember all the bad notices
0:26:45 > 0:26:49and I do forget, or take not very seriously,
0:26:49 > 0:26:50- the good ones.- Yes.
0:26:50 > 0:26:53The other curious thing is that you genuinely do not like talking about
0:26:53 > 0:26:55- your work in movies at all. - No.
0:26:55 > 0:26:58Because it's done. You know that.
0:26:58 > 0:27:01That isn't because you've got cameras on.
0:27:03 > 0:27:06My family has never heard me say a word about any picture I've ever made.
0:27:06 > 0:27:08I just find that very, very curious indeed,
0:27:08 > 0:27:11because the number of people I've interviewed - film directors,
0:27:11 > 0:27:14film actors, particularly...that's all they can talk about!
0:27:14 > 0:27:17Well, I'm sure they can talk about other things
0:27:17 > 0:27:18but they LIKE to talk about it.
0:27:18 > 0:27:21A lot of directors and actors like to run their movies.
0:27:21 > 0:27:23Their idea of a happy night at home
0:27:23 > 0:27:27is to turn on the projector and see one of their pictures again.
0:27:27 > 0:27:29And I can't think of anything more horrifying.
0:27:29 > 0:27:31LAUGHTER
0:27:31 > 0:27:34- Because you can't change it.- Yes. - What can you do about it?- Yes.
0:27:34 > 0:27:36There it is. Forever.
0:27:36 > 0:27:39And if you're a writer,
0:27:39 > 0:27:42and you've written a bad chapter,
0:27:42 > 0:27:44and they're going to bring out another edition,
0:27:44 > 0:27:47if you're lucky enough, you should get to fix up that chapter.
0:27:47 > 0:27:50Nothing you can do about a movie. There it is, locked in forever.
0:27:50 > 0:27:52- Yes.- You know?- Yes.
0:27:52 > 0:27:55But of course you will talk generally about movies,
0:27:55 > 0:27:57not your own, about the industry.
0:27:57 > 0:28:00I'm not as interesting about it as I'd like to be, though,
0:28:00 > 0:28:01cos I don't see enough movies.
0:28:01 > 0:28:04I was just wondering about the changes that you've seen
0:28:04 > 0:28:08in the industry since you first started making movies in Hollywood.
0:28:08 > 0:28:11Do you think it's still an industry, Michael?
0:28:11 > 0:28:13Really an industry?
0:28:13 > 0:28:15It's not an industry like it used to be, that's for sure.
0:28:15 > 0:28:17And I wonder if it REALLY was.
0:28:17 > 0:28:20I think it always was show business
0:28:20 > 0:28:23and that when there were big studios,
0:28:23 > 0:28:25which still existed when I went to Hollywood,
0:28:25 > 0:28:27but were in their very last days...
0:28:29 > 0:28:31..as golden-age big studios,
0:28:31 > 0:28:34I think they were pretending to be factories
0:28:34 > 0:28:37and it was still show business.
0:28:37 > 0:28:40It's true they were grinding them out and all that...
0:28:40 > 0:28:44but it's show business. The true industrial process
0:28:44 > 0:28:47cannot be...as...
0:28:47 > 0:28:50as helter-skelter and idiotic
0:28:50 > 0:28:52as EVERY form of show business is,
0:28:52 > 0:28:55otherwise every car we'd get in would break down
0:28:55 > 0:28:57after the second block.
0:28:57 > 0:29:00I can't believe the rest of the people are as stupid as we are.
0:29:00 > 0:29:03HE LAUGHS
0:29:03 > 0:29:07But how do you get the product, then, if it's all as mad as that?
0:29:07 > 0:29:09Well, it sort of happens.
0:29:09 > 0:29:12Movies are terribly easy to make.
0:29:12 > 0:29:15- It's much harder to put on a play...than a movie.- Really?
0:29:15 > 0:29:17Oh, yes.
0:29:17 > 0:29:21What's hard to do is make a very good movie.
0:29:21 > 0:29:23- Yes. - A good movie is even easy to make,
0:29:23 > 0:29:26because if you have a good cameraman,
0:29:26 > 0:29:28if you have the cast that happens to be right,
0:29:28 > 0:29:31if you have a story that happens to be vaguely interesting,
0:29:31 > 0:29:36that is the art form that works in our day and age.
0:29:36 > 0:29:40So it would be very hard to write a great play in blank verse today,
0:29:40 > 0:29:43but I think it was pretty easy in Elizabethan days
0:29:43 > 0:29:47- to write a good verse play.- Yes.
0:29:47 > 0:29:49- Not a great one but a good one.- Yes.
0:29:49 > 0:29:51And it's damn near impossible now,
0:29:51 > 0:29:54- because it has nothing to do with our culture.- Yes.
0:29:54 > 0:29:56But somehow a good movie gets itself made,
0:29:56 > 0:29:58even by a lot of second-rate people.
0:29:58 > 0:30:00- Yes.- You know?- Yes.
0:30:00 > 0:30:04- A very good one is, of course, another thing.- Yes.
0:30:04 > 0:30:07The thing that HAS changed, of course...
0:30:07 > 0:30:09I'm sorry, I didn't really answer your question.
0:30:09 > 0:30:12You were talking about changes... I went wandering off.
0:30:12 > 0:30:15All I really wondered about was, if you look back at those days
0:30:15 > 0:30:18in Hollywood when you were first operating over there,
0:30:18 > 0:30:20- and it really was the dream factory, wasn't it?- Yes.
0:30:20 > 0:30:23When you look back, are you nostalgic about those days,
0:30:23 > 0:30:26or were they just comic relief?
0:30:26 > 0:30:28- I loved them, you know.- Did you?
0:30:28 > 0:30:30I thought it was great.
0:30:30 > 0:30:32I never belonged to it, you see.
0:30:32 > 0:30:34When I came, I was this terrible maverick.
0:30:34 > 0:30:39I represented... I was sort of...
0:30:39 > 0:30:4340, 30 years ahead of my time, whatever it is.
0:30:43 > 0:30:46There was a sort of ghost of Christmas Future,
0:30:46 > 0:30:48there was the one beatnik,
0:30:48 > 0:30:50there was this guy with a beard
0:30:50 > 0:30:52who was going to do it all by himself.
0:30:52 > 0:30:57I represented the terrible future of what was going to happen to that town.
0:30:57 > 0:31:00So I was hated and despised,
0:31:00 > 0:31:01theoretically,
0:31:01 > 0:31:04but I had all kinds of friends amongst the real dinosaurs
0:31:04 > 0:31:06- who were awfully nice to me.- Really?
0:31:06 > 0:31:09Yes, and I had a very good time, but...
0:31:11 > 0:31:14..I believe that I have looked back too optimistically on Hollywood,
0:31:14 > 0:31:18because my daughter has a group of books about Hollywood
0:31:18 > 0:31:20that she bought, I don't know why,
0:31:20 > 0:31:24probably vainly looking for references of her father in them.
0:31:24 > 0:31:27I took to reading them lately
0:31:27 > 0:31:30and I realised how many great people
0:31:30 > 0:31:35that town has destroyed since its earliest beginnings.
0:31:35 > 0:31:37How almost everybody of merit
0:31:37 > 0:31:40was destroyed or diminished
0:31:40 > 0:31:43and how the few people who were good that survived,
0:31:43 > 0:31:45what a great minority they were.
0:31:45 > 0:31:47And I suddenly thought to myself,
0:31:47 > 0:31:50"Why do I look so affectionately on that town?"
0:31:50 > 0:31:53It was because it was funny and it was gay
0:31:53 > 0:31:56and it was an old-fashioned circus,
0:31:56 > 0:31:59and everything that we're nostalgic about
0:31:59 > 0:32:02- made it funny and gay when it was really happening.- Yes.
0:32:02 > 0:32:04But really it was a brutal place.
0:32:04 > 0:32:07- Yes.- And when I take my own life out of it and see
0:32:07 > 0:32:09what they did to other people,
0:32:09 > 0:32:12I see that the story of that town is a dirty one.
0:32:12 > 0:32:14And its record is bad.
0:32:14 > 0:32:17One reason Welles survived Hollywood
0:32:17 > 0:32:20was the magnetic quality he had as a performer.
0:32:20 > 0:32:26His presence and that rich voice meant he commanded every scene.
0:32:26 > 0:32:28This was perhaps best demonstrated
0:32:28 > 0:32:31in one of his most-famous roles.
0:32:31 > 0:32:33Harry Lime in The Third Man...
0:32:33 > 0:32:37which he discussed in an Arena special from 1982.
0:32:37 > 0:32:42ZITHER MUSIC
0:32:49 > 0:32:52What kind of a spy do you think you are, satchel foot?
0:32:55 > 0:32:56What are you tailing me for?
0:33:00 > 0:33:01Cat got your tongue?
0:33:03 > 0:33:04Come on out.
0:33:05 > 0:33:08Come out, come out, whoever you are.
0:33:10 > 0:33:13Step out in the light and let's have a look at you.
0:33:13 > 0:33:15Who's your boss?
0:33:15 > 0:33:16WOMAN SPEAKS GERMAN
0:33:16 > 0:33:18MUSIC: "The Third Man Theme" by Anton Karas
0:33:18 > 0:33:22SHE SPEAKS GERMAN
0:33:29 > 0:33:31Harry?
0:33:33 > 0:33:36SHE SPEAKS GERMAN
0:33:41 > 0:33:43CAR HORN BEEPS
0:33:47 > 0:33:49FOOTSTEPS RUNNING AWAY
0:33:49 > 0:33:52Yes, you were saying about it being rare
0:33:52 > 0:33:57for directors to be very fond of actors
0:33:57 > 0:33:58and acting,
0:33:58 > 0:34:01and I was saying that Carol Reed...
0:34:01 > 0:34:04Nobody ever loved acting more than he did.
0:34:06 > 0:34:09He was passionately interested
0:34:09 > 0:34:13in his actors and in the process of acting...
0:34:13 > 0:34:17without the remotest feeling
0:34:17 > 0:34:20that he was imagining himself in that position
0:34:20 > 0:34:25or imposing himself. He was the real actor's director.
0:34:25 > 0:34:27His joy was in your work,
0:34:27 > 0:34:33not in seeing something of his come to life.
0:34:33 > 0:34:35He was exceptional in that case.
0:34:35 > 0:34:38- INTERVIEWER:- Did he invite your collaboration...?
0:34:38 > 0:34:41Yes, he invited everybody's collaboration, as I do.
0:34:41 > 0:34:45That's why I loved working... His style was so much like mine
0:34:45 > 0:34:47in the respect that he wanted
0:34:47 > 0:34:49any suggestion he could get.
0:34:53 > 0:34:56I can tell you scenes in...
0:34:56 > 0:35:00pictures of mine that were suggested by members of the crew.
0:35:02 > 0:35:04Anybody can make a suggestion.
0:35:04 > 0:35:07That doesn't mean they get to have it in the picture,
0:35:07 > 0:35:09but if it's good, it goes.
0:35:09 > 0:35:11And he welcomed it.
0:35:14 > 0:35:17At an earlier time,
0:35:17 > 0:35:19when I was being interviewed in another language,
0:35:19 > 0:35:21I gave the impression that I'd somehow
0:35:21 > 0:35:23co-directed my scenes
0:35:23 > 0:35:26and that's not true.
0:35:26 > 0:35:30I never meant to say that or give that impression.
0:35:30 > 0:35:32I was...
0:35:32 > 0:35:36however, to a large extent, the author of...
0:35:36 > 0:35:39the dialogue of Harry Lime.
0:35:41 > 0:35:44Including the "cuckoo clock" and all that kind of stuff.
0:35:44 > 0:35:49Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful.
0:35:49 > 0:35:52What the fella said... In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias
0:35:52 > 0:35:54they had warfare, terror, murder
0:35:54 > 0:35:58and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci,
0:35:58 > 0:35:59and the Renaissance.
0:35:59 > 0:36:02In Switzerland they had brotherly love -
0:36:02 > 0:36:06they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce?
0:36:06 > 0:36:09The cuckoo clock. So long, Holly.
0:36:09 > 0:36:11ZITHER MUSIC
0:36:11 > 0:36:15But that is what I do when I act in other people's pictures.
0:36:15 > 0:36:18I never argue about the direction
0:36:18 > 0:36:22but I usually come up with a rewritten scene.
0:36:22 > 0:36:25That's the headache they have to put up with.
0:36:25 > 0:36:28Then if they don't like it I'll go back to the other,
0:36:28 > 0:36:29but I go back home at night
0:36:29 > 0:36:34and write the next day's scene and hope they'll take it instead of what it is.
0:36:35 > 0:36:37But I never would tell a director,
0:36:37 > 0:36:41"Would you do that?" or something, unless they asked me.
0:36:41 > 0:36:44Do directors often tell you how to do things when you're acting?
0:36:44 > 0:36:46Oh, yeah, sure.
0:36:46 > 0:36:49I had one director in England
0:36:49 > 0:36:51who was wonderful.
0:36:53 > 0:36:58About halfway through every take he'd say, "Cut."
0:36:58 > 0:37:00"Cut."
0:37:02 > 0:37:06There'd be a long silence and I'd look at him.
0:37:06 > 0:37:09I'd say, "How would you like me to do it?"
0:37:09 > 0:37:11"Just do it again."
0:37:11 > 0:37:17So we'd do it again and then there'd be this... "Cut."
0:37:17 > 0:37:19We went through the whole picture like that
0:37:19 > 0:37:22and I never knew what was giving him this pain.
0:37:22 > 0:37:24HE LAUGHS
0:37:24 > 0:37:27Have you found yourself turning down really substantial parts
0:37:27 > 0:37:29because you wanted to get on with directing?
0:37:29 > 0:37:32No, I haven't been offered them.
0:37:32 > 0:37:35I would have sold my soul to play the Godfather, for instance.
0:37:39 > 0:37:41But I never get those parts...
0:37:41 > 0:37:43offered to me, at all.
0:37:44 > 0:37:47Why have you accepted
0:37:47 > 0:37:50so many parts, no matter how well you may have done them in the end...
0:37:50 > 0:37:53- To live.- ..that were basically from bad scripts?- To live.
0:37:55 > 0:37:56I have to live in the...
0:37:58 > 0:38:01If you're going to try to finance movies and live,
0:38:01 > 0:38:05you have to earn your money somehow.
0:38:05 > 0:38:10Most of my movies have been movies I didn't want to make.
0:38:10 > 0:38:13I've never done a movie that I disapproved of...
0:38:13 > 0:38:15morally.
0:38:15 > 0:38:18The last star part that I was offered was Caligula.
0:38:20 > 0:38:22And I refused it on moral grounds.
0:38:22 > 0:38:25And yet there I would have been playing
0:38:25 > 0:38:29the leading part in a 8 million-dollar picture.
0:38:29 > 0:38:31It would have been nice to do that
0:38:31 > 0:38:36but I didn't even have a moment's doubt about not doing it.
0:38:38 > 0:38:39The same thing would be
0:38:39 > 0:38:42for a political reason or anything like that.
0:38:42 > 0:38:44I've turned down a lot of things for those kind of reasons.
0:38:44 > 0:38:47But no GREAT parts.
0:38:47 > 0:38:49I haven't had any great parts offered me,
0:38:49 > 0:38:52only a few good ones, in all these years.
0:38:52 > 0:38:56They hire me when they have a really bad movie
0:38:56 > 0:39:00and they want a cameo that'll give it a little class.
0:39:00 > 0:39:02So every time I do one of those things,
0:39:02 > 0:39:06I chip off something more from me as an actor.
0:39:06 > 0:39:09You're in liquidation when you do that.
0:39:09 > 0:39:12That's why I hope to avoid it
0:39:12 > 0:39:14now it looks as though I have a chance...
0:39:14 > 0:39:16KNOCKS ON CHAIR
0:39:16 > 0:39:17..to direct a couple of more movies
0:39:17 > 0:39:20and I've got a couple of good parts I've written for myself.
0:39:20 > 0:39:23- It's the only way I know how to get them.- Nobody else will.
0:39:23 > 0:39:26Yes. I played all the great parts in the theatre by running...
0:39:26 > 0:39:31You know, there's an old Yiddish saying, in the Yiddish theatre,
0:39:31 > 0:39:34that the star's the man who owns the store, you know?
0:39:34 > 0:39:37HE LAUGHS
0:39:37 > 0:39:43So some of my stores have been rather small establishments
0:39:43 > 0:39:45but I was the star...
0:39:45 > 0:39:47because I owned it.
0:39:47 > 0:39:51I think I made essentially a mistake
0:39:51 > 0:39:53in staying in movies,
0:39:53 > 0:39:56but it's the mistake I can't regret because
0:39:56 > 0:40:00it's like saying, "I shouldn't have stayed married to that woman
0:40:00 > 0:40:02"but I did because I love her."
0:40:02 > 0:40:06"I would have been more successful if I hadn't been married to her."
0:40:06 > 0:40:11I would have been more successful if I'd left movies immediately.
0:40:11 > 0:40:14Stayed in the theatre, gone into politics, written anything.
0:40:14 > 0:40:18I've wasted the greater part of my life
0:40:18 > 0:40:21looking for money and trying to get along,
0:40:21 > 0:40:24trying to make
0:40:24 > 0:40:27my work from this terribly expensive paint box,
0:40:27 > 0:40:30which is a movie.
0:40:30 > 0:40:32And I've spent too much energy on
0:40:32 > 0:40:35things that have nothing to do with making a movie.
0:40:35 > 0:40:40It's about 2% movie-making
0:40:40 > 0:40:43and 98% hustling.
0:40:43 > 0:40:45It's no way to spend a life.
0:40:47 > 0:40:49Do you feel that's going to go on?
0:40:49 > 0:40:54I'm going to go on being faithful to my girl. I love her.
0:40:54 > 0:40:57I fell so much in love with making movies
0:40:57 > 0:41:01that the theatre lost everything for me.
0:41:01 > 0:41:04I'm just in love with making movies.
0:41:04 > 0:41:08If he'd never made a movie after Citizen Kane,
0:41:08 > 0:41:11Welles would still have gone down in cinema history
0:41:11 > 0:41:15but that love of film-making was with him to the very end.
0:41:15 > 0:41:19Three years after that interview, at the age of 70,
0:41:19 > 0:41:23he died from a heart attack at his home in Hollywood.
0:41:23 > 0:41:27The man who made the perfect picture when he was 26
0:41:27 > 0:41:32was found at his typewriter, where he'd been working on a new script,
0:41:32 > 0:41:36doing what he loved best, right up till his final moment.
0:41:47 > 0:41:50Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd