Caught this awhile ago at my local theatre, was really impressed. Sometimes those old timey complicated relationship movies are pretty icky and while this one was a bit dated, it was a groovy time.

Was also my first Rita Hayworth (besides her "role" in the Shawshank Redemption I guess) so that was groovy.

Hayworth is great and incredibly versatile. A year later she plays a piece of shit human waste in Lady of Shanghai and made it look easy.

Oh fun! I'll add it to my list and hopefully check it out before too long.

it goes hard. Orson Welles doesn't fuck around

Ooooooh! I am, especially in a classic film community, a little embarrassed to say I've never seen an Orson Welles.

So this just moved up a few spots on my list!

Lol, I’m a curtain.

My window is open for you

"Every man I knew went to bed with Gilda and woke up with me."

• Rita Hayworth

oh! happens to the best of us. don't worry. Welles can be a lot but one thing for sure - his movies are consistently fun. Even the bad ones - The Stranger is Welles on best behavior playing by the studio rules and it is a good film noir. F for Fake is literally Welles fooling around - it gets very silly by the end but you can't take your eyes off the screen. But then there's A Touch of Evil and that's Welles literally closing up the entire film noir genre with the ultimate representation of the form. And he's probably the only filmmaker with distinct unfinished project filmography that you can also watch.

Where would you recommend starting with Welles? Citizen Kane is the classic but is it the best spot to start?

Welles is one of the very few directors you can tackle chronologically with no hurdles.
Kane is an easy starting point.

You can also pack his films into several group and watch them that way.

The Shakespearean cycle of Macbeth, Othello, Chimes at Midnight. That's Welles going full gangsta and making the most out of limited resources. Each features him acting drastically different styles - bug eyed conspirator, insecure and arrogant fool and honorable scoundrel.

Then there is Film Noir pack - Journey into Fear, The Stranger, Lady from Shanghai, Mr. Arkadin, Touch of Evil. Mr. Arkadin is the most fascinating one because it is basically a Citizen Kane if it was mystery noir thriller. It also exists in several iteration with different editing styles. It started out from The Third Man and Welles' character Harry Lime's radio show (a fascinating document in his own right because it reframes the piece of shit human waste Harry into an honorable rogue type of character) and was later retooled into Mr. Arkadin. Touch of Evil theatrical and reconstructed cuts are fascinating to watch back to back.

Then there's literary adaptation galore - The Magnificent Ambersons, The Trial, Immortal Story, Don Quixote*. The Trial is really good because slightly tweaks Kafka's novel by making K much more proactive in his quest for truth. Ambersons is mostly a great movie until the studio-mandated ending that lets the air out of the balloon. Still one of the top tier ensemble drama of its time.

F for Fake is Welles fooling around and making it look easy. Welles in effortlessly cool in this one.

Filming Othello is basically an OG DVD bonus documentary. Filming The Trial is just Welles doing a Q&A and it is a masterclass in self-mythologizing on the go.

The Other Side of The Wind is very meta and very bitter about it. The accompanying documentary about its production They'll Love Me When I'm Dead is a must watch.

So is Magician documentary. Very comprehensive documentary on his life. Also check out his two-part BBC Arena special - it gets even deeper.

There is also an unfinished project section - One Man Band is a fascinating documentary just for sheer variety of different things Orson tried to get off the ground. Don Quixote as completed by Jess Franco is a mess made of out of what was available due to messy legal status of the footage - still a fascinating glimpse into Welles' decades long obsession even though it is borderline incoherent. It's All True documentary is fascinating, especially if you dig American WW2 foreign policy.

Welles' career in radio is also worth a listen. I already mentioned The Adventures of Harry Lime, but there's also The Shadow. Welles' rips through that pulp scenery like a raging tiger. Mercury Theater on the Air and The Campbell Playhouse - these are top notch literary adaptations. War of the Worlds is a must listen - it is one hell of an adaptation even after all these years. Also check out two movies about its broadcast - fascinating attempts at further myth making of that event.

Thanks so much for all this, I'm stoked to get into some Welles!

you're welcome