When Michael Dawson decided to make ”Citizen Welles,” a documentary film on the late actor-director-producer Orson Welles, he didn`t realize it would threaten to consume his entire life.
”In 1986 I began doing what I thought was a fairly simple matter, due to the interest in the man,” said Dawson, whose film company, Intermission Productions Ltd., is based in Willowbrook.
”Here`s an individual who accomplished so much in three separate mediums of radio, theater and film. But making this film has almost put my career on a sidetrack, has almost derailed it to a certain degree … because in a sense, I`m trying to start off my career by rectifying the career of Orson Welles. How naive.
”And I`m sure Mr. Welles is laughing now, thinking, `My God, what noble effort by this naive, young man. But you better be careful, because you`ll never get off this road.”`
Dawson, who is directing and producing the film, is running into many of the same problems Welles did later in his career: ”Making the documentary has taken on almost the same attributes, certainly in the sense of how the film has been financed but also in the fact that I had to take advantage of certain circumstances when they presented themselves, rather than waiting until all the financing was in place before starting a film.
”People were dying. People were only available at certain times. So that`s caused problems, because raising the finances is a full-time job. It has been a nightmare,” Dawson said.
”It`s very tough to make money in show business,” said Joe Barillari, director of instructional design at the College of Du Page and a local film critic. ”To get financing for a project of the magnitude Michael`s doing is extremely difficult. But Michael is a businessman, and he approached it as a business problem. Rather than going the grant route, with a begging bowl in hand, he came out straight and asked (investors) for the money.
”So I decided to invest in `Citizen Welles` a little bit. I would be one of his smaller investors,” Barillari said, laughing. ”But I figured, What the hell, I liked what he was doing.
”I think it`s wonderful that Mike Dawson and (associate producer) Mark Caras are putting together a documentary on Daddy,” said Beatrice Welles-Smith, daughter of Orson Welles and the Italian countess Paola Mori, Welles` third wife.
”It`s great, because it`s trying to show another side of Daddy, not just the `Citizen Kane`, `War of the Worlds` image he had. There was so much more to him. Not just the movies and the theater, but other things-politics, his growing up, his childhood, everything. This film will show a more
comprehensive view of him.”
Welles-Smith, the only daughter Orson Welles raised and inheritor of his estate, gave Dawson and Caras old photographs and helped them get in touch with people who had known her father. She also agreed to be interviewed for the documentary.
In one touching scene, she fondly remembers how her father read
”Charlotte`s Web” to her as a bedtime story, acting out the parts of the various characters.
She thought highly enough of Intermissions Productions Ltd. to let them work on the restoration of her father`s film version of ”Othello.”
”I heard through the grapevine that the original `Othello` was being shown in Europe,” Welles-Smith said. ”I have the copyright, so this was being done without my permission. Supposedly no one knew where the negative was, so I got in touch with Michael and Mark, told them what was going on, and asked if we could do anything about it.”
Within two months, Caras made the phone call that located the negative of ”Othello” in a warehouse in New Jersey. Welles-Smith gave them the go-ahead to restore the film.
Money problems forced Welles to take four years to make his film version of ”Othello.”
”Welles financed `Othello` out of his own pocket,” Dawson said. ”He would literally have to stop production, leaving cast and crew at a four-star hotel in Morocco, and head to the other side of the Mediterranean to appear in someone else`s film-often not very good films but films that he was usually the best thing in-so that he could get a check and turn that over right into production.
”This logistical nightmare created continuity problems. He`d have to do pickup shots hundreds, if not thousands, of miles away from where the master shots were done. There was also the problem of having the crew members and actors stick with the project because of other obligations. So often, when you see a particular actor from the rear, it`s not really the actor you think it is.
”The net result is a film that when it came to cinematography and shot composition is absolutely breathtaking. But because of logistics and how it was made, its post-production is lacking. The film had to be entirely post-dubbed. The sound was off and wasn`t consistent. Often people weren`t available. Pickup shots had to be done, where they had to be mouthed, and they didn`t have enough money to record the sound at the time.
”So while it is often recognized as a visual masterpiece, its soundtrack is a nightmare. Since getting the original sound element, we discovered that there are a lot of good sound effects that you can`t even hear in the final mix. The music is distorted. All this detracts from the drama.
”Since the film was released, and certainly within the last two to three years, technology has been provided that now allows us to do technically what was previously impossible. So what we`re doing is digitalizing the soundtrack and removing all the noise. We`re adding all the effects and things you can physically see but can`t hear but should be able to hear.
”And members of the Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra are redoing the entire music track, for note-for-note replacement. And the lip synch is being fixed. When it`s done, it`ll be in digital stereo soundtrack.”
Dawson proudly describes it as a ”`50s film with a 1990s sound technology.”
”I think `Othello` is the way it was originally and perhaps even better in some ways,” said Welles-Smith. ”And nothing against Michael or Mark or anybody, but imagine if Daddy would`ve had that possibility. They`re doing such a good job, it`s going to be incredible. I`ve trusted them so
emphatically through the whole process. One of the big things that I said was that they have complete artistic control over what they`re doing, because I trust them so much.”
On documentary front, Dawson`s filming of ”Citizen Welles” has taken him from New York to California. So far, he has interviewed a couple dozen people for the film, including actors Welles worked with and academicians who have written about him.
The footage includes actor Tommy Anderson, fondly remembering Welles`
all-black voodoo stage version of ”Macbeth,” and actress Ruth Warrick (who played Welles` first wife in ”Citizen Kane”), recalling how Welles would inspire his actors.
”Forty percent of the film will be interviews,” Dawson said. ”I`m trying to be as stylistic as possible with the shot composition. I`m trying to use all the brushstrokes that Welles used and do certain things aesthetically that you don`t normally see in your average documentary.
”The rest of it, however, will be totally extravaganza in terms of visuals. And even though it`s a documentary, by definition, hopefully it will be a piece of entertainment. There will be a little bit of humor. The narrator will address the audience from time to time.”
According to Dawson, his documentary will be of higher quality than most. It will have stereo sound, and all location visuals will be shot with a Panaflex camera, in Panavision.
”That`s never done in a documentary,” he said. ”In fact, most documentaries usually have three soundtracks, and this will have about eight or nine.”
Although documentaries have rarely been commercial successes, Dawson believes the tide is turning. He points out the popularity of such
documentaries as ”The Thin Blue Line,” about a man falsely accused of murder; Ken Burns` Civil War series; and ”Listen Up,” a recent documentary on Quincy Jones.
”It`s really so strange that here`s a small little ma and pop production company in the western suburbs that has succeeded where Hollywood has failed. Others have approached the Welles estate to do a number of projects but gave up, either because the process was so long that they threw up their arms and walked away from it or they got emotional in the process of negotiation, causing doors to slam. I was able to maintain a certain degree of
professionalism and persistence, which finally paid off. But you`re talking geologic time.”
Forging a friendship with Beatrice Welles-Smith didn`t hurt either. Assisting her in replacing her father`s lost Ocar helped cement the relationship.
”A big thing that meant a lot to me are Daddy`s awards,” Welles-Smith said. ”They meant absolutely nothing to him; he detested them. But to me, one of the few things I have of Daddy, apart from the memories and love and the daughter-father relationship, are the awards. I think they`re wonderful. I`m incredibly proud of them.
”He had won an Oscar for co-writing `Citizen Kane.` He used it in some hotel room as a doorstop and left it there, completely forgot about it. When I was talking with Michael about it, he said, `Well, we can get it. I know they`ll give you a copy.`
”I said, `Are you kidding? I can get this Oscar?`
”And he said, `Sure.`
”He got in touch with Robert Wise, who was at the time the head of the Academy of Motion Pictures, who on worked on `Citizen Kane` and `The Magnificent Ambersons.` And he replaced it. And now I have this brand new, fabulous Oscar that I absolutely adore. I have it on my shelf with the other awards I have from Daddy. So it was through Michael and Mark that I was able to get it. It meant a lot.”
According to Dawson, he also advised her when Ted Turner asked if he could colorize ”Citizen Kane.”
”I said, `Ask him for $50 million,` ” Dawson said. ”She did, and Turner, of course, refused. `For $50 million,` Beatrice said, `I think even Daddy would`ve gone along with that one.` ”
Later this year, Dawson plans to release a two-hour theater version of
”Citizen Welles” in the United States. But one gets the feeling that, although he hopes for a commercial success, what he really wants to do is clear Welles` name.
”There`s this whole mythology of Orson Welles, of the unfulfilled promise,” he explained. ”He made `Citizen Kane,` a classic, and he never did it again. Well, he was never given a chance to do it again. People cite time and time again: See, he messed up here, he made a bad business decision there. And if you look at it, it`s easy to say, `My God, it`s a trend. Obviously he had some kind of psychosis taking place that didn`t allow him to achieve greatness again.`
”But the real problem with Welles is that after `Citizen Kane,` a lot of his films were basically re-edited or modified by the studios. So the defects, or faults that those films supposedly had, were caused by the studios. Had they left them in their original versions, it would`ve been fine.
”Welles supposedly had total control over `The Magnificent Ambersons,`
his second film. But what happened was, after a preview screening, the studio decided the film was too downbeat. So they reshot two whole new scenes, chopped 30 minutes out of the middle of it, and gave it a completely different ending.
”The studio also thought `Touch of Evil` was far too stylistic. It scared the hell out of them, so they tried to conventionalize it. They chopped 30 minutes out of that film, too. You can`t just chop 30 minutes out without making a film look very unusual. `A Touch of Evil` has subsequently been restored to the way it originally was. It`s much better. All those flaws, literally, almost on a one-to-one basis, are eliminated.”
”Michael`s approaching the subject in a way that it should be approached,” said Barillari. ”He`s focusing on Orson Welles, the filmmaker, rather than Orson Welles, the flawed genius, or Orson Welles, the bad boy of Hollywood, or Orson Welles, the man who can`t do too many commercials, or Orson Welles, the man who never quite was after `Citizen Kane.`
”I think Michael`s approach is one of real respect. He`s taking a point of view that seems to be neglected. I think it would have been easier to sell a documentary that promised something more lascivious, or something more in the nature of tragic flaws, and so on. He`s not doing that. He basically sees Welles as a man who never quite had enough money to do something of which he was the consummate master: filmmaking.”
Noted Dawson, ”When I was in film school at SIU, that`s when I began to realize that Welles was the most interesting mythology that we have in our modern day, because everybody talks about Welles` uncompleted projects. And Welles is the only guy that I know that when he failed, his failures became bigger than life.
”People are more upset, more angered, more amazed, more awed and more interested in his failures than in anybody else`s failures that I know of. When Welles failed, it was a big story. Filmmakers from Scorsese to Spielberg have projects that they`ve wanted to do that they`ve started that didn`t get off the ground. But no one`s interested in the uncompleted films of any other filmmaker. It was only Orson Welles` uncompleted films.”
Dawson can trace his obsession with Orson Welles back to high school.
”I was always fascinated by the guy,” Dawson said. ”He was the only guy who was ever able to really make me excited about Shakespeare. I never saw him on stage, obviously, but I saw him on Johnny Carson, in the late `60s. He would stand there, the entire stage completely black, except for one beam of light on him. He`d be wearing a black turtleneck and some medallion around his neck, and he would perform a Shakespearean sonnet and soliloquy. I didn`t know what the hell he was saying, what the meaning of it was. All I knew was that I was riveted.”
Dawson`s interest in film can be traced back at least as far back as the last `60s.
”I`ve always liked movies. It`s been a primary passion,” he said. ”I got interested in pursuing it on a career level around the age of 17 or 18.” Dawson, who attended Naperville Central High School, would ditch school and take the train into the city to see movies. After college, he became a production assistant and worked on a few commercials. He even assisted with the making of ”The Blues Brothers” movie. He also made a few music videos, three of them for the Chicago blues group Big Twist and the Mellow Fellows.
(In fact, one of the videos opens with a parody of the famous Rosebud scene in ”Citizen Kane.” Larry Nolan, a large man who was known as Big Twist, drops a rib onto the ground, whispering, ”Ribtip.”)
In 1983, Dawson formed his own company, Intermissions Productions Ltd., which creates movie trailers. (Trailers are shown before movies and say things such as Have a Happy Holiday and Coming Soon and contain previews of coming attractions.) Creating movie trailers helps provide Dawson the seed money with which to pursue his true love: feature film.
Dawson`s wife, Barbara Schueren, also works for Intermissions Productions.
I run the office, plus I`m the graphic arts department,” she said. ”I do a little bit of everything: bookkeeping, typing, filing and administrative and clerical things. Also, my background`s in art, so I help out with the graphics.
”I designed the coporate logo and help with the design of any promotional materials-advertising, posters-as well as storyboards.”
Dawson describes his wife as a ”jack of all trades, semi-master of most.”
Is she as mesmerized with Orson Welles as her husband?
”I admire Orson Welles as a great filmmaker, but I`m not as obsessed with him as Mike is,” she said. ”Mike`s obsessed with Orson Welles, and with films in general. He`ll see anything, good or bad. If he wants to rent 10 movies and watch them over the weekend, that`s fine. He can watch them. I know I don`t have to sit there with him.
”We work together and we do some (leisure) things together, but I`m pretty independent, so I`ll just go off and do something else. We compromise. He wouldn`t be tired of watching three or four movies in a row. I can watch one, two at the most.”
Earlier this month, Dawson presented a multimedia tribute to Orson Welles to the After Hours Film Society at the Hinsdale Theater.
”We thought this would he an appropriate time to invite Michael, as May marks the 50th anniversary of the original release of `Citizen Kane,` ” said Debbie Venezia, founder of the film society.
”Even today, international critics` polls list it in their top 10 best movies. Technically, it`s beautiful. So it was a good tie-in. Over 150 people attended, twice as many as we expected. Because of the re-release of `Citizen Kane,` there seems to be a renewed interest in Orson Welles. And of course, we hope to preview `Othello` when Michael`s finished restoring it.”
Among the gems that Dawson shared with the crowd was a short black and white film called ”The Heart of Ages,” which Welles made while attending the Todd School for Boys in Woodstock, Ill. Dawson also showed clips from his restoration of ”Othello.”
Dawson feels that when he finishes ”Citizen Welles” and the restoration of ”Othello,” he`ll finally be able to get on with his life.
Next on his agenda: producing a feature film called ”Position of the Bodies.”
”It`s a period film set in the late 1930s in West Texas,” he said.
”It`s about a real life murder that occurred in El Paso. It`s going to be film noir, shot in black and white. I describe it as `Twin Peaks` meets Agatha Christie, with a dash of `The Twilight Zone.` ”
A preview trailer created to show potential investors what the film will be like when it`s made shows a remarkable resemblance to Welles` films in composition and lighting.
Scheduled to be shot in the fall, it has a relatively low budget of $1 million. Dawson is still raising funds for it, and the film will need to be picked up by a distributor once it`s done. But it`s obvious that Dawson has found his niche and is happy.
”When you`re on the set, there`s just nothing that can compare,” he said. ”It`s the only time you can work 20 hours a day and wake up the next morning not tired. In a sense, you`re playing. You`re working very hard, and all these other people are passing out around you. But it`s just electric. It`s my bliss.”
