I have to judge Orson Welles's real first effort at cinema by what I saw. If he was 20 years older I would say he understudied with Mack Sennett. But the reels of Too Much Johnson were disjointed and the lack of cards in this silent effort made it incoherent.
The Citadel Film Series book on Orson Welles says that the film was forever lost. Apparently not so. The filmed sequences were part of a prologue to a stage version of a Victorian era play Too Much Johnson that actor William Gillette wrote. An experiment in a multi-media presentation that Orson's Mercury Theater was trying.
In the prologue film you'll see familiar Mercury names like Joseph Cotten in the film. It's Cotten showing a great talent for slapstick that one would never associate with him. I loved that scene with Cotten knocking off all the hats he can find with the gusto of a Charlie Chaplin.
But honestly I could not follow what was going on. Maybe Had Orson completed the project and we saw it as he saw it, the results would be better.
As it is I wonder what Mack Sennett would have thought of Too Much Johnson.
The Citadel Film Series book on Orson Welles says that the film was forever lost. Apparently not so. The filmed sequences were part of a prologue to a stage version of a Victorian era play Too Much Johnson that actor William Gillette wrote. An experiment in a multi-media presentation that Orson's Mercury Theater was trying.
In the prologue film you'll see familiar Mercury names like Joseph Cotten in the film. It's Cotten showing a great talent for slapstick that one would never associate with him. I loved that scene with Cotten knocking off all the hats he can find with the gusto of a Charlie Chaplin.
But honestly I could not follow what was going on. Maybe Had Orson completed the project and we saw it as he saw it, the results would be better.
As it is I wonder what Mack Sennett would have thought of Too Much Johnson.