It's a misnomer to call Orson Welles' 1941 "Citizen Kane" his first movie he had ever directed. "Kane" was his first feature film, but prior to handling what is now recognized as cinema's top classic the young Welles had already notched four short movies under his directorship. His third, 1938's "Too Much Johnson" was his most ambitious of the four. Although not fully completed and is a silent, Welles' movie introduced many of the camera angles and editing techniques the director would use throughout his career.
"Too Much Johnson" wasn't designed to stand alone. Welles, 23, was already a wunderkind on the Broadway stage as a director and on the radio as both an announcer and a writer. His forte was Shakespeare, but he also delved into contemporary as well as classical works. His repertory company called the Mercury Theatre, formed in 1936, consisted of a regular group of actors, including Joseph Cotton, Agnes Moorehead and Ray Collins, performing on the stage as well as in his dramatic radio presentations.
"I think he was the greatest directorial talent we've ever had in the American theater," described Mercury actor Norman Lloyd. "When you saw a Welles production, you saw the text had been affected, the staging was remarkable, the sets were unusual, music, sound, lighting, a totality of everything."
Welles always had a love for movies, and brought his imagination onto the screen first in a now lost 1933 'Twelfth Night' rehearsal sketch, then the following year in 'The Hearts of Age,' a school project with his wife Virginia Nicolson for the Todd School. In "Too Much Johnson," Welles designed his movie to be shown in three parts, interspersed with a stage production of the 1894 William Gillette comedy of the same name. The combination of a live show and a film harkened back to the vaudeville days when stage acts were interspersed with short silent films to make an evening's entertainment. Trouble was Welles' ambition to present the hybrid never came to fruition when he was planning to present it at the Stony Creek Theatre in Branford, Connecticut. The theater failed to secure a projector for "Too Much Johnson," so the audience saw only the play. Welles' failure to pay Paramount Pictures, who held the rights to Gillette's play, also put a halt to Orson's idea.
If anything, creating "Too Much Johnson" was a good exercise in filmmaking for the young Welles. There are hints of the style of direction he would display three years later in "Citizen Kane." He places a number of shots with the camera aiming downward as well as several shots looking up on his subjects. His mix between close-ups and medium shots are also unusual. The movie took ten days to shoot, ripping through nearly 25,000 feet of film for the intended 40 minutes in length. "Orson had a wonderful time making the film," remembered future director John Berry, who was assisting Welles in the production. He recalled Welles editing the movie in his suite at the St. Regis Hotel in New York City when a fire broke out, "What I remember, most remarkably, is me running with the projector in my hand, burning, trying to get out of the door into the hallway while Orson, with absolutely no concern whatsoever, was back inside, standing and looking at some piece of film in his hand, smoking his pipe." After the failure to show "Too Much Johnson," Welles took what he had edited and other additional footage and placed it in storage. Welles later came across the movie thirty years later at his home in Spain. "I can't remember whether I had it all along and dug it out of the bottom of a trunk, or whether someone brought it to me, but there it was. I screened it, and it was in perfect condition, with not a scratch on it, as though it had only been through a projector once or twice before." A 1970 fire in his house destroyed that copy, and everyone thought the movie was lost until another copy was miraculously found in Italy.
Welles was very busy during this period of his life. In his series on CBS Radio, 'The Mercury Theatre on the Air' broadcasted classical works dramatized over the airwaves. One episode Welles' produced was a radio adaptation of H. G. Wells' 'The War of the Worlds.' The broadcast simulated a fictional radio news report he and his cast gave on the October 30, 1938 show focused on the landing of Martian space ships. A number of listeners failed to hear the disclaimer at the beginning stating the broadcast was a dramatization of the Wells' novel on the Martian invasion of Earth, and became hysterical at the thought they were being attacked.
Welles' worldwide fame bubbled overnight from the broadcast. Several Hollywood studios, already familiar with his inventiveness on the New York City stage, proposed lucrative offers to get him to produce movies. The most generous was RKO Pictures, consisting of a two-picture contract of any subject of his choice. He could write the script, produce, direct and act in the movies, and he was given the right to edit the movies' final cut. Welles signed with RKO on July 22, 1939, launching one of Hollywood's most unusual directorial and acting careers.
"Too Much Johnson" wasn't designed to stand alone. Welles, 23, was already a wunderkind on the Broadway stage as a director and on the radio as both an announcer and a writer. His forte was Shakespeare, but he also delved into contemporary as well as classical works. His repertory company called the Mercury Theatre, formed in 1936, consisted of a regular group of actors, including Joseph Cotton, Agnes Moorehead and Ray Collins, performing on the stage as well as in his dramatic radio presentations.
"I think he was the greatest directorial talent we've ever had in the American theater," described Mercury actor Norman Lloyd. "When you saw a Welles production, you saw the text had been affected, the staging was remarkable, the sets were unusual, music, sound, lighting, a totality of everything."
Welles always had a love for movies, and brought his imagination onto the screen first in a now lost 1933 'Twelfth Night' rehearsal sketch, then the following year in 'The Hearts of Age,' a school project with his wife Virginia Nicolson for the Todd School. In "Too Much Johnson," Welles designed his movie to be shown in three parts, interspersed with a stage production of the 1894 William Gillette comedy of the same name. The combination of a live show and a film harkened back to the vaudeville days when stage acts were interspersed with short silent films to make an evening's entertainment. Trouble was Welles' ambition to present the hybrid never came to fruition when he was planning to present it at the Stony Creek Theatre in Branford, Connecticut. The theater failed to secure a projector for "Too Much Johnson," so the audience saw only the play. Welles' failure to pay Paramount Pictures, who held the rights to Gillette's play, also put a halt to Orson's idea.
If anything, creating "Too Much Johnson" was a good exercise in filmmaking for the young Welles. There are hints of the style of direction he would display three years later in "Citizen Kane." He places a number of shots with the camera aiming downward as well as several shots looking up on his subjects. His mix between close-ups and medium shots are also unusual. The movie took ten days to shoot, ripping through nearly 25,000 feet of film for the intended 40 minutes in length. "Orson had a wonderful time making the film," remembered future director John Berry, who was assisting Welles in the production. He recalled Welles editing the movie in his suite at the St. Regis Hotel in New York City when a fire broke out, "What I remember, most remarkably, is me running with the projector in my hand, burning, trying to get out of the door into the hallway while Orson, with absolutely no concern whatsoever, was back inside, standing and looking at some piece of film in his hand, smoking his pipe." After the failure to show "Too Much Johnson," Welles took what he had edited and other additional footage and placed it in storage. Welles later came across the movie thirty years later at his home in Spain. "I can't remember whether I had it all along and dug it out of the bottom of a trunk, or whether someone brought it to me, but there it was. I screened it, and it was in perfect condition, with not a scratch on it, as though it had only been through a projector once or twice before." A 1970 fire in his house destroyed that copy, and everyone thought the movie was lost until another copy was miraculously found in Italy.
Welles was very busy during this period of his life. In his series on CBS Radio, 'The Mercury Theatre on the Air' broadcasted classical works dramatized over the airwaves. One episode Welles' produced was a radio adaptation of H. G. Wells' 'The War of the Worlds.' The broadcast simulated a fictional radio news report he and his cast gave on the October 30, 1938 show focused on the landing of Martian space ships. A number of listeners failed to hear the disclaimer at the beginning stating the broadcast was a dramatization of the Wells' novel on the Martian invasion of Earth, and became hysterical at the thought they were being attacked.
Welles' worldwide fame bubbled overnight from the broadcast. Several Hollywood studios, already familiar with his inventiveness on the New York City stage, proposed lucrative offers to get him to produce movies. The most generous was RKO Pictures, consisting of a two-picture contract of any subject of his choice. He could write the script, produce, direct and act in the movies, and he was given the right to edit the movies' final cut. Welles signed with RKO on July 22, 1939, launching one of Hollywood's most unusual directorial and acting careers.