It's All True

I'm reading a biography of Orson Welles and just finished the chapter about a film I knew nothing about: It's All True. It's a lost film, one of many made by Welles over his career, and as he tells it, it was the film that ruined his career in Hollywood.

After great successes by Welles on stage and in radio, he was wooed by many film studios and finally signed a three-picture deal with RKO. Citizen Kane was his first film, but though a critical success it did not do great business, perhaps because it angered William Randolph Hearst, who did everything he could to stop it.

Welles' second film for RKO was The Magnificent Ambersons, which was edited by the studio and released on the first half a double bill with a film called Mexican Spitfire Sees a Ghost.

At this time Welles was approached by Nelson Rockefeller to make a sort of goodwill documentary about Latim America. The government put up some money as did RKO. Welles went off to Brazil to make a film about samba, while at the same time his team was finishing up his third film, Journey Into Fear. It's All True was to have been an omnibus film, with a story about a boy in Mexico, a segment about Carnival in Rio, and a true story about four men who sailed a raft around the coast of South America to petition the government.

While Welles was in Brazil the leadership of RKO changed and the new team basically fired Welles. The governments of both the U.S. and Brazil were both incensed by the Carnival footage, as Welles insisted on heading into the slums to find the roots of samba. Apparently neither country wanted this part of Rio shown, especially all the black faces. Some thought Welles had a fascination with blacks (he had already directed a black version of Macbeth and a stage adaptation of Richard Wright's Native Son) and they found this disturbing.

Welles managed to get enough money to finish Four Men on a Raft, though it was without dialogue. It is presented on this DVD, along with an explanatory documentary about all this. The raft sequence was filmed with the actual four men who accomplished it, but one of them drowned during filming.

As a bit of film arcana this is all fascinating. The raft portion plays very much like Man of Aran, a kind of stark but warm view of the fishermen of Brazil and their everyday lives. Welles created a love story--a young girl gets married, but her new husband is killed, but she has not benefits. The men go to Rio by boat to ask the ruler for help. They visit towns along the coast and are welcomed jubilantly once they reach Rio.

I'll be back to talk about the rest of the book after I've finished it.