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Orson Welles #2
Orson Welles, Volume 2: Hello Americans
From Citizen Kane to Macbeth , Simon Callow’s brilliant biography of Orson Welles explores the breakdown of his Hollywood career.
When Citizen Kane , his first film, opened in 1941, Welles was universally acclaimed as the most audacious filmmaker alive. But instead of marking the beginning of a triumphant career in Hollywood, the film proved to be an exception in Welles’s life and work. He found it increasingly impossible to function within Hollywood’s system. Project after project foundered, either abandoned incomplete, or was released in very different form from the one he intended. Finally, in 1947, he left America for Europe where for the best part of twenty years he lived in self-imposed exile, occasionally and briefly returning to stage a play, make a film or shoot a television drama.
Hello Americans reveals the immense complexities of Welles’s temperament as well as some of the monstrous personalities with whom he had to contend. At the same time, the book gives full weight to the almost bewildering range of his activities beyond Hollywood. The thread that runs through this apparently incoherent blur of activity is an often-frustrated engagement with his native land, its faults, its arts, its history. But by 1947, he had said all that he had to say to his fellow citizens; it was Goodbye Americans for two decades of experimental, innovative but essentially European work.
When Citizen Kane , his first film, opened in 1941, Welles was universally acclaimed as the most audacious filmmaker alive. But instead of marking the beginning of a triumphant career in Hollywood, the film proved to be an exception in Welles’s life and work. He found it increasingly impossible to function within Hollywood’s system. Project after project foundered, either abandoned incomplete, or was released in very different form from the one he intended. Finally, in 1947, he left America for Europe where for the best part of twenty years he lived in self-imposed exile, occasionally and briefly returning to stage a play, make a film or shoot a television drama.
Hello Americans reveals the immense complexities of Welles’s temperament as well as some of the monstrous personalities with whom he had to contend. At the same time, the book gives full weight to the almost bewildering range of his activities beyond Hollywood. The thread that runs through this apparently incoherent blur of activity is an often-frustrated engagement with his native land, its faults, its arts, its history. But by 1947, he had said all that he had to say to his fellow citizens; it was Goodbye Americans for two decades of experimental, innovative but essentially European work.
400 pages, Paperback
First published August 17, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
September 2, 2020
Simon Callow continues to fascinate me with his second volume of the life of Orson Welles. The first one, ORSON WELLES: THE ROAD TO XANADU, ended with the completion of his most notable film, “Citizen Kane,” and also led the Reader through his highly inventive theatrical experiences including “Voodoo Macbeth” and the infamous radio play broadcast of “The War of the Worlds.”
ORSON WELLES: HELLO AMERICANS might be called the period of the downward spiral. It begins with the follow-up film to “Citizen Kane,” “The Magnificent Ambersons” (which was taken away from him by the studio because he left for another project without completing the editing ... and the preview audience responses thought it was too out of touch with moviegoing tastes) and proceeds to his leaving America to complete “Macbeth” and begin “Othello.”
There were so many times in the book that I wanted to grab Orson Welles by the lapels and scream, “Just what do you think you’re doing?!” Many of his choices made little sense, including allowing a bargain production intended as a war time goodwill gesture to Latin America to go on “seemingly forever” with mounting costs (“It’s All True”) and causing the studio to stop production, leaving it unfinished and disposing of much of the footage. But, the most unbelievable project was mounting a massive Broadway production called “Around The World” (in Eighty Days) that was so lavish it could not possibly succeed.
Callow is a wonderfully readable writer, which is great because he goes into deep investigations of occurrences. Usually, I find myself wishing that biographical writers of the lives of entertainment figures would go into more detail about what happened during the course of the various productions. Callow gave me everything I wanted and provided a sense that I was peering over his shoulder, watching the various adventures unfold.
Two discoveries particularly impressed me:
* Welles could be callous, especially toward his family. However, he was a strong believer in “the moral good,” especially in promoting people working together to create a better and more just world. He committed a great amount of his time attacking inequities (especially an imbalance in racial parity) and was unafraid of possible consequences of his very public stances. He was a hero to many who felt downtrodden.
* Welles absolutely adored the challenge of a creative process. Walt Disney once commented that Disneyland would never be finished. That was how Welles preferred to see his projects ... always thrilled with uncovering something new that might help him to fully realize his Art. However, when it was time to stop experimenting and show what he had done, he lost interest and became fascinated with some new project. In fact, he was a person more focused on what will happen next instead of what was happening now. (This reminded me of how David Lynch is said to put together a film, often making changes when something fascinating captures his attention.)
By the end of the book, Welles has lost considerable credibility in the United States. His defenders fought battles for him without his support while his detractors considered his “genius” to be overstated. Unable to raise financing or maintain control over his endeavors, Welles leaves for Europe ... which leads to the concluding volume in the series. It is one I look forward to reading with great anticipation.
ORSON WELLES: HELLO AMERICANS might be called the period of the downward spiral. It begins with the follow-up film to “Citizen Kane,” “The Magnificent Ambersons” (which was taken away from him by the studio because he left for another project without completing the editing ... and the preview audience responses thought it was too out of touch with moviegoing tastes) and proceeds to his leaving America to complete “Macbeth” and begin “Othello.”
There were so many times in the book that I wanted to grab Orson Welles by the lapels and scream, “Just what do you think you’re doing?!” Many of his choices made little sense, including allowing a bargain production intended as a war time goodwill gesture to Latin America to go on “seemingly forever” with mounting costs (“It’s All True”) and causing the studio to stop production, leaving it unfinished and disposing of much of the footage. But, the most unbelievable project was mounting a massive Broadway production called “Around The World” (in Eighty Days) that was so lavish it could not possibly succeed.
Callow is a wonderfully readable writer, which is great because he goes into deep investigations of occurrences. Usually, I find myself wishing that biographical writers of the lives of entertainment figures would go into more detail about what happened during the course of the various productions. Callow gave me everything I wanted and provided a sense that I was peering over his shoulder, watching the various adventures unfold.
Two discoveries particularly impressed me:
* Welles could be callous, especially toward his family. However, he was a strong believer in “the moral good,” especially in promoting people working together to create a better and more just world. He committed a great amount of his time attacking inequities (especially an imbalance in racial parity) and was unafraid of possible consequences of his very public stances. He was a hero to many who felt downtrodden.
* Welles absolutely adored the challenge of a creative process. Walt Disney once commented that Disneyland would never be finished. That was how Welles preferred to see his projects ... always thrilled with uncovering something new that might help him to fully realize his Art. However, when it was time to stop experimenting and show what he had done, he lost interest and became fascinated with some new project. In fact, he was a person more focused on what will happen next instead of what was happening now. (This reminded me of how David Lynch is said to put together a film, often making changes when something fascinating captures his attention.)
By the end of the book, Welles has lost considerable credibility in the United States. His defenders fought battles for him without his support while his detractors considered his “genius” to be overstated. Unable to raise financing or maintain control over his endeavors, Welles leaves for Europe ... which leads to the concluding volume in the series. It is one I look forward to reading with great anticipation.
July 6, 2010
This covers Welles' post-Kane middle years, and covers the studios' trashing of Magnificent Ambersons and Lady of Shanghai, and his marriage to Rita Hayworth, among other events. Among these high points (and these two films are examined in minute and fascinating detail), we are also given a massive amount of information about Welles' life and many still-born projects, much of which could have been edited down to leave a more readable book, I would aver. The first volume had a clear dramatic end-point in the making and success of Citizen Kane, but this middle part of the bio feels a bit formless, with no real structure or 'theme' as such. The publishers should probably have made it a two-volume biography, as this book pales in comparison with the excellent first volume. Nevertheless, I will be reading volume three with great interest.
April 10, 2020
In Callow’s first Welles biography he takes us from birth to the making of CITIZEN KANE. He also promises the second will cover the rest of his life.
It doesn’t.
Instead it covers the next seven years and is brilliant!
That seven years includes THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS, THE STRANGER, A LADY FROM SHANGHAI and MACBETH. But it also features marriage, flirtation with a political career, employment as a columnist, ambitious stage shows and too many flame outs to count.
The sheer scope of events in this period means the short focus of this biography is merited. Callow catches Welles at his mercurial best, as well as a man who is his own worst enemy.
It doesn’t.
Instead it covers the next seven years and is brilliant!
That seven years includes THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS, THE STRANGER, A LADY FROM SHANGHAI and MACBETH. But it also features marriage, flirtation with a political career, employment as a columnist, ambitious stage shows and too many flame outs to count.
The sheer scope of events in this period means the short focus of this biography is merited. Callow catches Welles at his mercurial best, as well as a man who is his own worst enemy.
August 20, 2007
I read the first installment of this series when it came out about ten years ago, and eagerly awaited the next chapter. I thought it would cover the rest of Welles' life, but silly me, it's only the middle of his life. Although I am a great Welles fan, I feel that this book does get bogged down in some of the everyday details of Orson's life, although this did give me great insight to the details of Welles' work in the Civil Rights movement. I had not realized before that he was so involved and was marked as a "commie" by so many in the country. However, now I have to wait for ten more years to read about the end of his life!!!
June 20, 2025
The second volume of Simon Callow’s epic Orson Welles biography is as much about the fall of the Popular Front after FDR’s death as it is about the difficulty of following up “Citizen Kane.” Callow contextualizes Welles in his time and place with writing that is both extremely informative and delightfully acidic. Reading this book inspired me to finally watch “The Magnificent Ambersons” and “Macbeth,” both of which are awesome, and “The Stranger,” which is not
February 19, 2023
In Hello Americans, Simon Callow gives us 444 pages that chronicles in well-researched detail (a bit too much detail at times – more on this later) a mere nine years in the life of Orson Welles. He begins on May 5, 1941, days before his 26th birthday, with the premiere of Citizen Kane. Callow closes the volume with the release of Welles’ film version of Macbeth in the autumn of 1950.
The critical reception of each film well illustrates Welles’ change in fortune during this period. Upon its release, Kane was the subject of rapturous reviews and nearly universal acclaim as a masterpiece. In stark contrast, Macbeth received a three-page spread in Life magazine that Callow rightly calls a “hatchet job”. Thereafter, its most favorable reviews were in non-English publications. Curiously, neither film was a financial success.
In short, this volume the “plateau of Orson Welles”. While still possessIng prodigious talents, Welles is no longer the Boy Wonder of Hollywood or the White Hope of the American theater. During the 1940s, his successes are no longer spectacular and, as often as not, are followed by failures.
Still, by the end of the decade, with varying degrees of success he had worked in movies (most of which he directed and acted in), plays (including a grandiose production of Around the World (in 80 Days)), radio (both as an entertainer and commentator), and as a newspaper columnist. Of course, he was frequently doing two or more of these at the same time.
For me, this covered a part of Welles’ life I knew little about. While I enjoyed learning about his Ill-fated trip to Brazil (to film Carnival, etc.), his involvement in liberal politics and his sundry show business projects, I was most fascinated to learn of his advocacy on behalf of Sergeant Isaac Woodard, Jr. (Chapter 18 “Officer X”).
Having just been discharged after fighting in the Pacific, the African-American Woodard was blinded by a Batesburg, SC police officer after an argument over Woodard using the restroom. Welles made this a cause célèbre. While this helped the secure the officer’s indictment, it could not ensure his conviction. In fact, the “judge had to force the jury to discuss their verdict for at least twenty minutes.”
What I didn’t enjoy was Callow’s scene-by-scene description of The Lady from Shanghai and Macbeth. He spent ten pages on each film. I could have done without this.
In spite of this, I’m looking forward to reading Callow’s third volume, One Man Band.
The critical reception of each film well illustrates Welles’ change in fortune during this period. Upon its release, Kane was the subject of rapturous reviews and nearly universal acclaim as a masterpiece. In stark contrast, Macbeth received a three-page spread in Life magazine that Callow rightly calls a “hatchet job”. Thereafter, its most favorable reviews were in non-English publications. Curiously, neither film was a financial success.
In short, this volume the “plateau of Orson Welles”. While still possessIng prodigious talents, Welles is no longer the Boy Wonder of Hollywood or the White Hope of the American theater. During the 1940s, his successes are no longer spectacular and, as often as not, are followed by failures.
Still, by the end of the decade, with varying degrees of success he had worked in movies (most of which he directed and acted in), plays (including a grandiose production of Around the World (in 80 Days)), radio (both as an entertainer and commentator), and as a newspaper columnist. Of course, he was frequently doing two or more of these at the same time.
For me, this covered a part of Welles’ life I knew little about. While I enjoyed learning about his Ill-fated trip to Brazil (to film Carnival, etc.), his involvement in liberal politics and his sundry show business projects, I was most fascinated to learn of his advocacy on behalf of Sergeant Isaac Woodard, Jr. (Chapter 18 “Officer X”).
Having just been discharged after fighting in the Pacific, the African-American Woodard was blinded by a Batesburg, SC police officer after an argument over Woodard using the restroom. Welles made this a cause célèbre. While this helped the secure the officer’s indictment, it could not ensure his conviction. In fact, the “judge had to force the jury to discuss their verdict for at least twenty minutes.”
What I didn’t enjoy was Callow’s scene-by-scene description of The Lady from Shanghai and Macbeth. He spent ten pages on each film. I could have done without this.
In spite of this, I’m looking forward to reading Callow’s third volume, One Man Band.
July 6, 2008
Covers 1941 to 1947, which included The Magnificent Ambersons, marriage to Rita Hayworth, a New York Post column, The Lady from Shanghai, a musical adaptation of Around the World in Eighty Days that required a 13-hour run-through of its first act the day before the scheduled opening, causing the opening to be postponed 24 hours; divorce from Rita Hayworth, and many other activities. Welles was also serious about politics at this time and I learned a lot about Welles' activities in this area.
The first volume was basically a series of triumphs but this one has more adversity and defeats, in Welles' engagements with the business side of arts and entertainment. Everything is a good story, helped by Cowell's prodigious use of details, like quotes from letters and telegrams to and about Welles.
This observation, which appears in about the middle of the book, is I think an instructive way of viewing this part of Welles' life: "All the early work was achieved by audacity and adrenalin, sheer exuberance and delight in the work of his colleagues. Now, at the age of thirty, adrenalin was harder to command, and audacity not enough...now it was just work, hard work...This is the moment at which character and power of endurance — what the Victorians used to call 'bottom' — becomes almost as important and talent, and much more important than luck."
The first volume was basically a series of triumphs but this one has more adversity and defeats, in Welles' engagements with the business side of arts and entertainment. Everything is a good story, helped by Cowell's prodigious use of details, like quotes from letters and telegrams to and about Welles.
This observation, which appears in about the middle of the book, is I think an instructive way of viewing this part of Welles' life: "All the early work was achieved by audacity and adrenalin, sheer exuberance and delight in the work of his colleagues. Now, at the age of thirty, adrenalin was harder to command, and audacity not enough...now it was just work, hard work...This is the moment at which character and power of endurance — what the Victorians used to call 'bottom' — becomes almost as important and talent, and much more important than luck."
April 8, 2016
Volume 2 could never live up to Volume 1, just as Welles struggles here to surpass Citizen Kane. It is not Callow's fault that it doesn't live up the the previous work; Welles's biography simply doesn't allow another triumphal story such his early successes. Nonetheless, the story is gripping, the struggle for creative control is real and persistent, and one can see why Welles would often abort his creative projects when they became too impossible to sustain. With Volume 3 just released, it will be sad to see the long decline into a legendary and scoffed at semi-retirement of celebrity appearances and lost projects (though it must include triumphs as well). Essential for Welles fans.
December 14, 2016
This second volume of Simon Callow's immense three-volume biography of Orson Welles begins with our hero on top of the world following the release of Citizen Kane. Even his enemies (perhaps especially his enemies) acclaim him as a genius, the US government is dying to work with him, he commands unheard-of fees for someone with such a short track record. He is the Boy Wonder and raconteur, his body filling out into a suitable size for his prodigious energies and appetites. He seems to feel he can do just about anything. With multiple projects on the go, he makes The Magnificent Ambersons, which even allowing for its impressively crafted setpieces is still an odd choice for this moment in history, perhaps even a total misreading of what the film world is about at the mass-market level. More's the point, as Callow points out - perhaps a few times too many - why on earth did Welles keep moving on at just the wrong moment and allowing others to wreck his films in post-production when he had put so much care into creating an artistic vision? He runs away and then spends so much time on firing wounded book-length memos from a distance that one wonders if there was actually a pathology in this - that he couldn't bear to have to be the only captain of the ship he had built and preferred to play Bligh railing at the mutineers…
The truth is Callow, otherwise painstaking and insightful, blunders into repeating a few refrains that keep coming up throughout the text. He almost seems to become exasperated at this distance with the obviously flawed game plan of such a talented individual. And so are we, truth be told, so perhaps it is not that easy to avoid this kind of hand-wringing. Could Welles really not realise that he was causing mayhem at RKO and undermining his patron George Schaefer with his Brazilian exploits and lazy timekeeping? Could he not imagine that a leisurely return over the course of a month through South America was not the way to deal with the clamouring voices of criticism from personalities racist and otherwise? Could he not realise that often he was simply biting the hand that fed him?
In fact, this period, only 5 years in total, was full of so many projects, including a position as a spokesman for civil rights that went far beyond what any of the left-leaning artists of today put forth, that it is astounding to imagine one person achieving so much. Radio shows, radio comedy, stage extravaganzas, Shakespeare plays, thrillers, documentaries, newspaper columns, political roadshows… Oh, he was brilliant, all right. His light was kept under no bushel. His name was known to everyone. But he kept waving that light around to burn the bridges he was crossing. Restless, omnivorous, questing. Even his lesser films are glorious failures, filled with the element of wonder. It seems, by all accounts, that he also brought that quality to the stage. And he was still in his 20s. But he made too many enemies and eventually had to look further afield, to places where those enemies had less power.
Callow, as a fine actor in his own right, and a scholar of this period in film and stage, is on sure ground when he ponders the issue of Welles the actor/director/producer/screenwriter etc. etc. He sees clearly the trap that Welles was setting himself when he agreed to make Jane Eyre in 1944, arguing for all kinds of different billings that would avoid him being seen as "merely" an actor. He sets out Welles' prodigious gifts alongside his occasional flaws, such as a tendency to overwhelm as an actor, unable to share a whole film or a stage. Indeed, Kane aside, we remember him best as an actor when he took second-line or fleeting roles. Harry Lime seen fleetingly in The Third Man is all the more powerful for it, the priest in Moby Dick giving a sermon is a vivid counterweight to the famous search for the white whale, while even his role as corrupt cop Hank Quinlan, billed below Charlton Heston, is a masterpiece of grumbling Falstaffian japery (he was only 43 when he filmed it!).
But I'm getting ahead of myself: Touch of Evil comes in the next instalment. Here, Welles, with his big voice and big body and big talent, had problems sharing space with others. And this led him, over the half-decade illustrated in this volume, to move through a series of almost haphazard projects, leaving ample evidence of his dedication and showmanlike abilities, but not creating a coherent statement that could overcome the snipers when they came for him. The people were thus regaled with tales of his supposed profligacy which were actually inaccurate, but were believable. The racists, of course, hated the very thought of him, and it's curious, now that racism is again on the rise, that there is no comparable figure to compare to him. He dropped that potato pretty quickly too, disillusioned by Harry Truman's rise and the incipient Cold War. All the things that looked like they could be built from the ashes of the Second World War were somehow lost, and all the movements forward that human societies seemed ready to make were also checked. He went from accepting nearly every invitation to speak, to passing on the whole wheeze.
Again, Callow spends some fruitful time on this period, which is perhaps lesser-known than the feature film tales, but is ultimately essential in getting to understand the complicated combination of a need to please and amaze, and a need to be left alone to do things his way, and a need to convince people of the primacy of certain self-evident truths.
There is also a curious aside towards the end, where Callow discusses the theory that Welles was in some way involved with the Black Dahlia murder, as was claimed by one of the victim's friends. There are in fact some curious coincidences that align with the woman's fanciful(?) tale. No one else has gone there with their theories, but it's an interesting insight into this turbulent period in Welles' life, as he spurned the most-wanted woman in the world at the time (the emotionally needy Rita Hayworth) for prostitutes and tomcatting.
The volume ends with Welles on his way to Europe. Of course, we know how this story ultimately ends, but it is a testament to Welles' undimmed art and Callow's indefatigable examination of this lifelong glittering swan dive that we are eager to see how the fallen prince will be able to make his way through the shattered postwar panorama of the Old Continent. And we know there are some stunning films (and way too many TV ads) still to come.
The truth is Callow, otherwise painstaking and insightful, blunders into repeating a few refrains that keep coming up throughout the text. He almost seems to become exasperated at this distance with the obviously flawed game plan of such a talented individual. And so are we, truth be told, so perhaps it is not that easy to avoid this kind of hand-wringing. Could Welles really not realise that he was causing mayhem at RKO and undermining his patron George Schaefer with his Brazilian exploits and lazy timekeeping? Could he not imagine that a leisurely return over the course of a month through South America was not the way to deal with the clamouring voices of criticism from personalities racist and otherwise? Could he not realise that often he was simply biting the hand that fed him?
In fact, this period, only 5 years in total, was full of so many projects, including a position as a spokesman for civil rights that went far beyond what any of the left-leaning artists of today put forth, that it is astounding to imagine one person achieving so much. Radio shows, radio comedy, stage extravaganzas, Shakespeare plays, thrillers, documentaries, newspaper columns, political roadshows… Oh, he was brilliant, all right. His light was kept under no bushel. His name was known to everyone. But he kept waving that light around to burn the bridges he was crossing. Restless, omnivorous, questing. Even his lesser films are glorious failures, filled with the element of wonder. It seems, by all accounts, that he also brought that quality to the stage. And he was still in his 20s. But he made too many enemies and eventually had to look further afield, to places where those enemies had less power.
Callow, as a fine actor in his own right, and a scholar of this period in film and stage, is on sure ground when he ponders the issue of Welles the actor/director/producer/screenwriter etc. etc. He sees clearly the trap that Welles was setting himself when he agreed to make Jane Eyre in 1944, arguing for all kinds of different billings that would avoid him being seen as "merely" an actor. He sets out Welles' prodigious gifts alongside his occasional flaws, such as a tendency to overwhelm as an actor, unable to share a whole film or a stage. Indeed, Kane aside, we remember him best as an actor when he took second-line or fleeting roles. Harry Lime seen fleetingly in The Third Man is all the more powerful for it, the priest in Moby Dick giving a sermon is a vivid counterweight to the famous search for the white whale, while even his role as corrupt cop Hank Quinlan, billed below Charlton Heston, is a masterpiece of grumbling Falstaffian japery (he was only 43 when he filmed it!).
But I'm getting ahead of myself: Touch of Evil comes in the next instalment. Here, Welles, with his big voice and big body and big talent, had problems sharing space with others. And this led him, over the half-decade illustrated in this volume, to move through a series of almost haphazard projects, leaving ample evidence of his dedication and showmanlike abilities, but not creating a coherent statement that could overcome the snipers when they came for him. The people were thus regaled with tales of his supposed profligacy which were actually inaccurate, but were believable. The racists, of course, hated the very thought of him, and it's curious, now that racism is again on the rise, that there is no comparable figure to compare to him. He dropped that potato pretty quickly too, disillusioned by Harry Truman's rise and the incipient Cold War. All the things that looked like they could be built from the ashes of the Second World War were somehow lost, and all the movements forward that human societies seemed ready to make were also checked. He went from accepting nearly every invitation to speak, to passing on the whole wheeze.
Again, Callow spends some fruitful time on this period, which is perhaps lesser-known than the feature film tales, but is ultimately essential in getting to understand the complicated combination of a need to please and amaze, and a need to be left alone to do things his way, and a need to convince people of the primacy of certain self-evident truths.
There is also a curious aside towards the end, where Callow discusses the theory that Welles was in some way involved with the Black Dahlia murder, as was claimed by one of the victim's friends. There are in fact some curious coincidences that align with the woman's fanciful(?) tale. No one else has gone there with their theories, but it's an interesting insight into this turbulent period in Welles' life, as he spurned the most-wanted woman in the world at the time (the emotionally needy Rita Hayworth) for prostitutes and tomcatting.
The volume ends with Welles on his way to Europe. Of course, we know how this story ultimately ends, but it is a testament to Welles' undimmed art and Callow's indefatigable examination of this lifelong glittering swan dive that we are eager to see how the fallen prince will be able to make his way through the shattered postwar panorama of the Old Continent. And we know there are some stunning films (and way too many TV ads) still to come.
September 10, 2018
Simon Callow's second volume of Orson Welles' eclectic life is just as detailed and complex as the first which ended at the release of Citizen Kane. This second volume attempted to explain how the wunderkind fell out of favor with Hollywood and became an exile in Europe. After Kane, Welles launched The Magnificent Ambersons. During the Ambersons' post-production process, he was offered the job of making a good will film about Latin America. With no structure, script or studio supervision, the young polymath went nuts--drinking, carousing, filming, jumping from country to country. Meanwhile, Ambersons was cut up to please lowbrow audiences. If only he had stayed in Hollywood and curbed his excesses, who knows what would have resulted? Callow takes in Welles' flaws and those of the studio system, explaining it was a perfect storm of dysfunction. The same could be said of his marriage to Rita Hayworth. Callow examines all of the films covered here--Ambersons, MacBeth, Lady from Shanghai, the aborted It's All True in fascinating detail. He thought he would be able to cover all of Welles' career in one volume, but he needed a third--One Man Band--and then a fourth, as yet unpublished. I look forward to reading both books, but I need a rest with something else first. I hope Callow covered Welles' appearances on What's My Line, I Love Lucy, The Dean Martin Show and Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In.
March 28, 2021
Took me a while to get through this, even though it's a much more svelte piece of work than Callow's first entry in this saga. I think that's in part because it's not an especially pleasant thing to dwell on, the long and somewhat ignominious fall from grace, in which Welles - through considerable fault of his own - effectively torpedoed his own career in Hollywood and found himself in exile in Europe.
But the work produced during this period remains as peerless as ever, even for as compromised as it frequently is. His turns as an actor or contributor on smaller and less-renowned works remain somewhat obscure for good reason, but films such as The Magnificent Ambersons, Journey Into Fear, The Stranger, The Lady from Shanghai, and Macbeth - each of which is explored at length here - remain as powerful and resonant today as they were baffling to audiences at the time (with the exception of The Stranger, which was quite successful).
I was pleased to discover that not only is Callow still alive (why I thought he was dead, I have no idea), but he's also working on a fourth (and likely final, I'd imagine?) volume of this invaluable collection. I've still obviously got Volume 3 to read through, but I'm looking forward to the chapter of Welles's life in which he effectively invents the concept of independent filmmaking.
But the work produced during this period remains as peerless as ever, even for as compromised as it frequently is. His turns as an actor or contributor on smaller and less-renowned works remain somewhat obscure for good reason, but films such as The Magnificent Ambersons, Journey Into Fear, The Stranger, The Lady from Shanghai, and Macbeth - each of which is explored at length here - remain as powerful and resonant today as they were baffling to audiences at the time (with the exception of The Stranger, which was quite successful).
I was pleased to discover that not only is Callow still alive (why I thought he was dead, I have no idea), but he's also working on a fourth (and likely final, I'd imagine?) volume of this invaluable collection. I've still obviously got Volume 3 to read through, but I'm looking forward to the chapter of Welles's life in which he effectively invents the concept of independent filmmaking.
November 20, 2018
The life of Orson Welles was quite sad, as this book--the second in Simon Callow's epic biographical saga--illustrates. Though he was by no means perfect (in addition to being an all around erratic personality with wild periods of creative fervor and slow periods of ferment, he became quite apathetic to various stages of the production process once he realized his input didn't matter and he spurned his beautiful wife Rita Hayworth because he became "bored" with her) he was really the victim of an apathetic unintelligent public and a series of executives who did not understand the innate beauty and complexity of his artistic vision, feeling that his work needed to be effectively "dumbed down" and "made simpler." Given that his filmography as it stands today is chock full of masterpiece after masterpiece, it's a testament to the primacy of Orson's genius as an artist that even in truncated form, top quality originality and mastery of the art form are all that one sees. I don't blame him for throwing up his hands and bolting to Europe. He needed a fresh start and that's where it was.
June 6, 2020
The first book was kinda more readable. Here, Callow indulges in in-depth moment by moment reviews of Welles's films it's almost unbearable. I'm so big on Orson I didn't mind putting up with most of it plus on good days those bits could be mildly entertaining, other times you just skip through them. If I wanted a review I'd have read Pauline Kael. Still a good book. But remember, it's not about Orson Welles, it's about everything that happened in and around his life.
April 2, 2020
An enjoyable, exhaustive, and eye-opening examination of one the most remarkable creative forces in American theater, radio, and film.
Had no idea how politically engaged Welles was in the 40’s, and had he chosen to go through with a proposed run for the Wisconsin Senate seat, his opponent would have been Joseph McCarthy. What if?
Had no idea how politically engaged Welles was in the 40’s, and had he chosen to go through with a proposed run for the Wisconsin Senate seat, his opponent would have been Joseph McCarthy. What if?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 30, 2022
Such an enjoyable biography. What stands out is these pivotal moments that Welles couldn’t understand were junctions in life. To go left was salvation, to turn right would be disaster. And so he sinks money and time in to a circus, he skips out on the edit of a film and then again. The story of a man who reached his zenith at 25 and lived long enough to know it. What a story.
October 11, 2025
Welles is such a fascinating figure. One of the most famous (perhaps infamous) directors of all time and his pursuits from month to month are so expansive and ambitious like no one else. Good unraveling of Welles’ downfalls in this period, but also an understanding of his psyche as a singularly independent creative.
December 19, 2019
Volume 2 of the best Welles biography.
Read
April 21, 2025Excellent. Very thoroughly researched and engagingly written.
December 2, 2025
Fantastic, insightful look at the tragically-brief middle period of Welles' career.
February 14, 2025
As good as volume one, if not slightly better. It covers the few years after Citizen Kane very nicely; this tends to be a neglected for some biographers, so I’m glad Callow gave it special attention. He writes with wit and insight throughout:
June 15, 2015
Actually not that bad a book despite the relatively low rating I gave it. So let me explain...
The thing is, Callow seems completely unequal to the task of figuring out such a massive titan as Orson Welles. I will grant that this is the second of three volumes (probably, right? but at least in that regard he's exactly like Welles), and I haven't read the first one, so maybe there's something in the first that helps explain the second to the untrained eye, but...I somewhat doubt that. Enough allusion is made to whatever exists in the first that the reader of the second shouldn't have missed anything essential.
That being said, what Callow's biggest sin is that he seems to forget that his task is Orson Welles, and not a mere chronology of his activities from the given handful of years. And the strangest part of what he does do is make it virtually impossible to sympathize with Welles. In essence, this is a book that would have made his enemies very, very proud, vindicated in all their efforts to, in effect, completely sabotage and dismantle his efforts and future potential.
When he is sympathetic, Callow is instead as obsessive as Welles himself. Little wonder as to why he chose the man as a subject, then. He becomes beholden to projects in minute detail, as if that explains Welles, apropos of nothing. In order to represent the genius of the man, he gives blow for blow accounts of certain things. And yet his internal editor is as erratic as the studios that so gleefully chopped up Welles' work.
So in a certain sense, this is a book that is all too appropriate a portrait of someone later fans might barely have comprehended in full previously, with the legend eclipsing the reality save to report the boy wonder's epic decline. If that's what you want to read, then by all means, do what I did. Or perhaps look for or await something better. But then, perhaps it takes a genius to truly comprehend a genius. And perhaps that simply hasn't happened yet. If anyone reading this review knows of such an effort, please let me know.
The thing is, Callow seems completely unequal to the task of figuring out such a massive titan as Orson Welles. I will grant that this is the second of three volumes (probably, right? but at least in that regard he's exactly like Welles), and I haven't read the first one, so maybe there's something in the first that helps explain the second to the untrained eye, but...I somewhat doubt that. Enough allusion is made to whatever exists in the first that the reader of the second shouldn't have missed anything essential.
That being said, what Callow's biggest sin is that he seems to forget that his task is Orson Welles, and not a mere chronology of his activities from the given handful of years. And the strangest part of what he does do is make it virtually impossible to sympathize with Welles. In essence, this is a book that would have made his enemies very, very proud, vindicated in all their efforts to, in effect, completely sabotage and dismantle his efforts and future potential.
When he is sympathetic, Callow is instead as obsessive as Welles himself. Little wonder as to why he chose the man as a subject, then. He becomes beholden to projects in minute detail, as if that explains Welles, apropos of nothing. In order to represent the genius of the man, he gives blow for blow accounts of certain things. And yet his internal editor is as erratic as the studios that so gleefully chopped up Welles' work.
So in a certain sense, this is a book that is all too appropriate a portrait of someone later fans might barely have comprehended in full previously, with the legend eclipsing the reality save to report the boy wonder's epic decline. If that's what you want to read, then by all means, do what I did. Or perhaps look for or await something better. But then, perhaps it takes a genius to truly comprehend a genius. And perhaps that simply hasn't happened yet. If anyone reading this review knows of such an effort, please let me know.
February 10, 2017
Welles is one of the most influential figures in cinema and as such deserves a great biography. Callow delivers, giving us a Welles of genius and petulance. The first volume covered Welles's youth with its myriad of influences and his incredible successes in theater, radio, and film that resulted in his being named the Boy Wonder. This volume details his fall due to his own over-reaching and neglect. Callow gives us a Welles that is hard to like or even admire, even when he is championing civil rights and democracy. He is extremely hard on Welles the actor (not surprising since Callow himself is an actor). But he also does not let us forget Welles's genius as a director of cinema. His readings of the films is illuminating and makes one long for the versions Welles envisioned instead of the mangled studio versions we are left with. I was quite surprised at Callow's description of Welles version of The Stranger. I am looking forward to Volume Three with the stories of Touch of Evil and Welles Shakespearean masterpiece Chimes at Midnight.
September 25, 2011
Volume Two of Simon Callow's planned 3-part biography of Orson Welles is just as meticulously researched and engagingly written as the first volume. Unlike previous Welles biographers, Callow neither elevates his subject to a godlike status nor denigrates him as a talentless egomaniacal bully. Callow acknowledges Welles' genius when it is deserved; he also unflinchinly analyzes Welles' self-destructive nature. Welles was clearly his own worst enemy. This book covers only a seven-year period in Orson's life, but it was a period of unceasing activity on multiple fronts. Welles directed a handful of pictures, did dozens of radio broadcasts, wrote a newspaper column, directed for the stage, was a committed political activist, and still found time to eat, drink, and carouse to excess.
Orson Welles is a dynamic and fascinating character, and Simon Callow does an admirable job of sketching in the details of Welles' life. Let it be known that Simon Callow is not "an actor who writes", he is every bit as brilliant a writer as he is an actor. It's almost criminal that one person should have this much talent.
I eagerly await volume three.
Orson Welles is a dynamic and fascinating character, and Simon Callow does an admirable job of sketching in the details of Welles' life. Let it be known that Simon Callow is not "an actor who writes", he is every bit as brilliant a writer as he is an actor. It's almost criminal that one person should have this much talent.
I eagerly await volume three.
July 11, 2009
After directing/writing/producing/starring in a debut movie such as Citizen Kane, can you go anywhere but down? Volume 2 answers that question, covering Welles from post-Kane to the release of Macbeth, with the "boy" wonder leaving for Europe. Callow is just as good as last time; while sometimes getting a bit long in certain details, he is almost always informative and entertaining. I've always been curious about Welles's "lost" years and was a bit disappointed that this longish book only covers seven years (1941-1948), which comes out to be about 100 pages a year. Still, if you find the subject fascinating, it's worth the time. Volume 3, Mr. Callow?
October 7, 2012
This book looks at Orson Welles' life and career in the Forties, from the making of "The Magnificent Ambersons" to Welles' departure for Europe to make "The Third Man." During this time, Welles had seen his career crash in Hollywood, on radio and on Broadway. Callow digs into the reasons for these setbacks and shows far more sympathy for Welles' than he did in his first volume, "The Road to Xanadu." The result is one of the best books on Welles' and his multi-faceted career. It is a gripping and suspenseful read. My only regret is that it will never be an Orson Welles movie.
August 25, 2020
Not as good as the first volume of Welles' bio, "The Road to Xanadu," but it's hard to top the story of "War of the Worlds" and "Citizen Kane." Still, it's astonishing how much Welles accomplished even as he was having trouble finishing anything before he moved on to something else that caught his fancy. The third volume is much better, better even that the first one.
October 4, 2011
An enormously detailed account of the post Citizen Kane to Macbeth period for Welles in Hollywood. Simon Callow's research has caused me to reconsider my previous understanding that O W was a victim of the studio machine. No doubt he was to an extent, but it appears much of the difficulties were of his making.
June 21, 2016
It's hard to believe how often Orson Welles essentially made a complete career change and became either an established leader or a hated amateur (or both!)
Based on this book, it's very hard to see what really drove Welles other than his love of a creative frenzy.
Based on this book, it's very hard to see what really drove Welles other than his love of a creative frenzy.
March 31, 2019
The years that followed the achievement of Citizen Kane were full of failed or abandoned projects but the second volume of Simon Callow's magisterial biography of this deeply flawed genius is no less essential than the first.
March 26, 2008
I love reading about Orson's downfall. It fills me with glee. Is that wicked?
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