BEFORE: There are a few films with this title, so if you're looking for it, you might have to search a bit, unless you don't mind watching the wrong movie. (Seriously, one film with this title released in 1980 has Dennis Christopher from "Breaking Away" as a film buff/serial killer who stalks a Marilyn Monroe look-alike. Others are probably even worse.). But only ONE film with this name was recorded on my DVR, the DVR I had to surrender back to my overlords at Spectrum because it kept crashing. I kept those films on my list in the memory of the departed DVR, and if they're streaming, I can just watch them that way and cross them off.
According to the IMDB, this film was on Roku, which by itself didn't present a problem, I have the Roku app, I can just dial it up - but then once I did, Roku wanted me to connect via Hoopla or Philo, whatever they are. I followed the Philo link and watched on my phone, which is NOT my preferred way to do things, but, you know, I can put up with a few commercials if it gets me my movie. But then the captions disappeared whenever there was an ad break, thankfully they came back after the NEXT ad break, but what a weird way to run a streaming service...
Christopher Walken carries over from "One More Time".
FOLLOW-UP TO: "Cradle Will Rock" (Movie 1,775), "Me and Orson Welles" (Movie 1,776)
THE PLOT: Attempting to recover from his failed marriage to Rita Hayworth and restart his career, Orson Welles travels to Italy for a film role, only to be drawn into a dangerous web of intrigue, murder and politics when an actor is murdered on his set.
AFTER: Hollywood just loves making movies about Orson Welles, Christian MacKay played him in "Me and Orson Welles", Angus Macfadyen in "Cradle Will Rock", and of course there was Liev Schreiber in the now-classic (to me, anyway) film "RKO 281". Tom Burke played Orson not too-long ago in "Mank", and if you go back to 1994, Vincent D'Onofrio took a shot in "Ed Wood" (but with voice provided by Maurice LaMarche, the same actor who voiced Brain in "Pinky and the Brain"). That's about it for Welles impersonations, except for John Candy on "SCTV" and Jack Black on "Drunk History". Always he's referred to as a genius, sometimes a fading genius, and of course there are always references to him gaining weight, because we all know how he ended up, doing wine commercials where he was belligerent and drunk on the set.
Much like Christopher Walken's character in yesterday's film, Orson was always planning his comeback, at least for 30 years or so, as we saw in "They'll Love Me When I'm Dead", though by the late 1970's he was really grasping at straws. At least in 1948 he still had a chance to make another film on the level of "Citizen Kane", but was that even possible, for anyone? I mean, once you've made what some people think is the best movie of all time, how can you possibly follow that up? You might as well quit the business, because you can't do any better than best, you can only make movies after that which will be compared to "Citizen Kane" and don't measure up. Welles stuck with it, though, you have to give him credit, and as this film's closing credits point out, the financing for "Othello" fell through seven times - it's a wonder the film got released at all in 1951. Maybe this was par for the course, a natural part of his filmmaking progress (I know this about indie directors all too well) or maybe the world had moved on from Orson and his obsession with the classics - and a white actor doing Othello in blackface? Even in 1951 that was a bad idea.
But "Fade to Black" follows Welles through post-war Italy, where he has come to play Cagliostro in the film "Black Magic". Do I believe that Welles tried to tell the director how to make that film? Yes, that sounds very possible. Do I believe that he put on a magic show as "The Great Orsini" once the filming was complete? Again, we're dealing with "artist brain", a terminal case here, so anything that put more attention on Orson Welles is totally believable. Punching out a paparazzi who constantly referred to him as "Mr. Hayworth". Sure, why not? Solving a murder that may be connected to an international political conspiracy is perhaps a bit more of a stretch, though. But that's where we find ourselves today.
You can tell Danny Huston really wanted to play Welles - though here he's kind of the same person he played in "Marlowe" years later - big Hollywood type, well-connected, always on the look-out for an attractive woman, drinking, smoking and taking drugs ("slimming pills", he called them, but come on, diet pills back then were just speed, as we just saw in "The Apprentice"). He's assisted in his investigation into an actor's murder by Tomasso, his driver, an ex-cop played by Diego Luna, and when you factor in his character's political views, really this is the same character he plays in "Andor", which is set in a galaxy far, far, away.
The deceased bit player had been an admirer of Welles, plus he got his "slimming pills" released from customs, so that was a big favor. Tomasso notes that at the actor's funeral, both police AND mobsters turned up to pay their respects, so that guy must have had connections. Welles meets with the man's family, and learns his wife was the famous silent actress Aida Padovani, and his step-daughter has her mother's looks who reminds Orson of his third wife, and he's only been married twice. But any digging around that Orson and Tommaso do only stirs up trouble, from either the polizia or the mob or any number of the 100 political factions that are trying to take control of the fractured country in the upcoming election. Also there's Pete Brewster, who works for the U.S. government in some capacity, who just wants Orson to finish his "lousy movie" and go home.
Welles might easily have been someone who agreed with the Communist sensibility - he was investigated by the FBI during the Red Scare. He was never called in during the McCarthy hearings because he'd basically self-exiled himself from the U.S. in 1948 and didn't go back to Hollywood until 1956. When movie work in Europe dried up, he shot some projects for the BBC. If he had a big comeback, I guess you could say it was "Touch of Evil" in 1958. So yeah, I can believe Welles saying that the Communist protestors in Italy might have had some good points. But that's neither here nor there. This is a murder mystery, not a history book.
I've got to run and pick up cat litter and maybe some dinner so we can watch last night's episode of "Top Chef". If I'm lucky maybe I can squeeze in some of "Andor" season 2 tonight before I have to go back to the Tribeca Festival tomorrow.
Directed by Oliver Parker (director of "Dorian Gray" and "An Ideal Husband')
Also starring Danny Huston (last seen in "Marlowe"), Diego Luna (last heard in "DC League of Super-Pets"), Paz Vega (last seen in "Acts of Vengeance"), Anna Gallena (last seen in "Being Human"), Violante Placido (last seen in "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance"), Nathaniel Parker (last seen in "Ophelia"), Pino Ammendola, Marko Zivic, Frano Lasic, Paulo Lorimer, Josif Tatic (last seen in "The Brothers Bloom"), Paulina Manov, Miroljub Leso, Damir Todorovic, Daniel Cerqueira (last seen in "Judy"), Lepomir Ivkovic, Branko Jerinic, Garrick Hagon (last seen in "Conclave"), Vincent Riotta (last seen in "Book Club: The Next Chapter"), Tanasije Uzunovic, Milena Djordevic, Kwame Kwei-Armah (last seen in "Cutthroat Island"), Dejan Acimovic (last seen in "The Peacemaker"), Andreja Maricic, Semeli Economou
RATING: 6 out of 10 reels of dailies
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