These are some original takes for the legendary Orson Welles "We Will Sell No Wine Before Its Time" commercial, and show that working with the legendary Mr. Welles could be...memorable.
That's because they've been there for what feels like days, and the real mark of their professionalism is that they haven't leaped over the table and broken the bottle over his head.
That's what I was thinking. He should've said "mwaa haaa, I just drank a whole bunch of this excellent wine," *points at bottle* and it would've been a perfect commercial.
I like to imagine the guy holding the bottle beforehand was like "By golly yeah this is gonna be my big break! I get to say I worked with Orson Welles!" That enthusiasm drops real fuckin fast after about 5 seconds.
You can see it on his face as well; at 0:15 he realizes that something's up, and at 0:28 he realizes that this isn't Orson Welles "the master", this is Orson Welles "the drunkard".
For the record, Orson Welles was not drunk in this. Instead, he had been filming all through the previous night (over 12 hours) and he had taken a sleeping pill to try and sleep on the way to the shoot, but it kicked in late.
0:55 "Okay, Orson, when you begin your sentence, we're looking more for 'charmed reminiscing' and less 'evil scientist watching his plans come together' "My artistic choices are my own!"
@@finnvalor1915IIrc he had taken sleeping pills to get rest on his way back from a shoot in vegas which only started to kick in when he arrived at the house where the shoot was. The director decided to take a few shots for insurance reasons after which Orson Welles took a nap in the houses guestroom. When he woke up 3 hours later he was able to pull off his lines and they finished the shot.
Imagine you're an aspiring actor, you get a tiny gig as a background extra in a wine commercial, and you hear that Orson Welles is gonna star in it. "Wow," you think. "I can't believe I get to witness one of the greatest actors of my generation! I can't wait to see how brilliant he is!" And then you show up on set to witness this. It's better than you could have possibly imagined.
mahaaaaa. I was in the liquor store the other day and saw some Paul Masson brandy and started going "mahaaaaa" to myself. It still has a brief description on the bottle that is very similar to the text Orson is reading despite it being a different product and multiple decades later. Yes, I did buy it. Fall has come and that means it's brandy season!
"Hey, you know how France makes the good shit? Well, now we got a French guy making good shit over here too. And we get to call it 'champagne' because it's the 80s and there's no law against that yet"
@@makinbacongreasyagain968 - your comment threw me off for a second, and then I saw what you meant. So, then I thought, just for fun, what would "70% proof" translate to. Would it mean "0.70 proof"? In that case, the drink would only be 0.35% percent alcohol by volume.
Imagine FedSmoker and Orson Wells raising Hell in Heaven as they sip Paul Masson and smoke some Meth together.....kinda want to die now just to go hang out with them tbh
+Michael Clifford Well actually he wasn't "rich as all hell." He did all those crappy ads, voice-overs, cameos, Dean Martin roasts etc. to finance his movie projects. Nobody else would finance them for him. He had like five or six movies at various points of completion when he died. Plus he liked to get drunk.
“He doesn’t do anything?” “No Orson, well, I mean, he oddly holds the parts of the cork and then touches the glass like he’s going to pour it but then just doesn’t. Yeah I know it’s bad directing… but hey, I’m cheap”
I think about this a lot. Imagine being one of the actors working with Orson Welles - saying to your partner the night before shooting 'I'm going to be working with Orson Welles tomorrow. THE Orson Welles. I can't wait' and then just turning up to... that.
Poor Orson (and his career) aged very badly in the TV era. He was grey and obese by 1960 and a flat broke alcoholic by 1977, which is when he started doing ads for wine, peas and fish patties. He also did a bunch of voiceovers for the band Manowar despite hating the music. It was not a good time for him or his legacy.
A lot of people said the same thing about Marlon Brando. It was an entire generation of actors who peaked way too early, but while Brando was resurrected in the 70s, Welles flatlined into obscurity. It’s an unglamorous end for such a powerhouse of charm and talent, but Welles either had no desire for a career revival, or his ego scared off producers. I wish he’d directed an all-time great at the end of his life. It would’ve bookended his career in a suitably cinematic way.
Thomas Mason Well, he definitely drank something. But, I thought he was fired from Paul Mason because he went on a talk show and said he had never drank this brand of sparkling wine.
Sorry Not Sorry If memory serves, Welles said the wine was awful and the crowd of "guests" he's shown consorting with were the sort of people Robert Young would have over for drinks.
After 0:54 the extra to the left flinched as soon as Orson nonchalantly slurs "mwahaaa the frensh...". She is trying very goddamn hard to keep a straight face. That's a professional right there.
Jerry Watkins I watched each time, wondering, did they rehearse? Mah-hahhhhhahhghhh. So terrible. I didn't catch that he's scratching his nose and goes into the line without a break. The Master.
My favorite part about this is the veiled look of panic on the face of the other two actors, that expression when you're not sure if someone is choking or otherwise needs emergency attention, that moment before you call the paramedics and triage a dying person.
The taste of French champagne has always been celebrated for its excellence. There's a California champagne by Paul Masson, inspired by that same French excellence. It's fermented in the bottle, and like the best French champagne, it's vintage dated. Paul Masson's superb taste shouldn't be too surprising: This champagne may not come from France - but it was created by a man who did: Paul Masson. Paul Masson will sell no wine before its time.
"He doesn't do anything?" The cry of a man who, up to that point, was no doubt bring poured a fresh glass of champagne at the *start* of every take before then!
Who came here after seeing Doug Walker covering this? Turns out that Orson Welles wasn’t drunk, he took sleeping pills and they were still in his system by the time he arrived at the studio.
I really feel for the director. During the first take, he seems so genuinely pleased with filming the commercial. Nevermind that it's some champagne commercial or whatever, he's on set with Orson Welles, the guy behind Citizen Kane and a myriad of great radio theatre. You can hear the smile in his voice. Then he notices nothing is happening and very carefully reminds Orson that it's his time to start. There's confusion, but he proceeds to clear it up and apologizes when he asks them to cut. Then the second take starts and you hear how absolutely sloshed Orson, slurring and barely making his way through his line with his eyes wandering. Not even trying, really. You can hear how when the director says "cut", he realizes the situation he finds himself in and is immediately disheartened. The next "cut", he doesn't even bother to wait until Orson himself pauses, he's noticeably annoyed. Any cheer he could have gotten from working with a film and radio legend is gone, it went from a day where he'd get a story he'd probably share with everyone he knew for the rest of his life, to a day he merely was forced to direct a drunk. Imagine being told you're going to meet a hero of yours, a legend in your field of work, and somehow they show up incredibly drunk *and* hungover. Talk about rough.
Yes, but after some time, when the director is not that invested or frustrated, he has a way better story to share. The bloopers made an otherwise forgettable add of the 70s featuring an actor that was well past his prime at the time, to one genuinely funny montage being seen 50 years later (that's more than most films can ever brag about)
imagine crying on your pillow because your idol is drunk.. like how's that your business? there's nothing vile about drinking, yes orson was a heavy drinker, and that could be a source of sadness for his fans, but orson still had a relative long life, maybe not completely happy, maybe not completely complete like many of his movies, but still a life that i bet gave him lots of fun, i don't think orson would want people to weep over his final years, weep for all the shit hollywood did to him when he was very much young, that's probably what bothered him the most
My brothers and I were watching the old Adam West Batman, and we somehow got to talking about old radio and tv, and this came to me like a vision mid-sentence. I then spent a good 7 minutes trying to think of Orson Welles’ name, and finally remembered because he was the Hollywood producer in the first muppet movie. Then I spent another 3 minutes or so trying to find this video, and this is all going a long ways to say that I love this video almost as much as John Madden moon base alpha and big bill hells cars.
