John Huston presenting an Honorary Oscar® to Orson Welles for superlative artistry and versatility in the creation of motion pictures at the 43rd Academy Awards® in 1971.
Huston was basically giving the middle finger to Hollywood, and calling them out on their hypocrisy for giving Welles this award, when they constantly set out to destroy his work, and didn't hire him for anything during the last twenty years of his life. Respect!
TheRubberStudiosASMR Zack is a fuckup though, everyone knew of the impact welles had, but were screwing him over anyway coz he wasnt making enough money
RIP John Huston (August 5, 1906 - August 28, 1987), aged 81 And RIP Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 - October 10, 1985), aged 70 You both will be remembered as legends.
John Huston lived for many years in a castle not far from where I live in Ireland. Although he lived in a castle he didn't act like a lord or anything of the kind. If you met him in the pub or in the street he'd always say hello and if things were quiet he might have a short conversation with you. Almost every big star of the period visited Huston at his castle at one time or another and they usually ended up in the local pub...back in those days Irish people loved the movies but they would never think of bothering an actor too much if they met them walking on the street..and so you could meet anyone, especially during boozy weekends which Huston hosted regularly. The most memorable of Hustons guests at least for for the locals must be Richard Burton. He arrived in the pub one Saturday morning and he was still there that night entertaining a packed house with story after story told in that incredible voice of his..and demolishing it is thought more than two bottles of vodka in the process..but what a really nice gentleman he was. John Huston broke his leg badly during his stay here and it's recorded he incurred this injury after falling from his horse. Indeed he did, but he fell from his horse while riding in the pouring rain early one morning while wearing his pyjamas and blind drunk. I think his daugher mentioned this some years ago and it was witnessed by many of the locals. Such great characters we'll never see again..and Wells....I think he deserves to be described as something of a polymath..great man.
I'm thinking of all the actors I would like to see sitting at the table with Huston and Burton. Richard Harris, Oliver Reed, Robert Shaw, etc.,. I think the pub would be out of beer and whiskey before the end of the night.
“On my way back to Ireland, I’ll stop in Spain and give him this.” I can’t think of two directors more eloquent, talented or compelling as John Huston and Orson Welles. They were singular.
The joke was on the audience and the Academy. Orson Welles was at home in L.A. that night, and Huston drove down to his pad after this segment to give him the award and laugh about it over drinks.
The Academy should give Mr Welles another, posthumously, as a cautionary reminder of an industry's propensity for hounding and demonizing not just one of their own, but one of their absolute best.
I've been down an Orson Welles wormhole the last few days, watching and reading many interviews, articles & essays. In so doing, I've found myself taking umbrage on behalf of a man more than 30 years gone. The twists of the knife and turns of the wheel have been both enjoyable and infuriating. How is it that man with a blindingly apparent genius could have been attacked with such venom and virulence that there was a period during which he was written out of his own career. I'm talking of course about Pauline Kael. It must have been some measure of comfort to Mr Welles that the Academy and the AFI rightly honoured him. But I do wonder if Mr Welles thought about the motives of the Academy, especially, when for many years the industry told so many lies about him. If he were a straight up and down asshole, or he was a profligate budget blower or he had monstrous skeletons in his closet, I'd understand why they'd turn their backs. But in _every single_ interview I've seen, Mr Welles comes across as magnanimous, warm, charming and as humble as he might be self-aggrandizing. Actually even the latter is wrong. There was no balancing act between humility and self-congratulation. He was always mindful of when he thought he might sound pompous, he displayed an immense generosity of spirit and when he spoke of actors in high regard, you knew he was telling the truth because he offset his love of actors with his disdain for producers. I won't ever be able to fathom why Pauline Kael was so desperate to tear down Orson Welles that whatever code of ethics she had was ruined.
Nx Doyle I've been going down the same rabbit hole as you, although I don't feel the need to fight Welles' battles posthumously. I just enjoy hearing the man speak. Everything he says is so well thought out. I still haven't seen Kane, another of many classics on my list.
@@ivam6473 I'm catching up. I saw Citizen Kane and The Third Man and even went down the road of "The Other Side of the Wind" and "They'll Love Me When I'm Dead." But I still have more to watch.
Wells did win the Best Original Screenplay Oscar for Citizen Kane, but because the film didn’t win Best Actor, Best Director and Best Picture, people don’t seem to realize this.
@@philiphalpenny9761 but he still won an Academy Award, regardless of sharing credit or not. Me writing my comment was to illustrate that he’s an Oscar winner, as many believe that because he didn’t win Best Actor and Best Director as well as the film not winning Best Picture, Orson Welles never got an Academy Award. Now, he didn’t get personally nominated again for his work after Citizen Kane, which is a shame. The Magnificent Ambersons got nominated for Best Picture, but that was before producers got their names attached to the award. At that time those specific awards went to the company the film was made under, like RKO with this conversation, so Welles was nominated for 3 Oscars and won just 1.
@@Jared_Wignall The recent film Mank concurs with Pauline Kael in trying to strip even that little bit of acclaim for Welles. I wonder if Orson is enjoying a perverse grin today on the 106th anniversary of his birth...wherever he is!
Ah, those were the days. Why can't the OSCARs have moments like this anymore? It appears there might have been a montage of Welles' films around the 1:30 mark that has been cut out of this video. What a shame!
Orson Welles was a great , masterful film-maker and a great personality which we will never see again. Was such a strong man and so interested in others. His voice was one of a kind.
At the age of 28 he managed to create one of the finest films of all time. If he deserved only 1 Oscar for Screenplay for that film then the world is flat.
Hearst, Hollywood, AND POISONOUS JEALOUSIES are what strangled much of Orson's desire to make many films and not have to constantly scrabble to put the production capital together. This AAward was, of course, WAY long overdue, ... but at least enough people came to their senses to award it to him. he probably used it as a doorstop.
Following the release of Citizen Kane, which Hearst and several studio heads tried to destroy based upon the unflattering portrayal of the newspaper mogul, Welles never made a commercially released film without interference. The Magnificent Ambersons was badly edited and shown in truncated form; The Lady From Shanghai was also altered; Touch Of Evil was re-cut, although it was later restored to Welles vision; Chimes At Midnight had a limited release after a N.Y. Times negative review and his last film, The Other Side Of The Wind, was confiscated and never commercially released, although the film has now come back to the Welles estate and is being completed by Peter Bogdanovich.
As someone who agrees that John Huston and Orson Welles (as well as many other film makers of that era) were gods among men, I would argue that there are still talented figures like that today. Whether it be Paul Thomas Anderson, Vince Gilligan, Martin Scorcese, Takashi Miike or any of the film makers working at Pixar (to name a few). Genius does not come with any single era, although those geniuses produced by each era helps us to better understand them.
Academy award winners get to enjoy that great honor for twelve months and then they are soon forgotten when they find themselves eclipsed by the next year's winners. Citizen Kane is Immortal.
We know a remote farm in Europe where Orson Welles lives. Every July, he and John Huston film another six minutes of _The Other Side Of The Wind._ And now here, under protest, is beefburgers.
Welles should have left Hollywood after making Citizen Kane. He should have gone back to making a killing doing radio and theater, two mediums that he excelled at. After a few years, Citizen Kane's mastery would have been recognized and the studios would have begged for him to come back... and W.R. Hearst would have been literately and figuratively out of the picture.
Welles was in Hollywood when his Honorary Oscar was presented, however, he made a deliberate decision not to attend the presentation. He continued to struggle to obtain financing for the completion of The Other Side Of The Wind, that was edited and released to Netflix thirty years after his death; He wanted to make a film of King Lear, but he couldn't obtain Studio money.
This was Welles quiet--and nearly unknown--snub to the industry that for so long ignored him. He really was in Los Angeles at the time of the awards, but sent the bit of film to take his place. He didn't feel the need to be present for his own career funeral. "I was hiding out in Laurel Canyon!" chortled he...
The Hollywood establishment saw Orson Welles as a huge threat because he could produce, direct, finance and star in movies. DIY and in an expert way, in a Citizen Kane way. If that was allowed to flourish there would be no need for the industry or the fat cat studio moguls. He said movie direction could be learned in a day and a half, directly from an expert. He exposed the money racket that is Hollywood. That's why they butchered his films in post production editing and froze him out. He was bugged and followed. Attempts were made to frame him in criminal set ups but he escaped to Europe in time.
Lol Orson welles was actually in his flat 😂. It was revealed later both huston and Welles just went fuck you to the academy for treating them like shit, and they laughed theyre asses off when they realised the academy were honouring welles to look good in the public eye. He deliberately didnt show, and lied about it, and the academy knew it. That's why John Huston says "Happy lunacy that really telling it like it is" lmao the Oscars uploading this now continues the irony.
I hope Hollywood understood its mistakes. He didn't want an Oscar, he wanted to work, to do what he did best. If we'll ever have another Orson Welles, Hollywood better not leave him on his own like they did to him
Kubrick and Walles at least have an oscar ( yes citizen kane won best screenplay ) hitchcock hasnt won anything from the academy , only some memorial award during the last years of his career
Cinephiles admire it, but it isn't an easy film to "love." One reason "How Green Was My Valley" won over "Citizen Kane" was the emotional factor. "Valley" was more accessible and tugged at the heartstrings, while "Kane" was more intellectually stimulating as an artistic expression. Both great films, though.
atleast they threw him this award. Given the animosity Hollywood and industry head had with him and constantly fucking him over, it was possible that this may have never happened
Orson was Sublime indeed his cadence and supreme intelligence❤️ Hollywood will never redeem themselves for the Magnificent Ambersons and the cutting ✂️ of his film🤨
He looks like he has his Paul Masson suit on on. Maybe that's why he couldn't attend the ceremony because he was filming a Paul Masson commercial. "Aaaah the frenchhhh champagne!"
Welles made a conscious decision not to attend the Oscar ceremony at which he was given this honorary Oscar. As evidenced in the new book memorializing conversations with the director Henry Jaglom, Welles couldn't obtain financing for virtually any project involving him as a director/star during the 70s and the 80s until his death. His efforts to complete and release The Other Side Of The Wind were frustrated. He wanted to direct and star in a production of King Lear that didn't come to fruition
How ironic that Welles refers to making more films in the future; he made, "The Other Side Of The Wind" with John Huston as an actor in 1973, however, it has never been commercially released. He made F Is for Fake and a few short films like The Immortal Story, but he never achieved a commercial success. Kane, Touch Of Evil and Chimes At Midnight have all achieved an exalted status among film aficianados.
Study his mannerisms while speaking, how he uses his eyes, especially when he makes eye contact with the camera and what he does when he's thinking... he's hypnotic. Then do it for a day. You will see a huge difference in how you're treated... especially by the laydeez ;-)
I understand that it was unfair back then, but who cares how long it took for him to get an Oscar. This is us 41 years after this Honorary Oscar was presented, still going on about it... 30 years; the Oscar is not just for Citizen Kane, but for 30 years of brilliant contribution to the Industry. And regardless of the truth Welles spoke about the audience, his audience appreciated and appreciates him just as much as the movie people.
Welles and Huston were lying. Welles hated the hypocrisy of the Oscars, and dreaded getting up to thank all the people who had refused to employ him for so many years - so he & Huston made up the excuse about being in Spain. In reality, when the ceremony was screened, he was living in poverty in a rented bungalow down the road in LA, watching it on TV. At the end, he yelled at the TV "Bring it over, John!" That the Academy should now post this speech to publicise itself is the ultimate irony.
Wikipedia says: William Shakespeare's play Macbeth is said to be cursed, so actors avoid saying its name when in the theatre (the euphemism "The Scottish Play" is used instead).
The Academy is usually too little, too late. Welles getting an honorary Oscar when he should have had an Oscar for best director many times over is ridiculous. He should have received the Oscar for director for Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons, The Lady from Shanghai, Touch of Evil, and Chimes at Midnight. They did the same thing to Chaplin. He should have received the Oscar for director for City Lights, Modern Times, and the Great Dictator.
He received a special Oscar in 1928 for his work on "The Circus." But it's true, Chaplin was nominated several times competitively, but only won in 1973 for his (20-year-old) "Limelight" score, due the technicality that it hadn't been released in LA in 1952. So, the Academy honored him 3 times during his career.
There's a certain sadness in watching this. Citizen Kane and Orson Welles overlooked constantly by this organization, so we get one of those "Better Late Than Never" Oscars. Hope you guys still stand by your choices like Paul Lukas and Paul Muni over those you thought were losers like Richard Burton, Peter O'Toole, and Orson Welles.
True about Paul Muni. So called "prestige actors" of yesterday now, if remembered at all, look preposterous. Edward G. Robinson, the great character actor, was not nominated in a 50 year career service to films.
Orson insisted that he couldn’t attend as he would be working in Europe and agreed to do a film piece for the ceremony. In actuality he was at home in LA watching the show on TV.
Does anyone know the name of the theme that is playing at the start of the video when John Huston walks onto the stage. It sounds amazing! Would be much appreciated if someone could tell me the name of the theme :)
