On Blu-ray: Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles

I don’t think I have ever written the following statement in in any of my film columns before: if you’re serious about movies, you need to see this excellent documentary about the late, great Orson Welles.

That’s right, I wrote, “need.”

May 6 marked Welles’ 100th birthday and the timing for this film couldn’t be better.

Writer and director Chuck Workman has done many solid documentaries and this production is no exception. While the man who directed “Citizen Kane,” “The Lady from Shanghai,” “Touch of Evil,” and “Chimes at Midnight,” among other movies has long been hailed as an innovator in film, Workman strives to tell us why and to provide the context that will help people understand Welles and the difficult career he had.

Here was an actor, writer, producer and director who took acting jobs in other people’s films in order to finance his own work. Here was a guy who people within the film industry piled on compliments, but couldn’t get the backing to finish some of his films.

Director Stephen Spielberg is seen in the film praising Welles. He even spent $45,000 at auction to buy a “Rosebud” sled from “Citizen Kane,” and while he could have helped Welles, he didn’t.  By the way, there is a clip of Welles recalling and laughing that the Rosebud sled had been burned in the film.

That is the tragedy of Welles’ career.

Workman is willing to show that while Welles was accomplished, he was far from perfect. Married three times and fathering three daughters – and possibly a son out of wedlock – Welles was far from the perfect father and husband. He, however, inspire devotion from beautiful women even in the latter part of his life when he gained the weight that brought him from being a leading man to a character actor. His last companion Oja Kodar still grieves his death – she breaks up on camera speaking about him – and fights for his artistic reputation.

Workman uses clips from many different archival interviews with Welles to tell the story as well as newly filmed interviews with people who knew Welles and historians.

Welles has been the object of several biographies and Workman is limited by his medium in supplying as much detail as some authors have done, but he has done an outstanding job in creating a full portrait of the man in 94 minutes.

There is a great moment in which Welles is recounting how he was able to secure the money he needed to pay for the costumes for a musical adaptation of “Around the World in 80 Days” by conning Columbia Pictures studio chief Harry Cohn for $55,000 in exchange for directing the film that would become “The Lady from Shanghai.” In two clips, Welles changes the dollar amount and details. Historians then discounted the story as just an engaging anecdote.

I wasn’t surprised as Welles, an accomplished magician, was clearly fascinated by illusion, as seen in the last film he completed “F for Fake.”

 I did have a couple of quibbles with the film. I wish Workman had presented more material about how Welles managed to get his version of “Macbeth” made through Republic Pictures, the studio that made the best B-movies in the business.

Workman also alludes to the need for Welles to lend his talents to TV commercials to make a dollar, but only a brief clip of the notorious audio outtakes represents his clear dissatisfaction with that role from a British recording session. I wish he had included more of the tape as well.

I also wish he had described how Welles had built up a stock company of people who worked with him on and off camera, many of whom had great loyalty to the man despite the hardships his low-budget films often presented.

These are minor points, though. This is a wonderful introduction to a great artist and I hope that people who see the film will be inspired to watch – or re-watch – the films of this true innovator.