Orson Welles Lost Film Found In Italy

Orson Welles’ long-lost 1938 film “Too Much Johnson” was recently discovered in an Italian warehouse and has now been restored, according to the George Eastman House and other preservation orgs. (Can’t you just hear Mae West’s remark on the title? “Too much Johnson? You can never have too much Johnson.”) The restored film will premiere October 9 at Pordenone, Italy’s silent film fest Le Giornate del Cinema Muto. U.S. premiere is set for October 16 at the George Eastman House in Rochester, N.Y. The silent film was originally meant to be shown as part of the Welles’ stage adaptation of an 1894 William Gillette play, and the Mercury Theater planned to show the three short films as prologues to each act of the play. The three-part slapstick comedy, which starred Joseph Cotten, was originally planed to be screened with music and live sound effects, but was never finished.

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