Orson Welles’s Last Movie: The Making of ‘The Other Side of the Wind’

Orson Welles (1915–1985), one of cinema’s most acclaimed—and eccentric—actors and directors, spent the last 15 years of his life feverishly working on a film he never completed, a frenetic journey that Karp (Straight Down the Middle) chronicles in this informative but at times overly dense account of art and madness. Like Charles Foster Kane in Citizen Kane, the film that made Welles famous at age 25, Welles was larger than life in every way. Given the very rare honor of editing the final cut of Kane, he expected such control for the rest of his career and, sadly, never received it, prompting him to leave Hollywood for Europe. In 1970, eager for a comeback—this was the era of “New Hollywood,” led by films like Bonnie and Clyde—Welles arrived with an idea for The Other Side of the Wind, a film centered on an aging director (eventually played by longtime friend John Huston) trying to stage his own comeback; there would be a film within a film. He always strenuously objected to any claims that it was autobiographical. Filmed on locations over the course of years, Welles never shared the script with any of his actors, preferring instead to guide them through long Altman-style improvisations. The funding crises were constant—Welles could not manage money—and to this day the film remains unedited and unreleased, mired in legal battles that include a French vault and the Shah of Iran’s brother-in-law. Karp often gets overly caught up in the minutiae, but his adoration for Welles is obvious, and readers can only hope Wind will one day reach screens. (Apr.)