Orson Welles: Volume 1: The Road to Xanadu
by Simon Callow

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Book Reviews of Orson Welles: Volume 1: The Road to Xanadu

Book Review: A good trip from Kenosha to Kane
Summary: 4 Stars

As for those 'Kane' scenes, Callow does yeomen's work debunking the myths that went into the production of that particular masterpiece. Mankiewicz, Toland, Schaefer, and Hearst are all heard from (in one way or another) in a way that makes Welles' contributions to that picture much clearer. My one complaint is that this section didn't dominate the book the way I hoped it would have. I suspect that in the title of his book, Mr. Callow wanted to emphasize "The Road" over "Xanadu"; that is his prerogative, but not my preference.

Overall, Welles comes off as a man whose talents justified the hype surrounding them. Also, he appears to be guided by fate. For as Callow points out time after time, just when things could have stagnated, a figure appears in Welles' life at just the right time to propel him along a fruitful path. From Skipper Hill, to John Houseman, to Gregg Toland, the pattern holds true. Someone, or something, appears to have wanted the prodigy to grow up to direct the world's greatest motion picture. And he did. Callow promises that a second volume is in the works, presumable one that will chronicle Welles' decline into artistic irrelevance and obesity. I am looking forward to it.

P.S. I've debated with myself if this is worth mentioning (which probably means it is), but Callow sometimes throws in out-of-the-blue references to an individual's homosexuality. With regards to Houseman, I can understand these allusions, for Callow infers that he was at once Welles' father figure/lover/brother/advisor/friend/enemy (if not in practice, than at least metaphorically). But there are other such allusions that make little or no sense. In describing Edna Thomas (a player in Welles so-called "Harlem MacBeth"), Callow refers to the actress as "a discreet and rather statuesque lesbian..." Marc Blitzstein, author/composer of 'The Cradle Will Rock', is described as having a "sexual orientation [that] was homosexual with occasional heterosexual lapses..." These are just two examples. I don't understand the necessity in their inclusion, for they are never referenced again, and have little or no bearing on their relationship to Orson. Just a curiosity, I guess.

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