Three years before he changed the way films are made with Citizen Kane, Orson Welles embarked on a project that was thought to be lost forever. Too Much Johnson is a silent, 40-minute comedy film which the budding filmmaker had composed for his Mercury Theatre as a supplement to their stage production of William Gillette‘s 19th-century comedy. Working as a series of prologues to each of the play’s three acts, the Joseph Cotton-led footage was discovered last year at a shipping company’s warehouse in Pordenone, Italy, and now it’s available to view online in two different forms.
Thanks to Rochester, New York’s George Eastman House, the National Film Preservation Foundation, the Cineteca del Friuli, and Cinemazero, there’s the newly restored 66-minute work print which is compiled from the 10 discovered reels. Those involved, after intense research, also pared down the original footage to 34 minutes (including new intertitles) in an attempt to convey Welles’ original intentions. To go along with both versions, UC-Davis professor Scott Simmon has helpful notes detailing the context in which the work was originally created and how their edits were decided upon.
Without further ado, see this miracle of cinematic discovery by heading over to the National Film Preservation Foundation website, where they have downloadable or streaming versions, or by clicking the images below for either the work print or the newly edited film.
What do you think of Welles’ early work?