Editing Orson Welles (section)

== Legacy and reception ==

[[David Thomson (film critic)|David Thomson]] credits Welles with "the creation of a visual style that is simultaneously baroque and precise, overwhelmingly emotional, and unerringly founded in reality."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Thomson |first=David |title=[[The New Biographical Dictionary of Film]] |year=2010 |edition=5th |page=1031}}</ref> [[Peter Bogdanovich]], who was directed by Welles in ''The Other Side of the Wind'', wrote: <blockquote>being directed by Welles was like breathing pure oxygen all day long. He was so totally in control that he never had to prove a point out of any kind. I never saw him get angry or impatient, or raise his voice in any way but hilarity... Sometimes Orson was holding the camera himself, but wherever the camera was, he had put it there, and all the lights were placed exactly where he said they were to be put. There wasn't anything seen or heard in any scene that wasn't there because Orson wanted it that way, but he was never dictatorial.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bogdanovich |first=Peter |title=[[This is Orson Welles]] |year=1998 |edition=Revised |page=viii}}</ref></blockquote> Welles was a lifelong lover of Shakespeare, and Bogdanovich writes that ''Chimes at Midnight'', in which Welles plays [[John Falstaff]], is "arguably his best film, and his own personal favorite";<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bogdanovich |first=Peter |title=[[This is Orson Welles]] |publisher=[[Da Capo Press]] |year=1998 |edition=Revised |page=xiv}}</ref> [[Joseph McBride (writer)|Joseph McBride]] and [[Jonathan Rosenbaum]] have called it Welles's masterpiece, and [[Vincent Canby]] wrote "it may be the greatest Shakespearean film ever made."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Canby |first=Vincent |date=March 2, 1975 |title=The Undiminished Chutzpah of Orson Welles |work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref>

After Welles went to South America to film the documentary ''[[It's All True (film)|It's All True]]'', RKO cut more than forty minutes from ''Ambersons'' and added a happier ending, against his wishes. The missing footage has been called a "holy grail" of cinema.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kubincanek |first=Emily |date=May 6, 2021 |title=The Quest to Find the Lost Print of The Magnificent Ambersons |url=https://filmschoolrejects.com/orson-welles-magnificent-ambersons-lost-print/ |access-date=January 24, 2023 |archive-date=January 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230124022132/https://filmschoolrejects.com/orson-welles-magnificent-ambersons-lost-print/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Welles wrote a 58-page memo to Universal about the editing of ''Touch of Evil'', which they disregarded.<ref name=":0" /> In 1998, [[Walter Murch]] reedited the film according to Welles's specifications.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ondaatje |first=Michael |title=[[The Conversations]] |year=2002 |pages=181–193}}</ref>

Known for his [[baritone]] voice,<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Orson Welles |last=Christley |first=Jaime N. |magazine=[[Senses of Cinema]] |url=http://sensesofcinema.com/2003/great-directors/welles/ |url-status=live |year=2003 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120914000935/http://sensesofcinema.com/2003/great-directors/welles/ |archive-date=September 14, 2012 }}</ref> Welles performed extensively across theatre, radio, and film. He was a lifelong [[magic (illusion)|magician]], presenting [[The Mercury Wonder Show|troop variety shows]] in the war years.