IT'S ALL TRUE (1993)

Trust me...I'm a film director!

Boasting several directors including Orson Welles and his associates Richard Wilson and Norman Foster as well as the guys who put the whole thing together, this doctumentary tells the story of the film that Orson was making at the behest of the U.S. Goverment's Good Neighbour scheme during WW2 and which was directly responsible for THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS being taken away from Welles. Like most unseen footage by Orson the film has almost mythic status. But while welcoming the chance to see it and hear the story I found nothing here to get me very excited and, if anything, the documentary is a little dull in its attempts to make something out of very little. Best is the very beginning with Orson in bullshitting mood telling of his encounter with a Brazillian voodoo priest. Much better might have been a full length documentary telling the full story of The MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS debacle if only to see Robert Wise (and I do have a certain amount of sympathy for Wise here) squirming his way through an explanation of his betrayal of Welles. Rating ***