Trivia Tuesday: Orson Welles

Born on this date in 1915

Wanted, and was considered for the role of Don Vito Corleone, but Marlon Brando was already cast

Founded The Mercury Theatre in 1937 with John Houseman; their first production was a modernized version of Julius Caesar

Was the voice of Lamont Cranston in the radio version of The Shadow 

Nominated for an Oscar for his first screen performance, Citizen Kane

Interviewed with Merv Griffin and died just a few hours later

A body double was used for several long shots of Welles in The Third Man because he arrived two weeks late for filming

Considered John Ford the greatest American director

Used most of his own money to finance his projects

Once ate 18 hot dogs in one sitting at Pink's Hot Dogs in Los Angeles

31 Days of Horror: The Body Snatcher (1945)

The crimes of the infamous murderers Burke and Hare were the basis for Robert Louis Stevenson's short story, later turned into a film, The Body Snatcher. Produced by Val Lewton and directed by Robert Wise, The Body Snatcher was one of RKO's great atmospheric horror films, providing chills more through suggestion than through the actual revelation of a monster. These atmospheric touches were the work of Val Lewton, who became famous for creating high quality horror on low budgets. When you have a story of grave robbing, spooky atmosphere, and Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi in their last screen pairing together, you get a creepy classic that, for me, has become a Halloween viewing tradition. 

31 Days of Horror: King Kong (1933)

The original, and the best, King Kong is next on my list of  Halloween classics. This has always been one of my favorites for a number of reasons. First, it's an extremely unique story. When this was first released in 1933, no one had seen anything like it. True, there were several jungle adventure films at that time, but not one of them had a 25 foot gorilla as it's star! Then, there are the special effects. The realistic stop motion effects created by Willis O'Brien, combined with live action shots was an amazing achievement for that time. Most films today would rely on CGI to create their effects, but much like the Star Wars purists who prefer the original film where models were used before it was updated with computer effects, I prefer the artistry of stop motion effects and this film has some of the absolute best. I've been lucky enough to see this on the big screen and there's truly nothing like it, even when compared with the top of the line effects used in films today.