Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Freedom River, Sam Weiss, 1971

Narrated by Orson Welles.

Screenwriter Joseph C. Cavella tells this tale:
Freedom River is getting more attention now than it did in 1971 when I wrote the screenplay. Here's the genesis of the film: For several years, Bosustow Productions, a small studio for which I wrote several films, had asked Orson Welles, then living in Paris, to narrate one of their films. He never responded. When I finished the Freedom River script, we sent it to him together with a portable reel to reel tape recorder and a sizable check and crossed our fingers. He was either desperate for money or (I would rather believe) something in it touched him because two weeks later we got the reel back with the narration word for word and we were on our way. IMDB

1 comment:

  1. I wonder if the reason this film is getting attention today is because it's been released on $1 DVD's at Walmart? That's where I found this one on, usually because these companies feel the rights to these films either expired or are unknown in terms of their usage so they just put them out with no questions asked. Too bad the same wasn't done for another Bosustow/Welles collaboration called "Is it Always Right to Be Right?". I like to look for a better copy to replace one I've seen elsewhere.

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