The Fable, The Trickster, and Power in the Films of Orson Welles

7/29/2019 The Fable, The Trickster, and Power in the Films of Orson Welles

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Avalon McLean-Smits

The Fable, The Trickster, and Power in the Films of Orson Welles

Orson Welles was an auteur in American cinema. Some might

describe Welles as a powerful creative mind whose work has

influenced generations of aspiring actors, writers, and directors. His

career spanned from theatre to radio to film and back again. He was

well respected but studios were wary of him because of his style of

filmmaking. He contributed to many innovations in cinema

technologically and stylistically, but his methods were unconventional

at times and the public never seemed to know how to react to his

films. Because of this, Welles would fight with his studio for final say on

cuts of his work among other things. There was a definite struggle

between Welles and the studio heads, but it was not just Welles who

struggled for power and authority. In a large portion of Welles pieces,

his characters battle with their own rise and fall of power. The use of

the fable as a storytelling device is characteristically Orson Welles. Like

the fable, Welles work presents a message to be learned about what it

means to have power. This paper will examine a variety of Welles

films, but specifically The Fountain of Youth (1956/ 1958) in attempt to

show how through the conventions of a fable, Welles conveys what it

means to have power and its affect on society.

The paper will start with an examination of the elements of the

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fable before using Welles often forgotten short film The Fountain of

Youth. In Doron Narkiss paper, Chaucers Escape From Fable, it is

defined that the classic of model of a fable is an authoritarian

allegorical form, which represents and enacts a hierarchical power

system, relating deictically to implied or specified addressees (46).

Traditionally speaking, people associate fables with short stories

directed at children often using animals to portray lessons and good

morals to be learned. Fables were originally apart of medieval church

practice with the same goal although the work did not have to be

specifically directed at children (Narkiss 46). What the church did do

was use fables to assert their authority. They would use fear, but also

charm to present a specific way to live life so that one could go to

heaven instead of hell when he or she died. Fables are closely

associated with folktales, fairy tales, trickster tales, and myths, all

which contain fantastical elements and a message. Narkiss considers

topics such as authority, allegory, a social historical context, and a

thematic emphasis on power that of the trickster, the traditional

underdog who emerges tainted but victorious (47) as aspects that are

well associated with the form of the fable.

What Orson Welles does with the fable is turn it into a fabular

tale, a longer story employing the elements of the fable and then he

makes it visual. The length of the fable is something that concerns

Narkiss, as it is what is analyzed in the paper on Chaucers fabular

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tales. Narkiss explains that extending the length of the fable allows

for complex structure, deeper characterization, as well as more

possibilities for the manipulation of aesthetic issues, plot development,

and narratorial commentary (47). What stands out about fables are

the fantastical elements, for example: animals speaking and wearing

bonnets or other human clothing. Fables are about real life and reflect

activities and ideas that exist in the real world but the fable employs

characteristics that do not exist in real life which are usually

implemented to aid in the emphasis of the message. Fables are often

told in third person. Welles certainly employed the model of the fable

through his narrative commentary and through style. Through Welles

use of light and shadow, camera angles and lenses, props, and

narrative Welles was able to employ the fable to tell the story of

power, control, and greed.

The character that Welles tends to incorporate in his films is that

of the trickster. The trickster tale is a fable concerning a character

whose purpose is to trick the hero of the story. Edith Strader explains,

trickster tales often celebrate values or actions that are disapproved

of by society but that may be necessary for the survival and success of

the small and weak. For me, The Fountain of Youth is an excellent

example of a film where a character that appears to be weak but has a

substantial amount of power and is able to get revenge by using it.

What Humphrey Baxter does is seemingly harmless but it has an

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incredible impact.

In Orson Welles films, Gabriel Paletz notes that the narratives

often made commentaries about what was going on in society at the

time, expressing that Welles identification with the 1936-42 moment

provides the blueprint for his career (218). Since this period in time

dealt a lot with ideas about power in politics and undermined ideas

about what a democracy was, it is no surprise that the characters in

Welles films would have to deal with power. I believe that Welles

fascination extended beyond those few years. The trickster in a

trickster tale or fable deals with theme of power through the

characters deceitful, greedy, and manipulative behaviour. In fables,

the characters who express acts of greed, power, deception, or other

attributes deemed negative within the fable, often find themselves

dead, exposed, or with nothing. These are common endings for the

characters in Welles films.

As pointed out earlier, Narkiss stated that authority is also a

common theme in fables, as it is in Welles work. To have authority is

to have power and for me Welles loves to question authority through

his work. Much of his work shows how a person with a title can gain so

much respect and trust and how problematic this can be for society.

His films incorporate people in the justice system, the government,

high social class, people of wealth, and sometimes even those with

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beauty as those with authority in society This can be seen in Citizen

Kane when people trust the newspapers and Kanes word as truth and

Paletz sees Kane as well as Mr. Clay from The Immortal Story(1968) as

dictators (221). In Touch of Evil Welles character Captain Quinlin gets

away with planting evidence and throwing the guilt upon whomever he

pleases because of his badge and perhaps even his because of his race

since Vargas is Mexican. The police, the law advocates, and the justice

system in general within his adaptation ofThe Trial (1962), maintain

authority and control over Joseph K. This, too, is a film that deals

excessively with fantastic elements, the power of authority, and

comments on the treatment of individuals through this distorted

power. Unfortunately, in this film, it is not the authority figures who

learn their lesson or die. Even in looking at Welles adaptations of

Shakespeare one can see the theme of power, for Shakespeare

certainly dealt with the topic of authority portraying kings and queens

and how birth somehow denotes authority in a monarchy.

Money is also a marker of authority for Welles. Mr. Thatcher and

Mrs. Kane in Citizen Kane have authority because of their positions and

wealth. Mrs. Kane bosses her husband around and sends her son off to

be raised by Mr. Thatcher at the bank because she believes that the

bank, a place with authority and money, will be able to raise him better

than his own family. Beverle Houston describes Kanes mother as

newly empowered (3) when she gets the inheritance and this is

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effectively to give Kane authority and power because he will be out of

the impoverished rural environment (3). In Magnificent Ambersons

Georgie is powerful because of his social class. He is given privileges

like not having to maintain a job and being able to do what he pleases.

Even Mr. Amberson is given power when Isabel chooses him, a man

with money, over Eugene. In fact, Isabels story ends with a very

poignant fable moral that says that it is Better to marry a man without

money, than money without a man (Thompson 41) as Mr. Amberson is

very much a man that is forgotten and goes unnoticed throughout the

film. Houston relates Georgie and Kane to each other again in terms of

their behaviour for both men are powerful and are able to manipulate

those around them (2), a theme common in fables.

Fantastical elements in Welles work enhance the idea of a fable

in order to show how power affects society. The way that Welles

attributes power to his characters is through positions of authority in

society, money, and social class. A pertinent film of Welles to look at is

The Fountain of Youth. This film stands out because the three

protagonists, Humphrey, Caroline, and Alan, all succumb to using

trickery at one point in the film and each of the characters experiences

feelings of power. The film depicts how power can be handled in

different hands and its affect on society through the authority of

science, the media, and position in society.

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TheFountain of Youth was Welles only attempt in the world of

television (Rick Jason, Orson Welles and the Feet of Clay). Welles

originally adapted the film from a John Collier short story Youth From

Vienna (1951). It was originally done in 1956 as a pilot for Desilu; the

pilot did not sell but it was later aired on NBCs Colgate Theatre in

1958. Rick Jason in his autobiography provides interesting insight into

the filming which highlights the fantastical and fable-like nature of the

film: the sets consisted of projections of a setting and minimal

furniture. Jason describes how in transition from scene to scene, timing

would need to be precise as it involved the projection dissolving, the

lights going out, the projection changing, and the camera pulling back

to capture the new setting while the actor hit his first mark. The

intricacy involved is astounding, but what is important is that very little

of the film is real. It appears to be real, but it is more like a dream

since everything is simply a projection. The idea of a youth extract,

Carolines disintegrating portrait, and Orson Welles ability to come in

and out of the scenes as he pleases create a feeling of fantasy while

Welles narration links the film to the style of the fable. Like a fable,

the film is short. The characters may not get deep development but

that is unimportant because it is the punch line of the film that is the

most important. What aids in the punch line of the film is the

narration. In a typical fable, the narrator often comments on what is

happening in the plot and provides side commentary. The narration in

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the film is also a wonderful example of how like a fable the film is.

Fables and the like are generally told from the third person

perspective. Orson Welles narrates The Fountain of Youth and while he

sometimes even speaks for the characters, his narration provides the

audience with insight into what is to come and background

information. The narration feels very much like story telling, but it also

sets the narrator up as another figure of authority. Welles choose how

the story should go, he even speaks for the characters instead of

letting them do the talking. In this sense, since I argue that Welles

wants people to question authority, he is effectively asking audiences

to question the authority of a fable.

Welles as the narrator is not the only person with authority in the

film. The characters exemplify a variety of different types of authority

and power. As stated earlier, Humphrey Baxters authority comes from

the fact that he is a scientist while Carolines power comes from her

beauty and Alans from his good looks and skill. The pair of them have

power because of their position in society. Both being idols and adored

by the public, they can command attention and get what they want. In

the beginning of the story, Caroline has power over Baxter because he

is enamoured with her and he is heart-broken when she does not end

up waiting for him and becomes engaged to Alan Brody, the

professional tennis star. At this moment, Baxter is able to turn Caroline

and Alans power, their looks, into a weapon for he knows that their

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downfall is their greed. Before Humphrey leaves for Vienna, Caroline

admits to him that she is just a little bit greedy for attention but that

she promises she would let him know if she ever felt it getting a real

hold of [her] (The Fountain of Youth). For both of Alan and Caroline,

they need their youth in order to maintain their livelihoods and this

makes them greedy for the youth extract. Alan needs his youthfulness

in order to defeat the younger tennis players coming in while Caroline

needs her youth to preserve her looks and keep herself in the

spotlight.

In an act of revenge towards Caroline for leaving him, Humphrey

Baxter uses his authority as an endocrinologist to release information

surrounding an extract that will be able to stop the aging process. The

news leads Caroline and Alan to Humphrey who presents them with a

single bottle of the youth extract. The reason Humphrey can assert his

authority as a scientist has a lot to do with the scientific climate during

when the film was made. This is where the film makes a comment on

society. The short story and film were published and released after

World War II and during a time, the 1950s, where plenty of scientific

discoveries and innovations were being made including the atom and

hydrogen bombs, the polio vaccination, and a variety of other medical

advancements. The scientist and his/ her knowledge becomes

authoritative as it can save or destroy society. This is why Humphrey

and his experiment are so important in terms of a social and

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historical context.

When Humphrey makes a joke about it sounding quite like the

wedding service for the two of them when he presents them with the

bottle he is expressing his new found power over Caroline and Alans

new marriage. What is necessary to look at is how Caroline and Alan

even ended up at Humphreys to begin with. They hear about

Humphreys new scientific discovery in the news. What is so powerful

about the release of information is that it lands Humphrey on the cover

of Time magazine and gets released over the airwaves by the gossip

columnist. Mediums that present the news are taken to have authority

when presenting information; people assume that what a newspaper, a

magazine, or the radio tells them is the truth. The media has power

over its audience. This phenomenon is something that Welles

experienced first hand with the broadcast ofWar of the Worlds (1938),

which sent listeners into a panic. It must be noted though that the

people who present the news also took what Humphrey told them to

be truth. Orson Welles undermines the authority of news and the title

of scientist. In addition, Humphrey instills fear into Caroline in order to

have control over her. He reminds her of the awful freaks with gland

problems in order to assert his authority further. Humphreys

deception is manipulative and key to the plot of a fable. The morals

and messages presented at the end of the film are that beauty is not

everything, greed is bad, and most certainly that authority needs to be

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questioned.

In conclusion, it is clear that the theme of power is important to

Welles. He portrays power in his films to make comments on aspects of

society that have power and how they use it. His use of the stylistic

elements of the fable assist in portraying a message and moral that

needs to be learnt by his audiences. As seen in the discussion ofThe

Fountain of Youth, fantasy and narration are stylistic elements that

reflect the fable. In addition, the act of citizens taking the news to be

authorities on the truth and the news taking science to be authorities

on the truth creates commentary of the social climate, much like a

fable does. Last but not least, the film provides the viewer with a

message that they should take away from viewing the film. It is clear

that this is not the only film in which Welles employs the fable and

themes of power. Perhaps the themes of power can also be used to

reflect how Welles saw the studio system in Hollywood. It seems that

he made quite a few films about a topic that he wanted very much in

his own life and felt that he did not have enough of.

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Bibliography

Fulton, Brittany. The Darker Side of Self - Lighting and Reflection as

Character

Development. digitalarchive.wm.edu. (2008). Thesis.

Houston, Beverle. "Power and Dis-Integration in the Films of Orson

Welles." Film

Quarterly35.4 (1982): 2-12. Print.

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Jason, Rick. "Orson Welles and Feet of Clay." Scrapbooks of My Mind -

A Hollywood

Auto-Biography. Argoe, 2000. Scrapbooks of My Mind. Web.

.

Narkiss, Doron. The Fox, the Cock, and the Priest: Chaucers Escape

from Fable

The Chaucer Review. 32.1 (1997): 46-63. Print.

"Orson Welles." Interviews With Film Directors. Ed. Andrew Sarris. New

York: Bobbs-

Merrill, 1967. 455-78. Print.

Paletz, Gabriel M. Orson Welles: An Auteur of the Thriller. New

Review of Film and

Television Studies. 4.3 (December 2006): 217-239. Print.

"Science & Technology in The 1950s." Shmoop. Shmoop University,

Inc. Web.

.

Strader, Edith. "Trickster Tales." 6 May 2005. Web

.

The Fountain of Youth. Dir. Orson Welles. Perf. Joi Lansing, Rick Jason,

Dan Tobin.

1958.

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Thompson, Stith. Motif-index of Folk-literature; a Classification of

Narrative Elements

in Folktales, Ballads, Myths, Fables, Mediaeval Romances,

Exempla, Fabliaux,

Jest-books, and Local Legends. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1955.

Print.

Thomson, David. Rosebud: The Story of Orson Welles. New York:

Vintage, 1997. Print.

Welles, Orson, and Peter Bogdanovich. This Is Orson Welles. Ed.

Jonathon

Rosenbaum. New York: Da Capo, 1998. Print.

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The Fable, The Trickster, and Power in the Films of Orson Welles

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