Too Much Johnson
| Too Much Johnson | |
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| Directed by | Orson Welles |
| Produced by |
John Houseman Orson Welles |
| Screenplay by | Orson Welles |
| Based on |
Too Much Johnson by William Gillette |
| Starring |
Joseph Cotten Virginia Nicolson Edgar Barrier Arlene Francis |
| Music by |
Paul Bowles (Music for a Farce) |
| Cinematography | Paul Dunham |
| Edited by |
William Alland Orson Welles Richard Wilson |
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Production
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Release date
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Running time
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66 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $10,000 |
Too Much Johnson is a 1938 American silent comedy film written and directed by Orson Welles. The film was made three years before Welles directed Citizen Kane, but it was never publicly screened. The film was shot to be integrated into Welles's Mercury Theatre stage presentation of William Gillette's 1894 comedy, but the motion picture sequences could not be shown due to the absence of projection facilities at the venue, the Stony Creek Theatre in Connecticut. The resulting plot confusion reportedly contributed to the stage production's failure.
The film was believed to be lost, but in 2008 a print was discovered in a warehouse in Pordenone, Italy. The film premiered Wednesday, October 9, 2013, at the Pordenone Silent Film Festival. In 2014 the film was made available online by the National Film Preservation Foundation.
Two previous films had been made of this play, a short film in 1900 and a feature length Paramount film in 1919 starring Lois Wilson and Bryant Washburn. Both of these films are now lost.
The film was not intended to stand by itself, but was designed as the cinematic aspect of Welles's Mercury Theatre stage presentation of William Gillette's 1894 comedy about a New York playboy who flees from the violent husband of his mistress and borrows the identity of a plantation owner in Cuba who is expecting the arrival of a mail-order bride.
Welles planned to mix live action and film for this production. The film was designed to run 40 minutes, with 20 minutes devoted to the play's prologue and two 10-minute introductions for the second and third act. Welles planned to create a silent film in the tradition of the Mack Sennett slapstick comedies, in order to enhance the various chases, duels and comic conflicts of the Gillette play.
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