Joseph Cotten stars in Orson Welles’s newly edited 1938 silent comedy, TOO MUCH JOHNSON, screening for the first time ever at Film Forum
Who: Orson Welles
What: Encore presentation of Too Much Johnson as part of “Orson Welles 100” series
Where: Film Forum, 209 West Houston St., 212-727-8110
When: Thursday, February 5, $25, 7:30
Why: In August 2013, the raw footage of Orson Welles’s first professional film, a deliriously entertaining 1938 silent comedy made in conjunction with the Mercury Theatre staging of William Gillette’s 1894 farce and starring Joseph Cotten, Virginia Nicolson, Arlene Francis, Mary Wickes, John Houseman, and Welles, was discovered in Italy, and it has now been edited by William Hohauser and is being screened for the first time ever at Film Forum; the February 2 show is sold out, so they’ve added a special encore presentation on February 5, with the film, as originally intended, serving as prologues to live theatrical readings by the Film Forum Players (Carl Wallnau, Yelena Shmulenson, Jacqueline Sydney, Bob Ader, Karen Sklaire, Ben Rauch, Jonathan Smith), directed by Allen Lewis Rickman and with live music by Steve Sterner (you can see the unedited footage here).