I have only a passing familiarity with Orson Welles' earlier work, but Too Much Johnson is one of the most obscure in the filmmaker's back catalogue. Thought lost until 2008 when it was found in a warehouse and remastered for Welles' 100th birthday, it feels unfair to review Too Much Johnson with any real critical eye as it was never intended to be a feature film. Too Much Johnson's three acts were shot to be interstitials for a play of the same name being performed at the time, but were never publicly seen due to a lack of proper projection equipment at the venue, this apparently being one of the leading reasons for the failure of the play as audiences had a hard time figuring out the plot with these huge chunks missing.
Too Much Johnson is a simple story. Our hero Augustus Billings (Joseph Cotten) has been having an affair with a married woman, Mrs. Dathis, played by Arlene Francis. When the moustachioed Mr. Dathis (Edgar Barrier) comes home, he catches sight of someone escaping via the fire escape and gives chase, pursuing Billings all across New York. You can't get a much simpler story than that and thank God too. There are no titles so the film is pure visual storytelling. I was impressed by Joseph Cotten in the same way I have the utmost respect for performers like Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd, clear influences on the character of Billings. Cotten performs similar death defying stunts on shaky-looking rooftops and shines as a physical comedian.
The whole thing was intended as a silent farce and it works on that level. Cotten's pratfalls and Francis' melodramatic mugging have tons of comedic value. There's a great detail early on when the furious Dathis plays tug-of-war with his wife over a photo of Billings. The photo rips and Dathis is left with only the forehead and hairline to identify the cheating scoundrel. This pays off later when Dathis goes on a spree of knocking peoples' hats off to try and find Billings.
The trouble is that the film is more of a missing piece that makes sense of Welles' pre-Hollywood work than a film in its own right. We are presented with all of the available footage which includes multiple takes of the same bit and moments where the cast mess up and look at the camera etc. It's a workprint and at several junctures in the film, it's clear that Welles is filming certain shots to give him choices when it came to cutting the celluloid. Some of the famous Welles flair is still there. His love of long takes and deep focus are present here and it's easy to see this as a precursor to his game changing work on Citizen Kane a mere three years later. There's also an interesting use of intercutting, again a famous technique used in Citizen Kane, in the opening when Welles cuts between Billings and his mistress canoodling on the bed and a dropped bouquet of flowers on the floor. As some of the film is out of sequence, it's hard to tell whether these shots were intended for later in the film or whether it implies that Mrs. Dathis may have a third lover. The knowing looks exchanged between the assembled public watching men come a-courting, flowers in hand to Mrs. Dathis' place would certainly suggest this, but who knows.
I enjoyed Too Much Johnson. The multiple takes and occasional ill-fitting sequences can jar at first, but go into the film with the knowledge that it was never intended to be seen this way and you may be able to get on board with the films' unique charms. As a film, it doesn't work, but as something that gives us more background to one of the finest cinematic auteurs, it's fascinating. I can't in good conscience give it a star rating as it's not a cohesive film, but I will recommend it to anyone with a love of Welles' work.
Ben Browne
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