Maverick in the Machine Orson Welles and the Battle Over Journey Into Fear by Mark Edlitz Review

#journeyintofear #bookreview #filmbooks #orsonwelles I review the ESSENTIAL new book by Mark Edlitz detailing the entire history of the third little seen RKO Mercury film, Journey Into Fear. This was the sister film to The Magnificent Ambersons and wound up being just as butchered. It became the final nail in the coffin for Welles and Mercury at RKO. In the decades since it has been little seen or discussed with plenty of legends surrounding it's production. It never even had a major physical media release after VHS and LD until 2024. The roughly 100m film was hacked down to 68m and also exists in an alternate edit that was released in Europe-and that version has never been restored. It only exists in a low quality standard definition transfer at the wrong speed. Edlitz has outdone himself with this book. He has traced the entire journey of the film from source novel to release aftermath. This is the essential companion to Carringer's books on Kane and Ambersons and the finest piece of Welles scholarship in years. It answers decades worth of questions fans have had. It also clearly shows how many things that happened here were once again entirely out of Welles' control and prefigure events that happened on Touch of Evil. In its own way this smaller little discussed film was as butchered if not more butchered than Ambersons. One of the best books ever about the making and unmaking of a film. ESSENTIAL READING!!! The book is available through Amazon: https://amzn.to/4fklvZm 00:00 Film and Book discussion 27:09 The European alternate version 33:25 Lack of availability for years 38:25 Detailing the book section by section 54:48 Final Summary ESSENTIAL