''The Hearts of Age'' is an early film made by

Orson Welles George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American director, actor, writer, producer, and magician who is remembered for his innovative work in film, radio, and theatre. He is among the greatest and most influential film ...

. The film is an eight-minute short that he co-directed with friend William Vance in 1934. The film stars Welles's first wife, Virginia Nicolson, and Welles himself. He made the film at his former school, the Todd School for Boys in Woodstock, Illinois, at the age of 19.

Plot

An elderly woman sits on a bell as it rocks back and forth, while a servant in

blackface Blackface is the practice of performers using burned cork, shoe polish, or theatrical makeup to portray a caricature of black people on stage or in entertainment. Scholarship on the origins or definition of blackface vary with some taking a glo ...

pulls at a rope. A dandified gentleman appears at the top of a stairway and doffs his hat to the lady; he smiles and courts her attention. She does not respond, but the servant hangs himself. The scene changes to a darkened interior: the gentleman sits at a grand piano and plays, but something is wrong. He opens the piano's lid and finds the woman lying inside, dead. He leafs through a number of tombstone-shaped cards with different inscriptions - "Sleeping", "At Rest", "With The Lord" - and finally chooses one that says "The End".

Cast

as Death *Virginia Nicolson as the Old Woman/Keystone Kop *William Vance as the Indian in blanket *Edgerton Paul as the Bell-ringer in blackface * Blackie O'Neal

Background

The film's action, such as it is, is intercut with random shots of bells, headstones, a church cross and other images, sometimes printed in negative. Many years later Welles acknowledged that the film was an imitation of the early surrealist films of

Luis Buñuel Luis Buñuel Portolés (; 22 February 1900 – 29 July 1983) was a Spanish and Mexican filmmaker who worked in France, Mexico and Spain. He has been widely considered by many film critics, historians and directors to be one of the greatest and ...

and

Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau ( , ; ; 5 July 1889 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, film director, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost avant-garde artists of the 20th-c ...

. He did not consider it a serious piece of work, and was amused at the idea of its being added to his creative canon. Many point to ''The Hearts of Age'' as an important precursor to Welles's first Hollywood film, ''

Citizen Kane ''Citizen Kane'' is a 1941 American Drama (film and television), drama film directed by, produced by and starring Orson Welles and co-written by Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz. It was Welles's List of directorial debuts, first feature film. ...

''. Welles and Vance were college friends. The latter's only other film on record is another student short – an adaptation of ''Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'' in 1932. Cast member Charles "Blackie" O'Neal became a screenwriter ('' The Seventh Victim'') and the father of actor Ryan O'Neal. Brady, Frank, ''Citizen Welles: A Biography of Orson Welles''. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1989

Rediscovery

Vance kept the original copy of ''The Hearts of Age'', and he eventually donated it to the Greenwich Public Library (Connecticut) as a part of the Vance Collection. Acting on a tip from University of Wisconsin film Professor Russell Merritt, film historian Joseph McBride rediscovered the film in the late 1960s. McBride announced his discovery in the Spring 1970 issue of ''

Film Quarterly ''Film Quarterly'' (FQ), published by University of California Press, is a journal devoted to the study of film, television, and visual media. When FQ was launched in 1945 (then called ''Hollywood Quarterly''), it was considered "the first serious ...

'' in an article, entitled “Welles Before Kane." In McBride's later book, ''What Ever Happened to Orson Welles: A Portrait of an Independent Career,'' he stated that “Welles seemed bemused and somewhat irritated by the discovery" of ''The Hearts of Age,'' quoting Gary Graver, Welles’ longtime cinematographer: "Orson kept saying, "Why did Joe have to discover that film?" The American Film Institute eventually preserved the 16mm copy and deposited a print in the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

Home media

''The Hearts of Age'' is a home movie and no copyright was ever filed. The film is in the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no Exclusive exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds ...

. The once-rare film is easily seen today thanks to DVD extras and sites such as YouTube. The film was released by Kino on the first DVD in its '' Avant Garde'' series, ''Avant-Garde: Experimental Cinema of the 1920s and '30s'' (August 2, 2005, UPC 738329040222). The DVD was produced from the film holdings of the Raymond Rohauer Collection by Bret Wood.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hearts of Age, The 1934 films 1934 short films 1930s American films American avant-garde and experimental short films American black-and-white films American silent short films Articles containing video clips Films with screenplays by Orson Welles Short films directed by Orson Welles Surviving American silent films Woodstock, Illinois