Orson Welles played the Darrow-like lawyer, Jonathan Wilk, in the film.

 

The first thing I said to him was, "In my judgment, Citizen Kane is the greatest motion picture that's ever been made. It's a great privilege for me to be able to work with you." He said, "Thank you." That's when we were on very good terms.

There were a number of young actors in the film. Martin Milner played the young reporter (based on Al Goldstein) who had helped crack the case. Diane Varsi and Edd Byrnes were also in the cast. Did Welles encourage them?

Although Orson was helpful to me on Compulsion, he was not overly friendly. Welles was not a gregarious person. We didn't have sessions in which we sat around and talked of all the great movies he had done and all the people he had worked with. Orson didn't talk to the other actors. He never talked about the plot, he never talked about the script. He was the last person called on the set. Everything would be rehearsed. You learned to be very wary in a scene that you didn't step on his lines or anything like that.

Did Welles rehearse his scenes?

He didn't like rehearsing. He wanted to keep his performance fresh. My recollection is that he would do a scene three times-- and take three was fine.

Orson was more a director than he was an actor. He always heard a scene. If he was making a suggestion to Dick Fleischer, Welles would say, "My voice could come down on this word... then Brad's can come up...." It was all radio acting. When he was performing, he was performing for radio.

Welles and Freddie March acted from the outside in. I came from the Actors Studio. We were trained to act from the inside out. Welles and Freddie March were what we call "indicators." Rather than experiencing the emotion, they indicated it. That was contrary to everything I had been taught. Of course, Welles never talked about the Actors Studio. To him, his Mercury Theater was the definitive acting group. Who's to say it wasn't? Some pretty terrific people came out of there: Agnes Moorehead and others.

In Compulsion there is the climatic courtroom scene in which the great attorney pleads for the boys' lives. Meyer Levin used Darrow's actual speech.

Orson had read a great deal about Darrow. But he was more interested in knowing where the cameras were going to be during the courtroom summation. We filmed it in one shot. The cameras were fully loaded. Orson plotted it out very carefully. The word was that he was going to stand at particular moments during the speech because he wanted to be sure that he would be seen by the cameras. This was all wonderful preparation.

Orson considered himself to know a lot more than Richard Fleishcher to put it bluntly. Fleischer took it all very nicely. He was able to baby Orson, to sweet talk him to get some of the things that he wanted from Orson.

Compulsion had been a terrific success, and Dick Zanuck wanted to use me again right away. The movie was shot in Paris. Orson's attitude toward me completely changed because he had to share the Cannes Film Festival award for best actor with Dean Stockwell and myself. I was then portrayed as an enemy.

Even someone like David O. Selznick found Orson Welles overly competitive.

Orson was hell on wheels. He did everything humanly possible to sabotage me. In the film we each played dual roles that required complicated make-up for the different characters. I would have my hair sprayed blond for one character, for the other it would be tightly curled. Orson would come in every morning after my make-up had been carefully done, and he would say, "How you doing, Curly?" and ruffle my hair; or, he'd do the same thing: "Hi, Blondie." Orson, by the way, did his own make-up. He had this make-up box that must have gone back to the Mercury Theater. It had never been washed.

Darryl Zanuck was known as a tough master on the set. What was his relationship with Welles?

Darryl Zanuck was too busy taking care of Juliette Greco to have interaction with Welles. Zanuck was very protective of Juliette. The few times he was down on the set, he was making sure that no one was making eyes at her.

Richard didn't fool around with Orson. Nobody fooled around with Orson. He did his own thing. I was sitting in make-up one particular day, and Welles came in. He said, "You seem damn cheerful this morning." I said, "Well, as a matter of fact, I am..." I told him: "My wife is coming today." He said, "Your wife? You're kidding...." I asked him why he thought I was kidding, and he said: "Well, nothing personal, I always thought you were a fag." The make-up area was upstairs. I was still reeling from his comment when I headed downstairs to the sound stage. Suddenly, it hit me. I was about to do my most important scene in the film, and Welles knew it. He was deliberately trying to knock me off balance so my performance would be affected.

No. Finally, there was this one scene in which I was supposed to murder him. As we started in with the blocking, Welles said to Dick Fleischer, "This is ridiculous. This is like a gnat attacking a lion." Remember, Welles was a huge man; he weighed 300 pounds, whatever. I said, "Orson, I realize this looks ludicrous...but if I could bring you to your knees, we might make it look believable...."He said, "Bring me to my knees..." and went on ridiculing me. I asked him, "If I could just demonstrate..." and finally he said, "I suppose so...." By that time I was really angry. I got him to his knees and put a Marine Corps move on him. He screamed...he just screamed like a baby and backed away from me. I thought how silly that it had come to this. The man is a genius, and he feels threatened by some 28 year old kid. This is silly....