Orson Welles lost film with Professor McBride May Finally Be Released

WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL -- The wind that blew off the front page of the New York Times last Tuesday reached all the way to San Francisco. “A day I had been awaiting for 44 years and thought might never come!” noted Joe McBride, a UW-Madison graduate and former State Journal reporter, who now teaches film at San Francisco State. The Times article last week on “Wind” — which stars another legend, John Huston, playing a film director struggling to get his final film made — said the movie’s release may be imminent. Ego clashes and rights issues among Welles’ heirs and collaborators kept it in limbo for decades. McBride, of course, jumped at the chance to act for Welles in “Wind.” In a note last week, McBride explained, “I play the film critic and historian Mister Pister, who is following around John Huston’s director character, Jake Hannaford, writing a book about him and asking him intrusive film-buff questions.”