Hello, my name's Justin A Klu, and I'm here today with Will Sloan.

And you're listening to The Important Cinema Club, and today is a big day, because we're talking

about Orson Wells' best pal, Gary Graver.

For the last 15 years of Orson Welles' life, Gary Graver was his cinematographer, but he was more than just his cinematographer.

He was his indentured servant.

The story goes, oft repeated by Gary Graver himself, that he called up Orson Wells, who was staying at a hotel in Beverly Hills, and he said,

Orson, I'm a young cameraman. I would like to do

anything you want. Anything. I'll help you make any movie. And Orson said,

I'm, um, leave your number. I'm very busy. And then he called him back and he said,

you're the second cameraman to ever volunteer your services to me. The first, it was Gregory

Toland for Citizen Kane., it was Gregory Toland.

For Citizen Kane.

So it must be good luck.

And that was the beginning of a working relationship and a father-son bond and perhaps a slightly

abusive power dynamic.

Now, I don't think it would be that interesting if it was just Orson Welles cinematographer

for the last 15 years of his life. What really interests me and Will is that not only did he

work with Orson Wells, but throughout this, because, and we'll keep repeating this, as the episode

goes along, Orson didn't pay him to do all this work. So Gary had to find a way to pay the bills.

And how did he do that?

Well, he worked in cheap Jack movies.

And most prolifically, he worked as a director of pornography.

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