The Merchant of Venice (unfinished film)

The Merchant of Venice is a 1969 drama short film directed by Orson Welles based on William Shakespeares play of the same name. While actually completed, it is frequently cited as an unfinished film, though better described as a partially lost film due to the loss of film negatives.

Differing sources give the films running time as betweenandminutes. Welles started work on the film in 1969. It was originally produced as part of his abandoned 90minute television special, Orsons Bag, which was made for CBS but later that year, with the project close to completion, CBS withdrew their funding over Welles longrunning disputes with US authorities regarding his tax status, and so Welles completed the film as an independent project.Filming commenced in Venice, but when financial troubles began, production was relocated to Dubrovnik, and parts of the Dalmatian Coast, which were less expensive to film in and doubled for Venice and filming was completed in Rome, where Welles was editing Don Quixote. The film itself was a shortened version of the play, Welles even eliminated the character of Portia from the film after his mistress Oja Kodar declined the role, due to her thenlimited knowledge of English. Francesco Lavagnino, who had written the musical scores of Welless two previous Shakespeare films, Othello 1952 and Chimes at Midnight 1966, provided a full musical score for this film. ........

Source: Wikipedia