Contrary to popular opinion, Orson Welles' first cinematic experience was not on his 1941 masterpiece Citizen Kane. As film critic Dave Kehr reports in the New York Times, as early as 1934, when still a schoolboy, Welles made an 8 minute, sophisticated short film that was satirical in nature. However, his other pre-Kane film venture is more legendary simply because it was widely believed to have been lost to the ages. In 1938, Welles was engaged (at age 23) to direct and star in short film segments that would accompany a stage revival of actor William Gillette's 1894 romantic farce, Too Much Johnson, which centers on a philanderer whose schemes get him in trouble with the women in his life. The plan was to have various acts of the revived production preceded by filmed segments. Welles put a lot of time and effort into the project and was pleased with the results. However, when the revival of the play was shelved early on, Welles naturally abandoned the accompanying filmed segments. In 1978, he told a reporter that he had recently rediscovered the footage in his villa in Spain and that it was pristine in terms of condition. The notoriously critical Welles also heaped praise on the starring performance in the film of his old friend and collaborator, Joseph Cotten, whose work he called "magnificent". Welles said he intended to send a copy of the film to Cotten as a present but, ironically, before he could do so, a fire destroyed Welles' villa. Everyone presumed the footage was lost in the inferno and Welles, who died in 1985, never mentioned the film again. Now it has come to light that the footage has been found in an Italian storage locker. How it got there remains a mystery, but after being lost to time, the film is now being prepared for its first public screening at a film festival. For more on this fascinating story, click here