Orson Welles

This 1949 classic stars Welles, Joseph Cotten , Alida Valli and Trevor Howard, and chronicles pulp novelist Holly Martins who travels to Vienna and ends up investigating the death of an old friend, Harry Lime. He eventually discovers that the man he’d seen in a coffin at the narrative’s outset had not in fact been Lime. It won Oscars for Best Cinematography, Black and White, and for Best Director (Carol Reed). Welles played the role of  Harry Lime , who, while being a major entity in the narrative, did not appear on screen for much of the movie. Welles was responsible largely for acting in one scene, a chase through the sewers. Upon arriving for his brief stay in Vienna, Welles found himself staying next door to his fetching co-star, Alida Valli . However, nothing romantic developed between the two, a circumstance he would later bemoan.  “I see The Third Man every two or three years,” he told biographer Barbara Leaming , “and I look at Alida Valli , and I say, ‘What was in you

Welles plays the title role in this 1952 Shakespeare adaptation, which he also directs. The film also stars Suzanne Cloutier and Micheal MacLiammoir. The latter was difficult to woo. He was an old friend of Welles’s, but he thought of acting on the screen as slumming, later telling Welles biographer Charles Higham that Hollywood was “a collection of shacks at the end of a poisoned rainbow.” As for Suzanne Cloutier as Desdemona, she was chosen at the end of a long process. The first candidate was Italian Lea Padovani, with whom Welles was locked in a passionate affair. She spoke little English, and ultimately was scratched. Welles briefly considered Cecile Aubry, and then mounted a protracted search. Betsy Blair did some shooting, but was replaced by Cloutier in August of ‘49. They were then shooting in Venice, and would soon move to Rome. Higham claims that a shot in which Welles had to smack Cloutier in the face was particular arduous, since Cloutier would flinch with each ta

Another directorial credit for Welles, Mr. Arkadin is a 1955 film spinning the yarn of Guy Van Stratten, an American smuggler who finds himself at the scene of a murder. He subsequently becomes tasked with researching the past (a la Kane and in a way that recalls The Third Man) of Arkadin, who claims not to remember anything before 1927. Welles, as always, plays the hunted, not the hunter, starring in the title role. Robert Arden stars as Guy Van Stratten, Patricia Medina as Mily and Gregoire Aslan as Bracco. Welles co-produced with Louis Dolivet. The production of Mr. Arkadin was about as haphazard as that of any Welles movie. Writes biographer Charles Higham ...the cohesive force that would have bound the picture together was lacking; the shooting over eight months in all weathers with a scratch crew, often using actual interiors, and the cast arriving on random schedules from all over the map, proved to be the picture’s undoing. One of the film’s leading men, Robert Ard

Marking Welles’s return to the U.S. as a director after a few movies produced in Europe, Touch of Evil was originally entitled Badge of Evil after the Whit Masterson novel from which it was adapted. Welles played the supporting role of Police Captain Hank Quinlan, while Charlton Heston and Janet Leigh starred as Mike and Susan Vargas. Along for the ride were Joseph Calleia and Akim Tamiroff. Welles wanted to shoot a large segment of Touch of Evil in Tijuana, but thinking of the debacle in Rio de Janeiro stemming from the shooting of the never-released It’s All True, Universal forbade it. As for the script, Charlton Heston says that Welles “took what was a very routine police story, the kind they do on television, on Hill Street Blues or something, and gave it what distinction it had. That was entirely his.” Welles had learned from shooting Citizen Kane that studios sometimes planted a spy or two among ostensible crew members, so he endeavored, in returning to stateside directi

Like most Welles-directed movies, The Trial is about a search for information, the solving of a mystery. In this case, Josef K. is on trial without knowing why. In the existential quest that follows, he tries to investigate the system in which he is a prisoner. It is based on the novel by Franz Kafka, author of the stories “The Metamorphosis” and “A Hunger Artist.” Josef K. is played by Anthony Perkins; Jeanne Moreau, Romy Schneider, and Elsa Martinelli also starring. Welles standby Akim Tamiroff plays a small role. Anthony Perkins is of course best known for the role of Norman Bates in Psycho, which came out two years before The Trial. Jeanne Moreau was a famed stage actress who had starred in Louis Malle’s 1958 “Elevator to the Gallows.” Romy Schneider was a fetching Austrian actress who made her film debut at 15 and who made a name for herself in the trilogy Sissi. Elsa Martinelli had played leading or supporting roles in several European films, and after The Trial, woul

Comprised of two parts of Henry IV, Chimes At Midnight chiefly concerns the character Falstaff (Welles) and his mentee, Prince Hal. Falstaff’s leanings toward self-destruction help create a feel that England is doomed. Welles directed this 1965 film. It starred, in addition to Welles, Jeanne Moreau, Margaret Rutherford, and as Henry IV, John Gielgud. Moreau had worked with and for Welles in 1962’s The Trial. She was also well-known as a part of the French New Wave, having starred in Truffaut’s opus Jules et Jim. Gielgud was a Shakespeare specialist; while mainly a star of the stage, he’d also performed in film versions of Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet, and Hamlet. As Henry IV, he delivers the “uneasy lies the head that wears the crown” speech. Welles biographer Charles Higham writes: Most remarkable is a battle scene that rivals Eisenstein in its evocation of a medieval world. Welles shows the panoply of battle and its essential weirdness... knights in armor bei

During the last years of his life, Welles did very little directing, instead jumping in and out of many small, individual projects: Television Appearances “The Man Who Came To Dinner” Hallmark Hall of Fame, Nov. 29, 1972. Starring Welles, Lee Remick, Joan Collins, Don Knotts . Dir. Buzz Kulick “It Happened One Christmas” Dec. 11, 1977. Starring Welles, Marlo Thomas, Chloris Leachman. Dir. Donald Rye “A Woman Called Moses,” (TV movie) Narrator. Dec. 11, 1978. Starring Cicely Tyson “Shogun” (miniseries) Narrator. Sept. 1980. Starring Anjin San, Richard Chamberlain. Dir. Jerry London. “Tales of the Klondike” (miniseries) Narrator. May 16, 1981. Starring John Candy, Robert Carradine, Eva Gabor. Dir. David Cobham, et al. “Wagner and Venice” (TV short) Richard Wagner (voice). 1982 (Italy). “Magnum P.I.” Robin Masters, 2 episodes. 1983. Movie Roles Get To Know Your Rabbit. 1972. Dir. Brian DePalma. Welles played Mr. Delesandro, a magician. The film stars Tom