In certain circles the received wisdom is that Orson Welles, a theatrical prodigy who rose to fame through live drama and radio, made one cinematic masterpiece, Citizen Kane, and then floundered for the rest of his career, squandering his talent by appearing in wine cooler commercials and Transformers movies. However, even the briefest exploration into Welles’ directorial output obliterates that claim entirely.
It is true that Welles was persona non grata in Hollywood after Kane. His follow-up, The Magnificent Ambersons, was taken away from him and gutted by the studio. But until his death, Welles remained a restless and inventive spirit, lending his star power to junky movies as a means to fund his bare bones productions. What these subsequent films lack in production values they more than make up for in bravura filmmaking.
Welles’ most famous roles were as Charles Foster Kane in his debut feature and his portrayal of Harry Lime in Carol Reed’s magnificent The Third Man. Welles revisited elements of both films in his mind-blowing, globe-trotting Mr. Arkadin. The film is available in a lovely Criterion box set that collects three different edits of the film, including the recommended Comprehensive Cut, which was compiled posthumously by scholars using old interviews to create a version as close to the director’s original intentions as possible. A similar project was undertaken on the masterful Touch of Evil.
Welles made a name for himself in part by staging imaginative versions of Shakespeare plays with the Mercury Theater in the 1930s. When he made the transition to film he did not leave the Bard behind. Welles completed three Shakespeare adaptations: Macbeth, Othello, and Chimes at Midnight, the latter being a reworking of plays involving the character Falstaff, played superbly by Welles. Unfortunately, due to rights issues, copies of Othello and Chimes at Midnight are pretty hard to come by. (Scarecrow Video has them! Word on the street is a new print of Othello is expected to make theatrical rounds later this year.)
Welles’ last completed film, F for Fake, might be his greatest achievement. A documentary about deceit that itself is mostly fabricated, the film is playful and incredibly prescient. The movie begins with a profile of the famous art forger Elmyr de Hory before splintering off into tangents about magic, Howard Hughes, Picasso, and Welles himself. The line between truth and fiction has never been more blurred. I cannot think of a more fitting epitaph for a man as mythical as Welles.
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