Since I really want to move onto Stanley Kubrick next week, I’m gonna condense all of the awesome things that Orson did in this one post.
Without question, Orson’s greatest talents was his orating skills. His directing career topped out with his first movie, Citizen Kane, and his acting career was a means for him to make enough money in order to finance his own movies so that he could direct them. It must’ve been sad life, really.
He did a lot of television, back in the day. My favorite short story was Fountain of Youth.
He also did some teevee for the UK, in what was called “Sketchbook”. This series is absolutely brilliant. Here is one episode.
Then there was his encounter with Ernest Hemingway. How awesome is this?
Orson pissed off doing demeaning commercials for peas.
Another one of my favorite moves is The Stranger, starring Orson and another favorite of mine Edward G. Robinson, who was prominently featured as the mobster in the Bugs Bunny cartoons.
Here is the entire movie, definitely a film noir classic. This is about a story of an FBI agent (Robinson) in search of runaway Nazis (Welles), post WW2.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwT83N9D1VM
But, without question, the single best acting scene of Orson’s long career was in the movie Compulsion. Just watch it and see for yourself. “Are we crazy?!”
Then there was that magical scene of Orson describing Chartres. This especially resonates with me, being that I value my anonymity.
If you want to see a movie about Orson, but not with Orson, I strongly recommend seeing Me and Orson Welles.
Christian Mckay nailed Orson, truly great.
And then there’s that guy from youtube who does hilarious movie reviews, as Orson.
Other Welles films of note are The Black Rose (co-starring another Hollywood legend who died young, Tyrone Powers. Oh, it also featured Orson Welles as a Chinese man.), Black Magic (good movie with Welles as a practitioner of Black Magic), Mr. Arkadian (lol), The Trial (based on the famous novel by Franz Kafka, an absolute must see for students of the law), Chimes at Midnight (Shakespeare, directed by Welles), Lady from Shanghai (featuring Orson with an absurd Irish accent), The Long Hot Summer (starring Welles and Paul Newman) and Transformers.
Did I just say Transformers? Damn right I did. It was his last role before he died. What better way to bookend your career, from Citizen Kane to Unicron.
Finally, I’ve been watching some comedy roasts recently, all vulgar demonstrations of human depravity. Back in the old days, when people had class, roasts were done like this, a la Welles:
And here is Sinatra saluting Welles (how fucking cool is that?)
If you enjoy the content at iBankCoin, please follow us on Twitter
Great collection of links to visit, thanks.
btw- Welles has a voice and delivery that is best served by a good microphone and studio.
Would hate to see a superb talent like Welles working with crap, and we’ve heard his abhorrence for incompetently written advertising copy.
The best deserves the best, in many areas of life and endeavor.
Possibly the coolest film post of all time. Can’t wait to beat it home & check out all these clips. Would have *really* been impressed by a Der Bingle tribute, but Sinatra is still pretty awesome.
Orson Welles was only 23 years old when his Mercury Theater company decided to update H.G. Wells’ 19th-century science fiction novel War of the Worlds
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/welles-scares-nation
Welles scares nation – Oct 30, 1938 – HISTORY.com
Nice work, Le Fly.
I love this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=YbsNc1UGbHs#t=255
One last note – since you mentioned animation..Pinkie and The Brain came from WB studios about 20 yrs ago with the persona of Welles. It’s worth a watch.
He also did narration on great movies for British TV, and a documentary of Yiddish movies…I kid you not.
Great work Le Fly., as usual…but it is time to move on…Interested on your opinions on John Ford…
We’ll get to ford in due time. I have to talk about Woody Alllen before
Walter Hill may deserve a look.
Michael Mann as well. When Senor Fly is ready to go newer.
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi narrated by Welles is a must see for the kids. Noble themes.
Good find. Just saw it.
Transformers deserves a post of its own. It shows of a different time in society. That “cartoon” movie’s sole purpose was a blood bath execution of a group of children’s “heros” in order to bring in the next batch of toys to buy.
Children of the 80’s spent almost 3 years following and rooting for the autobots, then they were all abruptly killed inside 15 minutes.
Lol
Interesting post! Great tour! definitely saving this post for what to watch tonight moments.