Orson Welles — Playwright (17)

Movie

Too Much Johnson (2013)
Too Much Johnson WikiData IMDb TMDB
other title: Troppo Johnson
This film was not intended to stand by itself, but was designed as the cinematic aspect of Welles' Mercury Theatre stage presentation of William Gillette's 1894 comedy about a New York playboy who flees from the violent husband of his mistress and borrows the identity of a plantation owner in Cuba who is expecting the arrival of a mail order bride. The film component of the performance was ultimately never screened due to the absence of projection facilities at the venue. Long-believed to be lost, a workprint was discovered in 2008 and the film had its premiere in 2013.

TV

Orson Welles' Great Mysteries (1973)
Orson Welles' Great Mysteries WikiData IMDb TMDB
other title: Orson Welles erzählt / Les Mystères d'Orson Welles …
Orson Welles’ Great Mysteries is a British television anthology series produced by Anglia Television for the ITV network and broadcast between 1973 and 1974. The series presents standalone adaptations of classic mystery, crime, and supernatural stories drawn from literary sources including Dickens, Conan Doyle, Wilkie Collins, Balzac, Maugham, O. Henry, and others. Each episode is framed by original introductory and closing sequences performed by Orson Welles, who serves as the series’ host and sole recurring on-screen presence. These segments, written and directed by Welles (uncredited), function as stylized narrative framing devices rather than dramatic participation in the stories themselves. The dramatic content of each episode is performed by separate casts and directors, with no continuing characters or serialized narrative, establishing the series as a unified television anthology rather than a collection of standalone films.

Movie

Don Quixote (1992)
Don Quijote de Orson Welles IMDb TMDB Skybridge
Orson Welles actor: Francisco Reiguera / Akim Tamiroff …
other title: Don Chisciotte / Don Quichotte …
Don Quixote, accompanied by Sancho Panza, wander the roads of Spain protecting the weak and doing good deeds in the name of his beloved Dulcinea. (Orson Welles' Don Quixote was filmed between 1957 and 1972, left unfinished at his death in 1985, and was eventually edited by Jesús Franco and released in 1992.)

Movie

The Other Side of the Wind (2018)
The Other Side of the Wind IMDb TMDB
Orson Welles actor: John Huston / Oja Kodar …
other title: L'altra faccia del vento / De l'autre côté du vent …
Surrounded by fans and skeptics, grizzled director J.J. "Jake" Hannaford returns from years abroad in Europe to a changed Hollywood, where he attempts to make his innovative comeback film. This film was started in 1970 but never completed during Welles lifetime.

Movie

Othello (1951)
Othello IMDb TMDB
Orson Welles actor: Orson Welles / Micheál Mac Liammóir …
other title: Otello / Otelo - O Mouro de Veneza …
When a secret marriage is planned between Othello, a Moorish general, and Desdemona, the daughter of Senator Brabantio, her old suitor Roderigo takes it hard. He allies himself with Iago, who has his own grudge against Othello, and the two conspire to bring Othello down. When their first plan, to have him accused of witchcraft, fails, they plant evidence intended to make him believe Desdemona is unfaithful.

Movie

Touch of Evil (1958)
Touch of Evil
other title: L'infernale Quinlan / Politiets blinde øje …
When a car bomb explodes on the American side of the U.S./Mexico border, Mexican drug enforcement agent Miguel Vargas begins his investigation, along with American police captain Hank Quinlan. When Vargas begins to suspect that Quinlan and his shady partner, Menzies, are planting evidence to frame an innocent man, his investigations into their possible corruption quickly put himself and his new bride, Susie, in jeopardy.

Movie

F for Fake (1973)
Vérités et Mensonges
★ 7.7 10 ratings
Orson Welles actor: Orson Welles / Oja Kodar …
other title: F come Falso / F wie Fälschung …
Documents the lives of infamous fakers Elmyr de Hory and Clifford Irving. De Hory, who later committed suicide to avoid more prison time, made his name by selling forged works of art by painters like Picasso and Matisse. Irving was infamous for writing a fake autobiography of Howard Hughes. Welles moves between documentary and fiction as he examines the fundamental elements of fraud and the people who commit fraud at the expense of others.

Movie

Mr. Arkadin (1955)
Mr. Arkadin IMDb TMDB
other title: Rapporto confidenziale / Herr Satan persönlich! …
Claiming that he doesn't know his own past, a rich man enlists an ex-con with an odd bit of detective work. Gregory Arkadin says he can't remember anything before the late 1920s, and convict Guy Van Stratten is happy to take the job of exploring his new acquaintance's life story. Guy's research turns up stunning details about his employer's past, and as his work seems linked to untimely deaths, the mystery surrounding Mr. Arkadin deepens.

Movie

Chimes at Midnight (1965)
Campanadas a medianoche
other title: Falstaff / Campanadas a medianoche
Henry IV usurps the English throne, sets in motion the factious War of the Roses and now faces a rebellion led by Northumberland scion Hotspur. Henry's heir, Prince Hal, is a ne'er-do-well carouser who drinks and causes mischief with his low-class friends, especially his rotund father figure, John Falstaff. To redeem his title, Hal may have to choose between allegiance to his real father and loyalty to his friend.

Movie

Citizen Kane (1941)
Citizen Kane
★ 8.5 24 ratings
other title: Quarto potere / Den Store Mand …
Newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane is taken from his mother as a boy and made the ward of a rich industrialist. As a result, every well-meaning, tyrannical or self-destructive move he makes for the rest of his life appears in some way to be a reaction to that deeply wounding event.