Orson Welles

 

 

Born in Kenosha, United States, 1915, American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Son of a businessman and a pianist, Welles was a child prodigy who began his theatrical career at the Gate Theatre in Dublin at the age of sixteen and five years later (1936) made his debut as an actor and director in New York. During his theatrical career he achieved notoriety thanks to various Shakespearean productions, such as Macbeth, a work performed entirely by black actors, or Julius Caesar, all of them produced by the Mercury Theatre, a company founded by Welles himself and his partner John Houseman in 1937.

His radio version of H. G. Wells' literary original The War of the Worlds (1938) was so realistic that it caused panic among thousands of listeners, convinced that an alien invasion was really taking place. Backed by this success, he signed a contract with the RKO production company that gave him complete creative freedom, a circumstance that he took full advantage of in his first film, Citizen Kane (1941).

Considered one of the most significant works in the history of cinema, this kind of imaginary biography of the press magnate William Randolph Hearst, starring Welles himself - also co-author of the script, which he wrote in collaboration with Herman J. Mankiewicz - was instrumental in laying the foundations of modern cinematic narrative language.

 

However, Hearst himself took advantage of the resources of his power to harshly criticize the film, which did not achieve the expected success in the United States, while it was not released in Europe until after the Second World War, where it immediately became a minority cult film.

 

His second film, The Fourth Commandment (1942), the only one he directed in which he did not appear as an actor, suffered considerable cuts from the production company, including a happy ending, before its release. The financial failure of these two films led RKO to cancel the contract; from then on, Welles would be forced to work under serious budgetary difficulties, which did not prevent him from filming another title considered key, The Lady from Shanghai (1947), a thriller starring Rita Hayworth, then his wife.

After filming the first of his versions of Shakespearean works, Macbeth (1945), he went into exile in Europe, tired of the pressures from the production companies and fearful of the House Un-American Activities Committee. In the Old Continent he returned to Shakespeare with his version of Othello (1952), a film whose chaotic shooting lasted three years and which, despite having been awarded the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, represented another commercial failure.

Thanks to the insistence of actor Charlton Heston, the film's lead and producer, Welles was able to return to Hollywood to direct Touch of Evil (1958), a majestic black-and-white thriller in which the film's opening sequence stands out, the longest in the history of cinema. Back in Europe, he shot The Trial (1962), a version of the novel of the same name by Franz Kafka, and in 1965, with production by the Spaniard Emiliano Piedra, Chimes at Midnight, an amalgam of various Shakespearean texts (mainly The Merry Wives of Windsor and Henry V) articulated around the figure of John Falstaff, a role that he reserved for himself and which constituted, at all levels, one of the high points of his career.

The last stage of his career as a director was marked by ambitious and ultimately unfinished projects, such as Don Quixote, The Deep or The Other Side of the Wind. In parallel to his activities as a director and star of his own films, he developed an important acting career in which stand out titles such as Rebel Soul (1944), by Robert Stevenson, the unforgettable The Third Man, by Carol Reed, or Moby Dick, by John Huston. In 1975, she received a lifetime achievement award from the American Film Institute.

 

Between 1936 and 1941, Orson Welles was involved in more than a hundred radio drama productions as writer, actor and director. From this and his films, he is considered one of the outstanding figures in American creative arts. He continued on radio through the early 1950s.

Radio was the golden key to his rise to fame. In September of 1937, Welles became the initially uncredited lead in the popular radio series, The Shadow. Writer Walter E. Gibson had created the character for the pulps; it grew into nationwide popularity due to it's fine adaptation to radio. From the first, Welles did the scripts with no rehearsal which, along with his wonderful voice and acting, gave the overtly melodramatic scripts an intelligence and urgency that was very different from other adventures on the radio dial.

While doing radio shows during the day, Welles and John Houseman worked nights producing a dramatic scene in New York City - The Mercury Theater. The work was excellently received but some shows were so was politically charged that attempted governmental control was rumored. It seemed that Welle's outsider genius status was already effecting his radio prestige.

In spite of that, Welles was offered a slot on network radio for his fine creative radio theatre in 1938. Each week they would do a full hour of quality drama, with Pabst Beer sponsoring the show. The Mercury Theater embraced thrillers such as Dracula and War of the Worlds, and the classics of literature such as Pickwick Papers and Tale of Two Cities. The notoriety of War of the Worlds got Campbell Soups interested, and so the new Campbell Playhouse continued where The Mercury Theater left off, with the same great actors and quality treatments of dramatic classic and original radio material, some written by Welles himself.

Orson continued to be a famous radio star post-Mercury Theater, and made many appearances on almost all the major radio shows of the time, as well as continuing his dramatic work on such shows as Norman Corwin's prestigious Columbia Theater Workshop and Suspense.

Later in Welles career after the creation of his great role in the film The Third Man, he was offered the Lime character in a radio series based on the movie. The Adventures of Harry Lime, it was called, but it continued to be known to the public as The Third Man. Produced in 1951 - 52, and then transcribed for America, of course it featured the atmospheric music of Anton Karas. Welles is able to make Harry Lime suave yet duplicitous while always working some scam or other for a hasty profit. Lovers of noir and the hard boiled school will admire the show's subtle European variations on the themes of crime and (escape from) punishment.

During that same period, Orson found time to do another UK production, The Black Museum. This was Scotland Yard's "mausoleum of murder," a "repository of crime." As narrator, Welles walked through the echoing museum, picking an common object and relating its criminal past.

The legendary Orson Welles was a phenomenon in the radio and cinema worlds, but his individual genius and auteurism were inherently counter-establishment. While remaining a famous personality, he lived to see his creative clout slowly diminish, until he was known for doing American TV commercials.

Welles had a torrid romance between 1938 and 1942 with the Mexican actress Dolores del Río. According to his daughter, Rebecca Welles, Dolores was the love of his life. Welles was married to the actress Rita Hayworth.

His love for Spain was well known, so he filmed several of his movies in Spain, especially in Ávila. In an interview he confessed that he would like to retire there. He also cultivated the friendship of well-known figures from the world of bullfighting at the time, such as Antonio Ordóñez and Luis Miguel Dominguín.

Throughout his life he had a high work rate and many financial disputes, which would eventually lead to his death. Welles died of a heart attack in Los Angeles in 1985. His ashes were buried in the Malaga municipality of Ronda, on the San Cayetano recreational estate, owned by his friend, the bullfighter Antonio Ordóñez, as he had expressed. However, there are other versions in which it is said that Orson Welles did not leave any will expressing his wishes after his death, so both his daughter and his wife agreed that his ashes would be scattered in Spain, since they agreed that that was the place where Welles felt happiest during the course of his life.

The Shadow

Orson Welles as "The Shadow"

The Shadow is a fictional character created by the American magazine publisher Street & Smith and the writer and professional magician Walter B. Gibson. Initially created to be a mysterious narrator of a radio program and developed into a distinct literary character in 1931 by writer Walter B. Gibson, The Shadow has been published as novels, comics, and films, among other media. The Shadow radio soap opera includes episodes narrated by Orson Welles. This is a mysterious vigilant, hidden behind a wide-brimmed hat, a long coat and a kind of red scarf that covers part of his face. Fight crime in the dark, armed with two guns and mental powers. He announces his presence with a sinister laugh. His alter ego is the sophisticated millionaire Lamont Cranston, although he also protects his secret identity with two other appearances: the aviator Kent Allard, and Fritz, a janitor at a police station. In this way of maintaining a dual personality, the character resembles other figures such as Batman and Zorro.

The Shadow debuted on July 31, 1930 as the mysterious narrator of the radio program Detective Story Hour, which was created to increase sales of publisher Street & Smith's monthly pulp magazine Detective Story Magazine. When listeners of the program began Asking newsstands for copies of "that Shadow detective magazine," Street & Smith launched a magazine based on the character, and hired Gibson to create a concept to fit the name and voice and to that I wrote a story in which he appeared. The first issue of The Shadow Magazine pulp series went on sale on April 1, 1931.

On September 26, 1937, The Shadow, a new radio soap opera based on the character as created by Gibson for the pulp magazine, premiered with the story "The Death House Rescue." in which the Shadow was characterized as having "the hypnotic power to cloud the minds of men so that they cannot see him." In the magazine stories, The Shadow did not literally become invisible.

The introductory phrase of the radio adaptation of The Shadow – «Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? "The Shadow knows!" – narrated by actor Frank Readick, became an idiomatic phrase in the US. These words were accompanied by an ominous laugh and a musical background, Le Rouet d'Omphale by Camille Saint-Saëns (composed in 1872).

At the end of each episode, The Shadow reminded listeners that “The weeds of crime bear bitter fruit! "Crime doesn't pay... The Shadow knows it!"

Some early episodes used the alternative phrase, "If you sow evil, you will reap evil!" "Crime doesn't pay... The Shadow knows it!"

Given the success of the project, the novelist Walter B. Gibson was hired to make a literary serial starring the character. For this, Gibson adopted the pseudonym Maxwell Grant, and with that name he published a long series of novels. In 1937, a new radio serial was launched, and for this the interpretation of The Shadow was entrusted to Orson Welles.

Illustrator Vernon Greene drew The Shadow comics from 1940 to 1942. Since then, comics of the character have been carried out by authors such as Al Bare, Jack Binder, William A. Smith, Frank Robbins, Howard Chaykin, Mike Kaluta and Bill Sienkewicz.

Throughout the character's entire history, he has been characterized by the use of the slogan: "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow Knows!". Likewise, another characteristic of the character's personality is to laugh when appearing in a place and/or disappearing, in the same way he uses this to intimidate or sometimes scare his enemies before starting a physical combat.

A Journey to the Center of the Earth

A Journey to the Center of the Earth is an Old Time radio Show, alternatively titled A Journey to the Interior of the Earth, stands as a timeless science fiction masterpiece crafted by Jules Verne in 1864, initially published in its native French as "Voyage au centre de la Terre." The narrative unfolds with a professor leading his nephew and a hired guide on a daring expedition down an Icelandic volcano, all in pursuit of reaching the Earth's very core. Along this perilous journey, they confront a series of captivating adventures, from encounters with prehistoric creatures to navigating through treacherous natural phenomena, ultimately emerging back onto the Earth's surface in southern Italy.From a scientific perspective, this tale may not have retained its factual accuracy as effectively as some of Verne's other works. Many of his conjectures regarding the Earth's inner composition have been disproven over time. It is important to recognize, however, that Verne's writings were largely products of his vivid imagination rather than earnest attempts at scientific hypothesis. 

Furthermore, during the period when he penned this novel, knowledge about the Earth's core was severely limited.Nevertheless, a noteworthy aspect of the narrative is Verne's personal conviction, relayed through one of the characters in the story, that the inner realms of the Earth diverge significantly from the experiences encountered by the protagonists.

A seven-part radio serial was broadcast on the BBC Home Service in 1962. It was produced by Claire Chovil, and starred Trevor Martin and Nigel Anthony.

An eight-part radio serial was produced for BBC Radio 4 by Howard Jones in 1963. It starred Bernard Horsfall and Jeffrey Banks.

A radio drama adaptation was broadcast by National Public Radio in 2000 for its series Radio Tales.

A 90-minute radio adaptation by Stephen Walker directed by Owen O'Callan was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 28 December 1995, and rebroadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra on 20 November 2011, on 11 and 12 November 2012, and on 20 and 21 December 2014. Nicholas Le Prevost stars as Professor Otto Lidenbrock, Nathaniel Parker as Axel, and Oliver Senton as Hans. Kristen Millwood plays Rosemary McNab, a new character who funds and accompanies the expedition.

A two-part BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Journey to the Centre of the Earth broadcast on 19 and 26 March 2017. Featuring Stephen Critchlow as Professor Lidenbrock, Joel MacCormack as Axel, and Gudmundur Ingi Thorvaldsson as Hans, it was directed and produced by Tracey Neale and adapted by Moya O'Shea.

Boris Karloff

Son of Edward John Pratt Jr. and his third wife Eliza Sarah Millard, he was born in Camberwell (London), and grew up in Enfield. Orphan in his youth, he attended classes at Enfield Grammar School before moving on to Uppingham School, Merchant Taylors' School, and finally the University of London. Karloff's first goal was to join the diplomatic service; his brother John Henry Pratt became a famous and distinguished diplomat. In 1909, Pratt traveled to Canada, changing his name. For health reasons, he did not fight in the First World War.

Once he arrived in Hollywood, California, Karloff participated in numerous silent films, before appearing as Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein (1931), the film that made him a star. A year later he played another iconic character, Imhotep, in The Mummy.

Boris Karloff's first role on the silver screen was as a $5-a-day extra as a Mexican soldier in the 1919 silent film, His Magistry the American.

His height and the success of Frankenstein, typecast him in the horror genre (where he made numerous films for Universal Pictures), although he participated in other genres such as John Ford's The Lost Patrol in 1934. Karloff played Frankenstein's monster twice more; The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and Son of Frankenstein (1939), with Lugosi as the mad Igor.

Precisely with Lugosi he coincided in two other important titles The Black Cat (1934) and The Raven (1935). The long make-up sessions with collodion and cotton he had to undergo under the direction of make-up artist Jack Pierce are well known, as well as the uncomfortable costume and platform shoes that caused him back injuries that he would carry with him for the rest of his life.

As for his theatrical career, on the Broadway stage he premiered in 1941 the play Arsenic and Old Lace in which he played a homicidal gangster, who in the development of the show was often confused with Karloff himself. He reprised the character in the 1962 television version. He also appeared in The Linden Tree, by J. B. Priestley, Peter Pan, in the character of Captain Hook and in The Lark (1955), by Jean Anouilh, for which he was nominated for a Tony Award.

Despite the roles that made him famous, Karloff was known in real life as a generous gentleman, especially with children. It is said that during the filming of the first “Frankenstein” the crew feared that the little actress Marilyn Harris would run away terrified at the sight of Boris, but this was not the case because they hit it off as soon as they saw each other. In his later years he acted several times on television (he appeared in the series The CIPOL Girl in 1966, in which he played the role of a woman, “Mama Muffin”, in the episode “The Mother Muffin Affair”) and never left the theater.

Karloff never minded being typecast as an actor in horror films, on the contrary, he considered it a wonderful opportunity to show his talents and was always grateful for it. During his last years he filmed a series of films of little repercussion, being three of them broadcasted after his death (The Corpse Collector in 1970; Sinister Invasion and The Living Dead in 1971). Boris Karloff died of pneumonia at King Edward VII Hospital, Midhurst, at the age of eighty-one, and was later cremated.

For his contribution, Boris Karloff was awarded two stars on the legendary Walk of Fame, at 1737 Vine Street (for his films) and 6664 Hollywood Boulevard (for television). He is considered one of the great classic horror film actors, alongside Béla Lugosi (as Dracula) and Lon Chaney Jr. (as a werewolf).

This collection embodies his many guest appearances and roles in various old time radio programs including Bergen & McCarthy, Creeps by Night, Duffy's Tavern, Inner Sanctum, Information Please, Jack Benny Program, Lights Out, Martin and Lewis, NBC University Theater, Suspense, Theater Guild on the Air and many others.