Welles on London Clubs footage

[Nate H]

I was actually the one who uploaded this clip and the OMB clip. I just took them from a version of the OMB documentary. the makeup work here is fantastic

[dmolson]

You have to excuse Harvey, his critical 'cut-up' eye was weaned on hours of Wayne and Shuster slapstick and Nestor Pistor musicalmusement....
:p
Although Welles was not cast as a funny man, some have made mention of his ability to enjoy making light of himself during his early 'King Orson' days on the radio, both as a guest and occasional replacement host (for Jack Benny -- truly the best American funny man to ever swish a bow!). That some of his later efforts didn't live up to their potential can not just be blamed on Welles. Mike Nichols truly wrestled hamhandedly with Catch-22, with spots of dark hilarity and long patches of poorly paced and uninspired dry spells. I think Welles was at his best when inserting a piece of whimsy in some of his stories like Mr. Arkadin, Lady from Shanghai and Chimes at Midnight. There are pearls of laughter and moments of smile-inducing scenes, but you have to search them out. Certainly, I'll agree with Harvey that Welles was no Sturges or Hawks when it comes to comedy. But I think you are a touch too harsh, Mr Prime Minister designate.

[Store Hadji]

I haven't heard his radio stuff though. I'm always put off "old time radio" by the massive quantity of messages for sponsors. The Shadow is particularly amusing in that department - there's only about sixteen minutes of story in every episode, if memory serves.

Um, you're completely misinformed.

During the Golden Age, there were about one or two minutes of commercials per episode. Much much less than radio or tv today. You're still getting 28 minutes of The Shadow and two minutes of enjoyable silliness about Blue Coal, America's favourite anthrocite - order a trial ton today!

As for shows like The Mercury Theatre on the Air, they were "sustaining" and had no sponsor and no commercials at all. That's 60 straight minutes of Welles and the Mercury.

Maybe you heard a massive quantity of commercials on some syndicated FM rebroadcast (with the original show butchered to make more room for ads,) but they weren't like that to begin with and most of the surviving recordings are the ones without many ads.

[Jeff Wilson]

Welles was as good as his material, at least in terms of his comedy work. His radio appearances could be very funny, even when in the template Glenn mentions of "genius needing to be brought down," and he could be equally bad, as in his Mobil Almanac series, where he was hamstrung by poor writers who left him with some pretty terrible material.

[jaime marzol]

i absolutely love the shows when welles filled in for benny. to me they are timeless. have heard them many times. i love hearing the few commercials from the era that were left in, and the ration jokes of ww2 america.

a lot of the mercury shows and campbel soup shows don't hold my interest. the ambersons i think is the only welles radio show that i listened to from begining to end in one sitting.

in the few dean martin welles appearances i saw welles was the straight man and dean became jerry, and they were real funny together.

i never cared for most of the appearances that welles made except on his own stuff. we all know he would accept hosting the opening of a shoe box if the price was right, to finance his own work. to me those appearences never detracted from me enjoying the work that he was able to finance.

[Glenn Anders]

I pretty much agree with Jaime here, though I have listened to most of the Mercury and Campbell Playhouse productions with pleasure. (The almost macabre, humorous adaptation of "The Green Goddess" comes to mind, with Welles playing an Osama bin Laden-like figure.)

While speaking of humor, we should probably add the Ceiling Unlimited shows, especially a couple like "Gremlins."

Glenn

[Harvey Chartrand]

You're right, b'jesus! Welles was superb on those old Jack Benny radio shows. It's too bad he never guest starred on THE JACK BENNY PROGRAM, the great, fondly remembered TV show that aired from 1950 to 1965.
It would have been great to see Welles matching wits with madman Mel Blanc. Or doing his magic act while Benny sawed away on his old violin.
But could the small TV screens of that era have accommodated two such expansive girths as those of Welles and Benny sidekick Don Wilson?

[mteal]

I find all of Welles' movies funny in a comic-bookish kind of way (Welles reportedly loved comic strips, and it shows). But to understand his peculiar comic wavelength takes time or a specialized taste. For example, back in '98 I saw the restored TOUCH OF EVIL twice when it played in theatres- once in a large city, and once in a mid-size, suburban town. The city audience obviously understood the "Welles wavelength", loved the film, laughed at all the black humor, and gave the film a big round of applause at the end. The suburban audience seemed completely bewildered by it, laughed very little, did not applaud at the end, and walked out scratching their heads as if to say "what the hell was THAT all about"? Go figure.

It just goes to show that Orson Welles always was, and probably always will be essentially a cult figure whose appeal will be concentrated for the most part in large, cosmopolitan cities. Those are perhaps also the people most likely to understand his somewhat loony sense of humor.

[tonyw]

Personally, I thought the extracts were fun and should be taken in that spirit. Perhaps my first viewing of Welles was in his FERRY TO HONG KONG role. I thought it hilarious at the time and saw it on several occasions. Maybe, I was an "unlearned stripling" at the time but I loved his performance.

It was not until the last five years that I read his comments in THIS IS ORSON WELLES about playing the role for laughs, cracking up the technicians, while the rest of the cast and director were reagrding the film as a straight drama. Among the other merits of the film were Milton Reid and Roy Chiaio playing "Johnny One Note." He was one of the great actors of Hong Kong cinema most notable for his portrayal of the Buddhist leader in King Hu's A TOUCH OF ZEN and the director's later THE VALIANT ONES. Although much younger in that film, he portrayed a sensitive person scarred by American racism who threw his lot in with the Triads.

I still love Orson's performance despite the fact that the rest of the film really does not work except as a travelogue for Hong Kong as in THE WORLD OF SUZY WONG and other Hollywood films which used the former Colony for its locations

[Store Hadji]

It would have been great to see Welles matching wits with madman Mel Blanc.

You can't see it, but you can hear it on an episode of GI Journal that Welles hosted. Blanc appears as "Private Sad Sack" but sounds exactly like Porky Pig. Utterly baffling exchange between the two...Welles even becomes infected by the stuttering at one point.

[Store Hadji]

[Welles] would accept hosting the opening of a shoe box if the price was right

:D

[LA]

During the Golden Age, there were about one or two minutes of commercials per episode. Much much less than radio or tv today. You're still getting 28 minutes of The Shadow and two minutes of enjoyable silliness about Blue Coal, America's favourite anthrocite - order a trial ton today!

As for shows like The Mercury Theatre on the Air, they were "sustaining" and had no sponsor and no commercials at all. That's 60 straight minutes of Welles and the Mercury.

As I'm British, I never hear many modern American radio shows, apart from some WFMU things online, so I'm not comparing "old time" shows with modern standards in American radio, just with my own probably quite unreasonable expectations.

I never think of Mercury Theater on the Air as "old time", somehow, it seems so timeless, and of course doesn't have the same characteristics as more sponsor-driven stuff. When I say "old time radio" I'm thinking more of programmes like Superman or the Rathbone-Bruce Sherlock Holmes shows, although I know they're only the tip of the iceberg.

[Store Hadji]

I agree about the Mercury stuff seeming timeless...it has aged absurdly well.

Not hearing/seeing any modern American programming is a good thing - it is all mindbogglingly awful.

I just didn't want you to be discouraged from listening to Welles' OTR output because of fear of commercials. Great stuff...if you have the "eye" for listening...

[Ste]

Hi. First-time poster here...

Two of those actors (not counting Welles, of course) look like the same guys who were in the tailor scenes shown during One Man Band (I'm not sure of either of their names off-hand, though)

Both are rather famous in their own right. The first is the wonderful English character actor Charles Gray, known for his piercing blue eyes, and for roles in You Only Live Twice, Diamonds Are Forever, The Devil Rides Out, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, etc. Gray can also be seen in clips from Welles's film of The Merchant of Venice.

Gray's assistant in the "Tailors" sketch is Jonathan Lynn. Lynn has written and directed extensively in both films and theatre, but he is perhaps best known in Britain as co-creator and co-writer of the Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister sitcoms.

It is also worth noting the appearance in the "Stately Home" sketch of Tim Brooke-Taylor as Algy, and Graeme Garden as the narrator. Brooke-Taylor and Garden, along with Bill Oddie, formed The Goodies - one of Britain's most popular comedy sketch shows of the 1970s.

[LA]

Great stuff...if you have the "eye" for listening...

Indeed.

It is also worth noting the appearance in the "Stately Home" sketch of Tim Brooke-Taylor as Algy, and Graeme Garden as the narrator. Brooke-Taylor and Garden, along with Bill Oddie, formed The Goodies - one of Britain's most popular comedy sketch shows of the 1970s.

Bill Oddie, of course, being the composer of the song "One-Man Band". There's an interesting Goodies-fan report on the 2003 NFT screening of London here.