Wellesnet

The 60-year friendship between Orson Welles and his mentor, Roger “Skipper” Hill, has been touched on in numerous books, but film footage featuring the two men is largely unknown.

Welles fan Christian Lagalante recently pointed out to Wellesnet that we have failed to properly trumpet the existence of the hour-long Orson Welles Talks With Roger Hill on YouTube – and he is right. Lagalante has created a poster for the Welles-directed film and a Letterboxd page, letterboxd.com/film/orson-welles-talks-with-roger-hill, in its honor.

Culled from six hours of footage shot by Gary Graver at Welles’ home in Sedona, Arizona, on June 9-12, 1978, the 62-minute documentary was first screened at the  Locarno Film Festival in 2005. The two men reminisce and discuss a variety of topics, ranging from school days to old age.

Hill was a teacher and then headmaster at the Todd School for Boys in Woodstock, Illinois, when Welles was a student there from 1926 to 1931. Hill was not only a mentor to Welles, but Hill and his wife, Hortense, were family to Welles after the death of his parents.

Orson Welles Talks With Roger Hill will particularly appeal to fans who enjoyed the books Orson Welles and Roger Hill: A Friendship in Three Acts and Marching Song: A Play, both edited by Hill’s grandson Todd Tarbox.

The videos can be found at the following links and embedded below:

Part 1:  https://youtu.be/ykliy0tEhJ0?si=5aSjzKc7a-1XR8gP

Part 2: https://youtu.be/3R4VwyxB9Sc?si=Ta1kzEZsHWgQ1Aur

Part 3: https://youtu.be/KndY1SjzqC8?si=EjntyXEA7Nl_zz_b

Part 4:  https://youtu.be/Ii7mHFJhuA0?si=X9JVCT7I5v6DUIvH

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