1956 King Lear - surviving film clip

[Jedediah Leland]

As part of Stefan Droessler's presentation of Welles material at the BFI in London today, he screened something which I didn't know existed: a scene from Welles's 1956 New York production of King Lear, with Welles in a wheelchair.

Please note that this was NOT footage from the 1953 Peter Brooks-directed TV film of Lear; it was a segment of the 1956 production filmed for the Ed Sullivan Show. Welles performed the bulk of his scene half-sitting-half-lying down across a sort of throne/bed, with fur covers piled up on top of him. As the drama mounted, he got to his feet at a tense moment, apparently without any effort. When the scene was over (it lasted under five minutes), the curtain came down, Ed Sullivan popped into view to thank Welles, and Welles briefly hobbled onto the screen to take the applause, clearly in some difficulty and pain on one crutch.

The Lear make-up was very striking; while it was just as stagey as Welles's 1953 Lear makeup, it was certainly more effective, making him look much, much older. The ageing process to the film (it was clearly a poor-quality telecine transfer) actually added to the effect, making it look more severe. The set was bare and minimal, but very moodily lit, with darkened corners - it rather reminded me of the photos of the stage set for the 1937 Julius Caesar.

I thought Welles's performance in this was fantastic. While the Droessler assembly was a mixed bag, with some lesser material, this wasn't one of the lesser items. Droessler said it was recorded later in the play's run at New York, and certainly, the three principals on stage (Lear, Cordelia, and one other) all seemed very confident in their parts, and were very intense.

[Jedediah Leland]

Details of the scene are here: http://bufvc.ac.uk/shakespeare/index.php/title/av70901

Ed Sullivan Show [05/02/1956]
Synopsis: US variety show hosted by Ed Sullivan. This episode includes includes an extract (5 min 45 secs) in which Orson Welles (in costume and make-up) performs Lear’s speech from IV, vii (`You do me wrong to take me out o’ the grave...').SeriesEd Sullivan Show, The
Language English
Country United States
Medium Television
Transmission details 5 Feb 1956 (Channel: CBS) Duration59 mins
Credits
DirectorJohn Wray (2)
Producer Ed Sullivan
Contributor Ed Sullivan
Cast
Orson Welles - Lear
Ann Meecham - Cordelia
Additional Details
Production type Sitcoms/Variety
Plays King Lear
Subjects Drama
Keywords Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)
Notes - General Welles’ production of King Lear had recently closed in New York City after only 21 performances. The production had many problems, not least Welles injuring both ankles and having to play the role in a wheelchair for most of the short run.
Production Company Name CBS Television

[tadao]

I too thought this was one of several standout highlights from Herr Droessler's first two programmes. Welles's vocal performance and modulation was superb, and great to hear a single sustained take without overdubbing or opportunity for revision of the performance; as powerful as the meticulously crafted performances of the Shakespeare films are, it's fantastic to hear Welles put his radio/theatre chops into action with an unmediated delivery. It serves as a good rejoinder against Eric Bentley's critique of Othello that Welles 'never acts, he is photographed'.

The makeup reminded me most of the greasepainted wrinkles of Hearts of Age that we'd seen near the start of the evening (and nicely resonant in the same programme to see the Falstaff sequence from the Dean Martin Show with Welles applying the greasepaint!). The edge ringing from the Kinescope process (opposite of Telecine, recording something shot with video cameras onto film, rather than scanning something from film into a video signal) did make it look even more arch. There are some interesting computer based processes that can partially restore the original smooth video motion to Kinescoped/Telerecorded footage from the 50s and 60s, used most extensively on DVDs of black-and-white Doctor Who episodes, but not yet widely employed for US releases of Kinescope footage. It's even possible to get an approximation at home, either through clever use of fiddly computer filters, or more easily by activating the otherwise nasty smooth-motion mode that infects modern TVs (giving motion pictures a soap opera video look), which can instead serve humanity by restoring the fluid motion to material that originally had it!

[Le Chiffre]

Thanks for the info, Jedediah and Tadao. What else did Stefan show? That King Lear scene from Sullivan would make a great extra if they ever get around to making a DVD of FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH, which Welles did for Lucille Ball's Desilu. The excuse for not releasing Fountain on DVD has reportedly always been that they don't have enough material to fill the DVD, but they could pair Fountain with Welles's appearance on I Love Lucy, the Edward R Murrow interview with Welles, which was done just before Welles's Lear production began, and the Lear scene on Sullivan. Interestingly enough, Lucille Ball also appeared that night on the Sullivan show.

[Jedediah Leland]

The other segments he screened as part of aprogramme on Welles and theatre were:

-The first episode of "The Orson Welles Sketchbook", on his start in the theatre in Dublin.
- "Hearts of Age"; I've always found it pretty lousy, but I know Welles saw it as little more than a teenage lark, so it seems to me unfair to be too harsh!
-"Orson Welles in Dublin" (1960), taking a broad-ranging Q&A from the audience, including dealing with one persistent heckler. There's apparently 60 minutes of this footage, but only 18 minutes has sound, and we saw the sound footage.
- "Moby Dick" (1971); Welles's reading was superb, and I liked how the Munich Film Museum stitched together the clips, but I'm not convinced this would have worked with Welles playing all the parts (he's unconvincing as a "young man", and in other roles) without some further trickery. Interestingly, Droessler said that they initially didn't understand Welles's clapperboard numbers, which made no sense, until one of Droessler's assistants thought to look up a 1965 Samuel French edition of "Moby Dick - Rehearsed", and found the take numbers all matched the page numbers on that, from which they could work out the order. Also, this was only filmed on 16mm, and while that's never bothered me on a TV screen, I can see that this looks unpleasantly grainy on the big screen - definitely one for television, I think - perhaps as part of "Orson's Bag"?
- Welles's 'Dean Martin Show' appearance changing into costume as Falstaff and then giving a reading in character as Falstaff.
- "Orson Welles's Shylock", a compilation of a speech from the 1939 gramophone recording of The Merchant of Venice, Welles's 1967 appearance on the 'Dean Martin Show' as Shylock, the surviving 9-minute reel of The Merchant of Venice (1969), and a compilation of the 1971 and 1973 takes of Shylock's "Hath not a Jew eyes?" speech.

[RayKelly]

I have the Ed Sullivan Show with Welles as Lear on a VHS tape (somewhere). A company called Shokus Video put out two full episodes back in the 1980s. If I can dig it out I will post it.
UPDATE: In a cardboard box in the hall closet. Perfect condition

[Wich2]

I've been blessed to see most of the material discussed here, in various venues. In the main, it serves to - yet again! - put the lie to the silly "Orson as Tragic Failure/Martyr" mantra.

And Chief, I agree with you about FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH. A real little gem.

-Craig

[Le Chiffre]

I've seen most of it too, but in rather sorry quality. That Lear scene above is much better then my grey market boot. Thanks Ray.