Moby Dick Rehearsed (1955)

[Melissa]

Does anyone know if a print survives of Welles's 1955 film of his stage production, MOBY DICK REHEARSED, co-starring Patrick McGoohan and Joan Plowright?

Thank you,

Melissa

[Roger Ryan]

If a filmed record of "Moby Dick Rehearshed" ever existed, I fear it is lost now (possibly in that early-70's fire at Welles' home?). While I know it is not what you're seeking, a number of segments do exist of Welles "reading" passages from "Moby Dick" shot around '72 or '73 (they appear in the SHOWTIME documentary "One Man Band"). Anyone have more info on the '55 staging?

[blunted by community]

the script is available through you local public library, and if you search it on google you will find a lot of marvelous explanations, and you will find it's still being staged.

[maxrael]

doesn't answer the question but thought i'd just thought i'd get everyone's mouths watering again by reposting this quote from Christopher Lee (from "the films of christopher lee" by Pohle Jr. & Hart) originally supplied by fantomas in this thread

It was a film made in black and white by orson welles, with himself as captain ahab, for american television, in england. it was his version of the stage play that he did in london, which i was not in. and it's basically the story - i've still got the script - of a group of actors; and the film is the day they rehearse, on the stage of an empty theatre, MOBY DICK ... which happens to be the play they're doing that week. it opens with the actors arriving, as themselves, in victorian times, in an empty theater. we used the scala, and the hackney empire. and welles directed all this - all his own material he did later on in rome, by himself: he didn't work with us at all, except as a director. [...] it was done partly in mime, with a company of actors who jumped in and out of character. and he would swing the camera - literally swing it from side to side - while we on the flat stage staggered off in the opposite direction; and the effect was that the entire stage tilted: which was supposed to be the deck of a ship at sea in a storm, and we were all supposed to be drunk. then there were ladders, which were the rails of the ship; and the harpooners would harpoon the whale (which of course you never saw) and the harpooners had nothing in their hands.
it was extraordinary.

[Melissa]

Thank you, maxrael, for posting that quote. Patrick McGoohan said in an 1986 interview that the excerpt of the film that he saw while Welles was reviewing the rushes one day was fantastic. McGoohan saw about 45 minutes worth of film which only featured their scenes together. If only the film could be located.

[colwood]

Not sure if its what you're looking for exactly, but in the archives of the Munich Filmmuseum, they have a unfinished project called Orson Welles in Dublin (or Orson Welles on Stage in Dublin). I believe it consists of two reels of Welles doing some of the Ahab part and answering audience questions. I believe this played at the Welles Festival in NY and LA earlier this year. Perhaps somebody who saw this particular program would be able to tell you better.