Buzzo Gospel - Harry Lime

[Noel Shane]

The supposed source for Welles' unproduced "V.I.P." idea for Korda, and the Maurice Bessy/Welles novelization of the same, is a radio show script called "Buzzo Gospel" for The Adventures/Lives of Harry Lime. No episode index I can find lists this title, however. Does anyone know its U.S. title? (Or is there another explanation for its omission?)

[Noel Shane]

Since no one's answered off the bat, here's what I've come up with just wandering about.

Most sources give a 52-episode list for the series. Some however, the chronology appendix from "This Is OW" included, list the episode count for the show at 39. In addition to this, because of titling differences, the lists don't always overlap, leaving surplus titles which I'll assume are the British originals.

Anyway, here's a layout of the info. TiOW's 39 titles stand in bold against the 52-episode list (with five not matching up); the shows Orson wrote have an asterix beside them; and where alternate titles have been identified they appear in brackets.

Too Many Crooks (*)
See Naples and Live
Clay Pidgeon
A Ticket to Tangier (*) [Business in Tangier]
Voodoo
The Bohemian Star
Love Affair
Rogue's Holiday
Work of Art
Operation Music Box (*) [Music Box Murders]
The Golden Fleece (*)
Blue Bride
Every Frame Has a Silver Lining
Mexican Hat Trick
Art is Long and Lime is Fleeting
In Pursuit of a Ghost
Horseplay
Three Farthings for Your Thoughts
The Third Woman
An Old Moorish Custom [El Ciqina]
It's a Knockout [The Boxer]
Two is Company (*)
Cherchez la Gem
The Hand of Glory [Gold]
Double Double Cross [Double Cross in Oil?]
5000 Pengoes & a Kiss
Dark Enchantress [The Barbary Queen]
Earl on Troubled Waters
Dead Candidate (*)
It's in the Bag (*)
Hyacinth Patrol
Turnabout is Foul Play
Violets, Sweet Violets
Faith, Lime and Charity
Pleasure Before Business
Fool's Gold
Man of Mystery
The Painted Smile
Harry Joins the Circus [The Clown]
Suzie's Cue/Clue
Vive le Chance
The Elusive Vermeer [The Vermeer]
Murder on the Riviera
The Pearls of Bohemia [Matched Pearls?]
A Night in a Harem
Blackmail is a Nasty Word
The Professor Regrets
The Hard Way
Paris Is Not the Same
Honeymoon
The Blue Cariboo
Greek Meets Greek (*)

Unmatched 39:
Buzzo Gospel, Casino Royale, The Little One, New York: 1942, The Secret of Making Gold

And here are the unmatched alternative titles floating around in people's indexes and mp3 collections on the web:

Art Collection, Coins, Contraband, Counterfeit, Double Cross In Oil, The Emerald Affair/The Emerald Locket, Espionage, Fast Buck, General Valdez, Kidnapped, Matched Pearls, Nazi Loot, Opium, Parachute Drop, Return To New York (probably the same as New York: 1942), The Reward, Slow Boat To China, Smugglers, The Spy, The Swindle.


Basically, this is a very long way of saying that all of the supposed Welles-scripted episodes show up in the 52-episode list except "Buzzo Gospel". It has to be one of the 18 titles on the main list that's not in bold, but which one?

[Jeff Wilson]

"Dead Candidate" is the original title of the "Buzzo Gospel" episode.

[Noel Shane]

Is the Rosenbaum chronology just completed fouled up where this series is concerned then? He lists Dead Candidate and Buzzo Gospel as separate episodes, both scripted by Welles.

[Jeff Wilson]

In part, yes, as several episodes of the show were re-titled when the show was sold for syndication over here. Some of these were apparently edited, but I haven't gotten round to comparing the versions I have yet. It did have 52 episodes, as did The Black Museum, the other UK series Welles made with Harry Alan Towers. "Buzzo Gospel" isn't in the original list of 52, so it's the US title of "Dead Candidate." The UK titles are much more imaginative, although this example is an exception. It is rather confusing.

[Le Chiffre]

I don't really think the title "Dead Candidate" is that confusing; it just places the emphasis on a different aspect of the story. Harry Lime, trying to become a straight businessman, goes to the "republic" of Milenia to sell the soft drink Buzzo. He gives a piece of the action to the government there, and they flood the national market with Buzzo, crowding out their own national soft drink, Abomino. But when representatives from yet another American soft drink, Freezo, show up, the Milenian dictator decides that that's too much soft drink competition. When reminded that competition is democracy, he replies "Exactly". Thus does Welles cleverly tie the economic and political strands of the story together.

The Milenian government thinks Lime is actually a secret advisor to the U.S. president, sent to Milenia to look for signs of dictatorship and repression (the two reasons why Milenia has been unable to obtain U.S. foreign aid). Besides allowing Buzzo to take over their market, they also try to impress Lime of their democratic aspirations by holding a presidential election, using a dead communist candidate (who the people think is merely in exile) to run against the dictator. The idea of a dead candidate is Welles' satirical jab at the traditional political machines in America, which have always tended to make use of dead voters instead. It's interesting that "Dead Candidate" is the British title, while "Buzzo" is the American.

[Jeff Wilson]

Sorry, I meant the array of different titles used between the UK and US versions of the show was confusing. The "Buzzo/Dead" title switch is quite clear.

[Le Chiffre]

Yes, it's unfortunate that it's so confusing, since the Lime series contains some of Welles' most significant works in radio, chief among them Dead Candidate (which, for anyone that doesn't know, is a condensation of his French-language novel Une Grosse Legume).

Just listened to Buzzo again. In addition to the title change, there are several interesting things in Dead Candidate that are not in Buzzo, like the scene where Milenia's first lady Lolita (an obvious caricature of Evita Peron) takes Lime on a tour of the island, and poor people without shoes are given boxes of flowers to throw at them. Also cut is Joachimo's line advising the dictator to pick a communist as the dead candidate, since the communist threat makes good propoganda. The scene where Joachimo blackmails the dictator into giving him the position of "Minister of Culture" - which is a smokescreen for the chief of secret police - was cut. And also cut was Lime explaining at the beginning of the show how he won the concession to sell soft drinks in Milenia- in a crap game with loaded dice.

[Noel Shane]

Anyone have the whole breakdown of British to American titles? I'd appreciate it.

[Wellesnet]

Nice tribute to the Harry Lime series, and Dead Candidate (Buzzo Gospel) in particular, in Film Comment:
http://www.filmcomment.com/blog/the-won ... arry-lime/

In addition, here is a link to a recent radio adaptation (in French, although one can get a crude English translation by playing with the "settings" and CC options) of "Une Grosse Legume", on which Dead Candidate is based. Thanks to a longtime Wellesnetter for the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vw9nWmyPXwQ