Reviews archives • Wellesnet | Orson Welles Web Resource

‘New Deal for Artists’ recalls WPA impact on arts (review)

At the start of the documentary “New Deal for Artists,” Pulitzer Prize winner Studs Terkel — who got his start in the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Writers’ Project — laments that the contribution the New Deal and WPA made to the arts is not taught in schools and has been lost to history.
The remastered and re-released “New Deal for Artists” is narrated by Orson Welles, himself a beneficiary of the Federal Theater Project. In addition to Welles and Terkel, the WPA aided thousands including writers Richard Wright, Margaret Walker and Ralph Ellison; painters Diego Rivera, Jackson Pollock and James Brooks; and actors Will Geer, John Houseman and Howard Da Silva.

May 16, 2021

‘Magnificent Ambersons’ gets white-glove treatment (review)

By RAY KELLY For much of Wellesnet’s history, two topics have dominated conversation here: The completion of The Other Side of the Wind and the desire to see a superb DVD (later Blu-ray) release of The Magnificent Ambersons. This month, Welles fans finally got both. The Criterion Collection today released its long-awaited domestic Blu-ray and […]

November 27, 2018

Orson Welles’ brave, bold ‘The Other Side of the Wind’ (review)

By RAY KELLY It would be comforting to think that in the great beyond, Orson Welles is sipping a Negroni between puffs on a Macanudo and overjoyed that The Other Side of the Wind has been skillfully completed by an immensely talented team of friends and admirers. In actuality, he is probably wincing about a particular […]

September 12, 2018

Review: ‘The Eyes of Orson Welles’ offers fresh, insightful look at filmmaker

By RAY KELLY Orson Welles famously wrote, “A film is never really good unless the camera is an eye in the head of a poet.” He would have certainly been impressed then by Mark Cousins’ penetrating and engaging new documentary, The Eyes of Orson Welles, which had its world premiere today at the Cannes Film […]

May 9, 2018

Review roundup: ‘The Lady From Shanghai’ on Blu-ray

Updated on June 4, 2014: TCM Shop has not only put out an improved version of The Lady from Shanghai on Blu-ray, there is also an exchange program for those who have already purchased the previous version. If interested, call the TCM Shop at (888) 982-6746 and tell them you want to exchange your copy. […]

February 4, 2014

‘War of the Worlds: The True Story’ drawing mixed reviews

“War of the Worlds: The True Story,” filmmaker Timothy Hines’ ambitious faux documentary about a Martian invasion, has drawn opposing views from two prominent West Coast critics. The film opened in select theaters on October 30, but has only recently gained notices from the Hollywood press as the Pendragon Pictures release now plays in Los […]

December 30, 2012

DVD debut of Orson Welles’ ‘The Magnificent Ambersons’ is not very magnificent

By ROGER L. RYAN On September 13th The Magnificent Ambersons made its very belated DVD debut in North America as an Amazon.com exclusive “add-on” for customers who buy the Ultimate Collector’s Edition Blu-ray of Citizen Kane. Even though fans had been very vocal about wanting Ambersons released on DVD for a decade or more, the […]

September 16, 2011

The Orson Welles Library now available on Blackstone audio CD

**************************** THE ORSON WELLES LIBRARY 1. Wakefield by Nathaniel Hawthorne 2. The Red Room by H. G. Wells (with intro by OW) 3. The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad 4. The Secret Sharer (part two) Sredni Vashtar by Saki (with intro by OW) 5. The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe The Way Through the […]

April 23, 2009

Harvard and Stefan Drossler present: The Unknown Orson Welles in Cambridge, MA

Ray Kelly, our Wellesnet man in Cambridge sends along this exclusive report on Stefan Drossler’s presentation of The Unknown Orson Welles on December 1, 2008 at the Harvard Film Archive

December 3, 2008

ORSON WELLES documentary IN THE LAND OF DON QUIXOTE — In the words of Tennessee Williams, “Welles rings the bell of pure poetry”

Having visited Spain twice in the last two years and had the most wonderful time there, my comments here may be considered a bit biased, because I imagine if you haven’t actually been to Spain, you probably will not be quite so excited about Orson Welles wonderful documentary, In the Land of Don Quixote. The […]

May 15, 2008

ORSON WELLES and COLE PORTER’S “AROUND THE WORLD” revival in London

Shortly before the April 28, 1946 opening of AROUND THE WORLD in Boston, Orson Welles called Harry Cohn in Hollywood to get a loan for the costumes he needed to open his new show. As most Welles followers know, the result of that call was a loan from Cohn that allowed the show to go on. It […]

June 22, 2007

Gore Vidal on ROSEBUD – what did it REALLY mean?

The ever witty, brilliant friend of Orson Welles, writer Gore Vidal, wrote a review in 1989 of Frank Brady’s Citizen Welles and Welles own script for The Big Brass Ring. The article itself is fairly well known (it was reprinted in Interviews with Welles), but if you haven’t read it, it can be accessed here: […]

February 25, 2007

Searching For Orson

Here are two reviews on the new Croatian film Searching For Orson. ___________________� SEARCHING FOR ORSON � (Documentary – Croatia – U.S ) � By Robert Koehler � Variety� � A D&J Prods /Filmind/Studio Guberovic presentation. Produced by Jakov Sedlar. Executive producers, Richard Weiner, Stephen Ollendorff . Co-producers, Harold Snyder, Boris Miksic, Ron Assouline, Natali […]

January 28, 2007

ORSON WELLES featured as The Godfather of Independent filmmakers in TCM’s EDGE OF OUTSIDE airing in July

Of course the producers hated me most, because if I could do all those things, than what is the need for a producer? � �Orson Welles�� Without final cut an artist cannot function. � �Henry Jaglom�� *��*��*� It�s insane that filmmakers have to play that game, and that�s why movies suck! � �Ed Burns� […]

July 3, 2006

Variety’s original ‘Mr. Arkadin’ review

Since Mr. Arkadin didn’t open in America until 1962, it’s not surprising that most of the U. S. press didn’t review it until then (if at all), but strangely Variety also missed the boat, failing to review the film on it’s European release. However, they made up for their mistake with this rather perceptive review, […]

May 23, 2006

A Few Words on the Arkadin Set

I received my review copy of the Criterion Complete Mr. Arkadin set last week, and after a cursory walkthrough, I can say it�s pretty much everything we hoped it would be. While it isn�t absolutely �Complete� (something that has to be a bit of a gag on their part, given the project at hand here), […]

April 5, 2006

The First Lady of Hollywood

From time to time, I’ll give a look to biographies of people who played roles in the life of Welles, however small, and the most recent and interesting of these is Samantha Barbas’ The First Lady of Hollywood: A Biography of Louella Parsons, telling the story of that infamous gossip columnist who did her best […]

January 9, 2006

The Hitch Hiker: Radio You Can See…

…Which of course begs the question, “Why bother?” But Mind City Productions decided that an animated version of Welles’ Mercury Summer Theater broadcast of Lucille Fletcher’s radio classic “The Hitch Hiker” was needed, and so we’re here to provide a look at it. First off, the disc appears to be a DVD-R, and two of […]

December 22, 2005