The Spirit of Charles Lindbergh

The Spirit of Charles Lindbergh (1984)

*** (out of 4)

Orson Welles wrote, produced, directed and stars in this three-minute short film, which was probably never meant to be publicly viewed but after his death a lot of his material started to be released. In this three-minute short, Welles sits in his chair behind his typewriter where he sends a message out to his dying friend Bill Cronshaw. In the short, Welles reads a passage from the journal of Charles Lindbergh.

If you're a fan of Welles then you're certainly going to want to check this short out. Yes, there's nothing technically brilliant here and there's certainly nothing ground-breaking but this is a pretty entertaining film. Welles always looked terrific on the screen and just his eyes could draw you into whatever it was that he was doing. Here, he simply reads but you can just feel the energy and passion in that great voice of his. The film is short but certainly touching.

This short bit is the last footage of Welles before he died. He already looks rather ill, but his reading of a passage from Charles Lindbergh's diary, dedicated to a friend of his, is really moving. A last great look at one of the greatest!