This documentary just does enough to whet the appetite to go back and rediscover the genius of Orson Welles and to appreciate the influence he had on radio, theatre and film. His young maverick style shook things up, most notably when he sent America into a panic with a live radio broadcast of War of the Worlds in 1938 and by arguably making the greatest film of all time at the age of 25 with Citizen Kane (1941). Commercially however he was a failure and, as this documentary shows focusing on the latter part of his career, he made himself unemployable as a director and was reduced to voiceovers, acting in TV commercials and being on chat shows.
If you are already a fan of Orson Welles this will be of some interest but if you are not familiar with the filmmaker this will do little to inspire a new generation to appreciate his brilliance as it is rather lacklustre and ill conceived with unremarkable contributors.
The one thing I did learn however was that the supporting actor familiar to British TV audiences with comedy shows like Man About the House and George & Mildred was in fact a protege of Orson Welles, who had directed him in The Immortal Story (1968). The young Norman Eshley may have gone on to greater things when Welles offered to teach him everything he knew about filmmaking but instead he decided to shun his mentor feeling stifled by the opportunity, a decision he now seems to regret.
