Orson Welles and Oja Kodar in F for Fake, 1974.   (Photo: Everett Collection)

Deeper Welles
For years, some of Welles’s best work has been the hardest to find—even Ambersons, which still isn’t a proper DVD. But lately technology has made his other triumphs for stage, radio, and film accessible.

Macbeth (1937) A golden artifact: Before Welles’s Hollywood fame, a newsreel camera captured the last few minutes of his all-black Macbeth in Harlem, apparently the only surviving footage of this pioneering work. Even now, the bold use of sound, huge cast, and voodoo transpositions are exciting. (On YouTube.com; search for “Voodoo Macbeth.”)

Les Misérables (1937) Broadcast the year before The War of the Worlds, this seven-part adaptation of Victor Hugo’s novel may be his supreme work for radio. Taut pace, inventive sound, and—a great surprise—two exquisite, restrained performances by Welles, as Jean Valjean and the narrator. (Google reveals many CDs and downloads.)

F for Fake (1974) Cinematic essay—not quite a documentary—about the world’s greatest art forger, Elmyr de Hory, and his biographer, Clifford Irving, who had previously duped McGraw-Hill and Life magazine with a faux autobiography of Howard Hughes. It’s not easy to separate truth from illusion here, which is just how Welles—director, magician, and cape-wearing star—wanted it. (On DVD in the Criterion Collection; $39.95 at Amazon.com.)

Orson Welles (Volume 2): Hello Americans
By Simon Callow. Viking. 528 Pages.

Related:

• Archive: “Book Reviews”
• Articles by Jeremy McCarter
• Table of Contents: Sep 25, 2006 issue of New York | Subscribe!