Orson Welles, Volume 3--One-Man Band

Starred review from February 8, 2016
In the riveting and wonderfully wrought third volume of Callow’s ambitious four-part biography of Orson Welles (after Orson Welles, Vol. 2: Hello Americans), the biographer and actor examines the forces that led to Welles’s self-imposed exile from America. Beginning in 1947 as Welles prepares to film Othello and ending in 1965 following the release of another Shakespeare adaptation, Chimes at Midnight, this entry pursues Hollywood’s enfant terrible through the difficult period that nonetheless spawned some of his greatest films, including Touch of Evil. Published 101 years after Welles’s birth, Callow’s book is a genuine gift to film buffs and historians. Drawing on previously published materials, extensive interviews, and diary excerpts, Callow provides new insight into Welles’s character and a deeper appreciation of his broad talent. Despite the author’s evident admiration for his subject, this isn’t a fawning homage but a warts-and-all look at Welles’s life and at the creative processes that allowed him to flourish in film, theater, radio, and television. Callow’s acting background and flair for drama transform his research into an immersive, engaging, and immensely readable portrait of Welles, revealing a complicated man and innovative artist whose own life mirrored the Shakespearian tragedies of which he was so fond.

Starred review from February 15, 2016
Juicy, provocative latest installment in the comprehensive life of a self-destructive genius.In his first two volumes of the life of Orson Welles (1915-1985), actor and author Callow captured the scope of a life that always seemed to promise more than it delivered. In The Road to Xanadu (1996), Welles was the boy genius whose Midas touch literally transformed theater, radio, and then film, reaching the pinnacle of his life at the age of 25 with Citizen Kane. In Hello, Americans (2007), Callow charted the way down, exploring how Welles' sprawling ambitions ran up against both studio interference and his own restless inability to see projects through to the end. During the period recounted here (1947-1964), Welles fell into the pattern of his adult life: constantly trying to get a new play or film off the ground and taking acting jobs to help finance them. The results were ridiculously mixed, with success and failure jostling each other from year to year. Welles made quirky box-office duds (Othello, Mr. Arkadin), staged an ambitious version of Ionesco's Rhinoceros, and got fired by Laurence Olivier. He also made a classic film noir, Touch of Evil, and a long-gestating masterpiece, Chimes at Midnight. Welles thought of himself as Falstaff, but he seemed a good deal closer to King Lear: a royal in exile, howling at the winds as well as actors, crew members, studio heads, and anyone who crossed him. He was, also, a paradox to the critical establishment: a failure to his countrymen, a hero to the Cahiers du Cinema crowd. Callow, with his own extensive theatrical background, remains Welles' most astute observer, with an unerring sense of both his subject's brilliance as a visual artist and the comparable limitations of his (often hammy) performances. Welles rightly imagined that people would never stop writing about him after he died. Callow continues to set the standard in this increasingly crowded field.

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March 15, 2016

Despite the endless volumes written on the legendary Orson Welles (1915-85), no one has captured his life in such detail and intimate perspective as acclaimed film and theater actor/director Callow (Being an Actor; Charles Dickens and the Great Theatre of the World). This is the third of an eventual four-volume study of Welles, and it covers perhaps the most intriguing part of his career, 1947-64, when he was forced to raise money for his own projects through performing often inconsequential roles and other commitments. During these difficult years, however, he managed to produce the films Othello, Touch of Evil, Mr. Arkardin, The Trial, and Chimes at Midnight, as well as several stage productions. Callow's remarkable approach renders a more personally guided and analyzed survey of Welles's accomplishments than a traditional chronicle. Applying his knowledge of film and theater, he supplies a viewpoint that is different from other biographers. VERDICT The audience for an intense, multivolume portrait of Welles might not be as large as that for a single volume; yet, for the lucky few, they will devour this literate and engaging book. [See Prepub Alert, 10/26/15.]--Peter Thornell, Hingham P.L., MA

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2015

Who better to write a biography of the protean Orson Welles than the protean Callow, an acclaimed actor, a theater and opera director, and a distinguished author as well. This third of four volumes covers the years 1947-64, when Welles exiled himself from America to achieve his vision as an independent filmmaker, even as he explored the possibilities of television and conquered the stage with productions like his 1955 groundbreaking Moby-Dick.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.