Radio Theater: Orson Welles in Dracula (7/11/1938)

 

Dracula 

Starring: Orson Welles, Elizabeth Fuller, George Colouris, Agnes Moorehead, Martin Gabel, Ray Collins, Karl Swenson 

Studio: Mercury Theatre on the Air 

Year: July 11, 1938 

My Rating: ★★★★★ 

Available free from The Mercury Theatre on the Air (if you have trouble listening or downloading, you can also listen to it here on YouTube) 

The Mercury Theatre on the Air started its short but illustrious life with Dracula by Bram Stoker in July of 1938. Orson Welles could not have chosen a better story to launch this radio theatre to stardom although it would inevitably be War of the Worlds that would keep it famous.

Go to my Classic Hollywood page to find all my Classic Hollywood reviews!

While I have never actually read Dracula all the way through because it is epistolary, I do know enough about the story to know that, while seriously abridged, this radio version of Dracula is outstanding, to say nothing of spine-chilling. All of the main characters are who they should be, meaning that Lucy and Mina aren't related or even friends, Dr. Seward is not a bumbling old man running a sanitorium, and Jonathan Harker is a poor, traumatized young man who barely escapes Transylvania with his life. Barely. The program even includes the carnage of the ship Demeter, an important element also referenced in the 1979 film version of Dracula starring Frank Langella. 

As you're already all well aware, I love Orson Welles' radio plays. Absolutely and with abandon. If I could live in his radio plays, I would, and while Dracula is a haunting story, it is beautifully rendered in this production. The sound effects, the musical score, the performances, everything flawlessly aligns. I cannot praise it enough. I find myself sinking deeper and deeper into the story as it continues, and while there are characters and storylines omitted for the sake of time, it is still exquisite. 

Life is made better by Orson Welles and his radio career, and Dracula proves that point.

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Radio Theater: Orson Welles in Around the World in Eighty Days (10/23/1938)

Around the World in Eighty Days

Starring: Orson Welles, Ray Collins, Edgar Barrier, Eustace Wyatt, Frank Readick, Arlene Francis, Stefan Schnabel, Al Swenson, William Alland, Howard Hughes

Year: October 23, 1938

My Rating: ★★★★

Available free from Indiana University Bloomington

I've never read this particular novel either, although it is on my list. However, I did watch the 1989 miniseries starring Pierce Brosnan as Phineas Fogg so I'm quite familiar with the story. 

Go to my Classic Hollywood page to find all my Classic Hollywood reviews!

Phineas Fogg is a wealthy Victorian gentleman who runs on time. Every moment of his life, down to the last second, is accounted for. So when members of his club place a wager with him that he cannot make it around the world in 80 days when he positively claims he can, well, the race is on. Phineas' journey involves steam trains, ships, boats, elephants, and more, all accompanied by his new French manservant Passepartout, a loyal man who likes his new master but also thinks he's CRAZY, and he wouldn't be far wrong. But the greatest question is, can Phineas actually deliver on his promise to make the trek in 80 days, or will his faith in Father Time ultimately fail him in the end?

This play is very nearly brilliant. Orson approaches the role of Phineas Fogg with a delightful bit of snobbery in his voice, making the character very memorable. I've heard Edgar Barrier before, playing the voice of the hotel manager in Private Lives, so it was fun to have him play Passepartout as well. He uses such an eccentric and hyper French accent that just works for the role.

The script is good, very, very good, but, due to the shortness of time, there are days and weeks that are simply mentioned in narration as having happened, Phineas hopping from train to boat, etc., without actually seeing these scenes. It's a shame, but also understandable that the audience is unable to experience everything. Unfortunately, this also means that the listeners don't have time to really engage with the love story so that bit feels a little, shall we say, sudden? Considering the lack of time, however, this play is concise, clear, and easy to follow, even for those with no familiarity with the story.

Around the World in Eighty Days is, quite simply, a fun romp around the world with Orson Welles. It's entertaining and quirky and one of my favorites of Orson's radio productions.

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Radio Theater: Orson Welles in A Tale of Two Cities (7/25/1938)

A Tale of Two Cities

Starring: Orson Welles, Mary Taylor, Edgar Barrier, Martin Gabel, Frank Readick, Betty Garde, Erskine Sanford, Ray Collins, Kenneth Delmar

Year: July 25, 1938

My Rating: ★★★

Available free from Indiana University Bloomington

This review will be quite brief.

I have listened to this radio play at least a half a dozen times, but it still confuses me. I partially blame my confusion on Mr. Welles' adaptation that feels a bit jumpy, but also on my having never read A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. My unfamiliarity with the story makes it hard for me to focus and if I have just a few minutes where my mind wanders, which always seems to happen, well, that's the end. And I spend the rest of the play struggling to keep up.

All I do know is that it is a very condensed version of Dickens' novel. It has to be or they could never fit the story into an hour. 

Go to my Classic Hollywood page to find all my Classic Hollywood reviews!

Orson Welles gives a stellar performance as both Dr. Alexandre Manette and Sydney Carton, two men who are alike in appearance and voice but in no other way. My brain disengages about 10 minutes in and re-engages about 15 minutes from the end when I realize that Dr. Manette is about to be executed during the French Revolution and Sydney Carton, a man who has never done anything for anyone, decides to take his place. The final several minutes are very moving and fit well into my expectations of Orson Welles' emoting abilities.

The only reason I've listened to this radio play so many times is because it is the first play in my complete Audible collection of Orson Welles' plays. I forget that every single time and am simply too lazy to skip ahead. I must keep hoping that the story will someday click in my brain. Alas, it hasn't happened quite yet.

However, if you are familiar with Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, then I have no doubt you will enjoy the radio play.

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Lucy on the Radio: Dinner at Eight (Campbell Playhouse, 1940)

a blog post written for my We Love Lucy Blogathon

Edna Ferber's theatrical play, Dinner at Eight, was adapted for radio by the Campbell Playhouse in 1940. One of Orson Welles' productions, Dinner at Eight guest-starred Lucille Ball in the role of his wife, a character much like her role in Fancy Pants with Bob Hope, slightly uncouth and uncultured.

A farcical look at upper-class arrogance and oneupmanship, Dinner at Eight never actually shows the dinner, but all of the events leading up to the meal, including the hostess' difficulty in obtaining the correct number of people from the correct social class. She's forced to invite a couple from Texas, played by Orson and Lucy, who are potentially her least favorite people in the entire world due to their coarse manners and habits.

Go to my Classic Hollywood page to find all my Classic Hollywood reviews!

I'm a bit of a radio buff and a huge Orson Welles radio fan, so it only made sense that I would eventually stumble across this play, but what I wasn't expecting was Lucy. In fact, I hadn't even paid much attention to the credits at the beginning as I was listening, and then Lucy's voice woke me right out of my reverie. 

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Radio Theater: Orson Welles in Noël Coward's Private Lives (4/21/1939)

I honestly don't know how I lived before finding Orson's radio theater performances! I mean, seriously!

Private Lives is a crazy combination of hilarity and tragedy that appeals to my macabre sense of humor. Orson Welles plays Elyot and actress Gertrude Lawrence plays his ex-wife Amanda (Gertrude actually played opposite Noël in 1930 in this play on the stage!). Each of these individuals has remarried and each of them is on their honeymoon, I would say the wedding night, actually. And of course, each couple stays in the same hotel!

And of course, they have suites right next to each other!

Elyot and Amanda see each other, turn white as a sheet (assumedly, since it is radio), and immediately beg their new spouses to agree to move to a different hotel. Which is hilarious because each of them wanted to go to Paris so they would have run into each other there too. Apparently, Amanda and Elyot both love the same hotels/resorts. Can't imagine how that happened.

Anyway, the new spouses are frustrated at this new itchy, irritating side to Elyot and Amanda and dig in their heels, refusing to change hotels. Each of the new spouses storms off to have dinner alone in the resort, leaving, CUE DRAMATIC MUSIC, Elyot and Amanda alone!

The divorced couple gets to talking, realizes how very much they still desperately love each other despite the smackdown drag-out fights they indulged in when they were married. Yah, that sounds healthy. After indulging in a bit of desperate guilt, the two set up a phrase, or in this case, a name, Solomon Isaacs, that each of them has the right to say to call a cease-fire for several minutes should an argument break out. Then they run away together, off to Amanda's apartment in Paris.

Whoo boy.

Yes, Private Lives is hilarious.

But my heart also breaks for the other spouses. These poor people, Sibyl and Victor, had nothing whatsoever to do with any of this insanity. The only thing they did wrong was fall in love with fickle people who can't live with each other and can't live without each other either. It's not a comforting thought to realize that the only way your husband/wife would be faithful is if they never saw their ex-spouse in the flesh. Yipes!

Down to the nitty-gritty of the radio theater performance.

Orson uses a delightful hoity-toity British accent as if he were a second son of a lord or duke. It's a lovely accent, made even more so by the absurd lines in the play that he gets to perform. Gertrude must have been a hoot on the stage because I absolutely adore her in the radio play! She has this charming selfishness to her voice that suits the character perfectly. And together, you buy that Elyot and Amanda are still in love. They just sell it, even though they each had their own microphone they were performing from, you can picture them in each other's arms, both arguing and kissing at the same time. It's insane to be able to capture that type of authenticity on the radio!

The secondary casting for Sibyl and Victor was excellent as well. Sibyl (Naomi Campbell) is this sweet little voice that you empathize with because she's right when she says that it's all so squalid. And Victor (Robert Speaight), well, he's a bit of a dullard, sort of white bread with mayonnaise, which is fine, but Amanda should have known better than to marry him. She would have been bored within a week.

And then there's the manager of the hotel. Oh my gosh, I LOVE him and I have no idea who played him. He's this officious little Frenchman who's an impartial observer to the insanity of Amanda and Elyot reconnecting. He's, in effect, the chorus or the narrator, and is positively brilliant.

Private Lives is in my top 5 favorites of Orson's radio theater productions. It's a perfect representation of the 1930s lackadaisical attitude towards marriage and I just can't help loving it.

Laurence Oliver and Jill Esmond

On a completely unimportant side note, Laurence Olivier performed as Victor in the stage play with Noël and Gertrude in 1930 and even married Jill Esmond, the girl who played Sibyl. This, of course, was before the Vivien Leigh debacle. As the narrator of the radio play would say, "These people are crazy!"

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Radio Theater: Orson Welles as the Count of Monte Cristo (10/1/1939)

No, you're not looking at a bizarre facsimile of Leonardo Dicaprio. Although I do find it strange that in their youth and based solely on appearance, Orson and Leo could have been brothers.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is Orson Welles.
Most people probably know him for Citizen Kane and The Third Man, the latter of which his role lasts no more than 20 minutes and the former being a film I've not yet watched.
Instead, Orson Welles is my radio theater champion.
If you know of Orson but don't ever recall him playing the Count of Monte Cristo, you would be right, in a sense. He never performed as Edmond Dantes on the screen, but instead lit up the airwaves in a vastly abridged yet brilliant hour long radio play of The Count of Monte Cristo.
Performed October 1, 1939, Orson had yet to advance to the silver screen. He wouldn't move from New York to Los Angeles until November of 1939 when he began his work on what is, arguably, his most famous role in Citizen Kane. 
Instead, he's still in New York, performing every week for radio audiences.
There's nothing quite like the radio of the early Hollywood years. These performers were artists, really. Regardless of your opinion of Orson Welles as a person, no one can deny his epic, masterful voice. 
And he puts all of his skills to work in the role of Edmond Dantes.
I have never read the book. I admit it. I've seen the Jim Caviezel film and been struck by its morbid tragedy, but the book has always seemed daunting somehow. To have Orson Welles pare it down into an hour long performance staggers the imagination.
The story begins as a young and foolish Edmond Dantes trusts the wrong people in his life, young men he thought were his friends. Orson would have been 24 when he played Dantes, a little older than the youthful character, but if there's one thing Orson had, it was mastery of his voice,. He plays young Dantes as an eager to please, hopeful youth who simply wants to marry his sweetheart and live his life.
Of course, the next phase is the betrayal of Edmond by his so-called friends. It is suspected that he is a supporter of Bonaparte and he spends the next 20+ years imprisoned in the Château d'If, a prison island off southeastern France.  There's nothing more haunting than hearing a young man who has done absolutely nothing wrong, scream that he is innocent as the guards lock him away to be forgotten in solitary confinement.
After 6 years of utter silence, Dantes spends the next 6 months attempting to starve himself to death. At least, until a prisoner known as the Mad Priest, digs his tunnel into Dante's cell. The two spend the next 14 years in each other's company, saving Dantes from the sin of suicide.
When the Mad Priest dies of illness and supposed old age, Dantes switches himself with the body and when tossed over the side of the Château d'If, cuts himself free of the shroud and swims off to collect the treasure of Monte Cristo that the Mad Priest had essentially bequeathed to his young friend.
I'm prone to loving Orson when he plays supremely young characters. He imbues a certain whimsy into his lines that is just extremely attractive and charming. But there is nothing more terrifying than Orson as a vengeful Edmond Dantes, recently escaped from 20 years in a French prison.
You would almost think that the time spent in the Château d'If might have tamed the character. But not the way Orson plays him. Instead, Dantes is masterful, a man in his late 30s, performing a convincing masquerade as the wealthy Count of Monte Cristo.
Revenge, of course, is enacted.
I suspect that the last half of the play might be the most condensed since we never know what happens to the villains who betrayed Dantes all those years ago. There's an intense, snarling confrontation when Dantes casts off his mask as the Count of Monte Cristo. But there is nothing after this point, which is probably good because I think one of the men commits suicide, another gets captured by bandits (maybe?), and the third goes insane. At least according to Wikipedia.
I do know that H. H. Holmes (the infamous devil of the White City), read The Count of Monte Cristo during his time in prison, but unlike Dantes, Holmes was GUILTY!
Ahem.
Orson's ability to move from youthful, wistful Edmond Dantes to the avenging devil Dantes is remarkable.
Think of it.
This is radio.
You don't have facial expressions or sweeping gestures to help you. The audience can't see them. All you have is your voice. And that has to be perfect, every time, if radio theater was your career.
If you get a chance, Audible has a 60 hour collection of Orson Welles' radio plays. I've listened to most of them half a dozen times now, and not all of them are classics, but contemporary plays, well, what would have been contemporary during the 1930s. But each of them gives a much more complete view of Orson Welles as a performing artist. Yes, he was excellent on the silver screen. So much so that I wish he'd gone to Hollywood sooner and acted during the 1930s. But if he'd done that, we wouldn't have his radio plays, and that is a sacrifice I'm thankful he didn't have to make.
More reviews of his radio plays to come.

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Orson Who? But you know Brad Pitt.

Many modern Americans live in a societal vacuum. If a movie or a book or a historic event was filmed, written, or occurred before their birth then it just doesn't enter their sphere of existence.

My heart thundered, panicking as Mr. Rochester stepped up behind Jane Eyre and enfolded her in his arms. That huge, expansive chest of his completely engulfed her, and I halfway expected poor little Jane to pop like a bug right in front of my eyes. But it was fine. He clung to her for a moment before sharing some dialogue, and then released her just as I exhaled a huge breath of relief. Such was my introduction to Orson Welles when I was twelve-years-old.

Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine in Jane Eyre

When Elizabeth Bennett brutally refused Mr. Darcy, her eyes flashing as she reprimanded him with every ounce of dignity she could muster, I wished I could step into her place. Her curls, the sway of her skirt, her prim lips as they pouted in defiance, every elegant line of her form planted my desire to be every inch a comparable lady. A desire strengthened because she won Mr. Darcy's heart so effortlessly and he bestowed on her the most radiant smile, embracing her on a stone bench in the garden while "The End" flashed in gigantic letters upon the screen and the movie faded. Thus was I introduced to Sir Laurence Olivier when I turned thirteen.

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