ORSON WELLES, VOLUME 3

In One Man Band the third volume in his epic survey of Orson Welles life and work Simon Callow again probes in comprehensive and penetrating detail into one of the most complex artists of the twentieth century looking closely at the triumphs and failures of an ambitious one man assault on one medium after another theatre radio film television even at one point ballet in each of which his radical and original approach opened up new directions and hitherto unglimpsed possibilities The book begins with Welles self exile from America and his realisation that he could only function happily as an independent film maker a one man band by 1964 he had filmed Othello which took three years to complete Mr Arkadin the biggest conundrum in his output and his masterpiece Chimes at Midnight as well as Touch of Evil his sole return to Hollywood and like all too many of his films wrested from his grasp and re edited Along the way he made inroads into the fledgling medium of television and a number of stage plays including Moby Dick considered by theatre historians to be one of the seminal productions of the century Meanwhile his private life was as dramatic as his professional life The book shows what it was like to be around Welles and with a precis