Around the World with Orson Welles is a series of six short travelogues originally written and directed by Orson Welles for Associated-Rediffusion in 1955, for Britain's then-new ITV channel. Despite its title emphasizing the world, it was entirely filmed in Europe. Among other incidents in the episodes, Welles visited Jean Cocteau and Juliette Gréco in Paris, attended a bullfight in Madrid (with co-hosts Kenneth Tynan and Elaine Dundy) and visited the Basque Country.
Production
In March 1955, Associated-Rediffusion had originally commissioned a series of 26 half-hour programmes, but in the end, only 6 were broadcast, and even then, in rather troubled circumstances. Before a contract had even been signed, Welles had rapidly shot a pilot episode himself (the third episode broadcast, "Revisiting Vienna") using loaned money and on the basis of an informal agreement. As Welles had made an agreement with producer Louis Dolivet in 1953 to work exclusively for him (beginning with their troubled film production Mr. Arkadin), Dolivet was brought on board as the series producer. also known as "The Third Man Returns to Vienna", (Welles starred in The Third Man in 1949) was lost. In June 2011, the episode was found in the archives at the Wisconsin Historical Society Center for Film and Theater Research in Madison, Wisconsin by Ray Langstone, completing the series.
Orson Welles also worked on a seventh episode entitled "The Tragedy of Lurs", which was not completed. The documentary was based on the controversial Dominici murder case in France, and contained interviews with many of the principals shortly after the trial. A version of the film, using Welles's footage and additional sound, was constructed by French filmmaker Christophe Cognet and integrated into his 52-minute documentary titled The Dominici Affair by Orson Welles (2000).
Home video release
Sets containing what were then thought to be the five sole surviving broadcast episodes and "The Dominici Affair" were separately released on both VHS and DVD. Then, in 2015, to mark the centenary of Welles's birth, the British Film Institute released both DVD and limited-edition Blu-ray sets containing all six broadcast episodes and The Dominici Affair by Orson Welles.
See also
- La pelota vasca