Around The World with Orson Welles

Around The World… is a series of six short travelogues that Welles made back in 1955 for TV. Yes, Orson Welles – the consummate showman! You name it, he most likely did it and here he delights us with tales from London, Vienna, Spain, and Paris.

Around The World… is invariably interesting to look at, as is much of this documentary type from the past. With Welles at the helm it is going to be even more so! The first programme – Pays Basque 1 – takes us to the Basque Countries in Spain. After interviewing a few local inhabitants, Wells talks at length to Charles Wertenbaker’s widow Lael (Wertenbaker, a well-known writer/journo had only died that year). Lael, in the company of her young son Christian, reveals interesting facets of life in the Basque country and why she has decided to make it her home. At one time during the conversation, Welles comments that he doesn’t think that progress and civilisation go together. Welles was so taken with young Christian that he made Pays Basque 2 with the same beginning and end, but the middle section is with himself in conversation with the boy. Much of it is taken up with the Basques favourite ball game.

Then it’s gluttony galore as we Revisit Vienna – not only the backdrop for The Third Man but home to the world-famous Apfelstrudel, Bienenstich, Sacher Torte and many other gastronomic delights. My mouth is watering as I write this (as was Welles’, at the time…). As Welles visits the famed Viennese coffee houses, he enjoys conversations with staff and visitors alike and is even allowed a peep into the kitchen and bakery room.
Next up is Saint-Germain-des-Prés, one of the oldest sections of Paris where much of Welles’s time is spent in conversation with the highly eccentric Raymond Duncan – brother of none other than famed dancer Isadora Duncan. The encounter takes place in the Toga-clad Raymond’s cluttered studio.

From ‘frogs legs’ we hop across the channel to the land of the ‘roast beefs’ – London to be precise, where we find Welles in conversation with a bevy of old working class Conservative women round the back of the old Hackney Empire (where Welles happened to be while attempting to film part of his opus ‘Moby Dick’). Unfortunately, this section was rather poorly recorded as the laydees were not properly mic’d up.
From the East End we’re off to the West End where we see Welles sharing a pint with that institution known as the Queens Pensioners (perhaps better known as the Chelsea Pensioners).

And now on to the last segment, titled Spain – The Bullfight, the first half of which is presented by the Tynans (a well-known and controversial husband-and-wife team of critics at the time). In fact, Kenneth Tynan went on to achieve notoriety as the creator of the scandalous revue Oh! Calcutta! Welles, as a very young man, had worked as a Torero and like the Tynans seems to have shared an enthusiasm for this cruel and barbaric sport. So then, this segment may not be for those of you for whom Spain’s ‘noblest’ sport appeals so much. The good news, however, is that the Matador gets gored going in for the kill. Yes, yours truly disapproves of blood sports!

Regarding bonus material, we are presented with the first showing of Welles’ attempt on cracking the Dominici Affair (the 1952 unsolved murder case about Sir Jack Drummond and his family), and an interview with the caustic TV-journalist Bernard Levin.