Arena

Episode Synopsis

Arena presents an exclusive film profile in two parts of one of the great legends of the cinema. With unprecedented frankness and detail. Orson Welles talks about his long and turbulent career - from the heady days of the Mercury Theatre and Citizen Kane, through a spiral of unfulfilled ambitions and unfinished films. His admirers see an individual still vigorously idiosyncratic, batt-ling constantly against a movie establishment. His critics see him as a burnt-out star, never fulfilling the promise of his early career, and wasting himself on cameo roles in bad films on sherry commercials, and projects that may never see the light of day. He talked to us in Las Vegas about his early life; the making of his films; his equally brilliant career in theatre, radio and magic and his incompatibility with an industry he once took by storm. with Jeanne Moreau, Anthony Perkins , John Huston, Charlton Heston , Peter Bogdanovich, Hilton Edwards and Robert Wise.