Watch Around the World

Orson Welles made his first of many forays into television in 1955 when he signed on to produce, direct and host a series of twenty-six travelogues for British television. Six were ultimately broadcast, taking viewers to Paris, London, Madrid, the Basque Country and Vienna (where Welles made an iconic impression years earlier in THE THIRD MAN). Though these segments were completed by others while Welles was occupied on other projects, he spent weeks editing the footage and shooting additional shots of himself asking questions and commenting on the edited scenes, all matched to create the illusion of unity. His onscreen presence defines the episodes with his illusory affable engagement with his interview subjects and his knack for making his beautifully-scripted commentaries sound conversational and extemporaneous. He is host, interviewer, raconteur and film essayist in his first-take on a form he returned to twenty years later in F FOR FAKE. [For several decades, "Revisiting Vienna" was believed lost but it was fortunately relocated. That segment is included here.] – Sean Axmaker