Orson Welles Great Mysteries: Volume One [DVD]

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After the wife of a famous artist is stabbed to death, the police investigate four people connected to the case and present in the building when the murder happened - the artist himself, his gallery manager, his old friend and fellow artist, and the latter's wife. From their recollection emerges the image of a shrewd and manipulative woman, who ingrained herself into the artist's life, destroyed his previous marriage and drove the wife to suicide, and then completely took over his life and financial situation, alienating him from his friends. It seems everyone had a reason to kill her, but perhaps, it wasn't any of them who held the knife... Network, which released the DVD Orson Welles Great Mysteries Volume 1 in the United Kingdom last year, will release the second and final volume on October 26.

It was all down to John Woolf that we were able to get him and I remember there being quite a bit of excitement – although I never met him myself. It was such a big moment for us Masquerade’ found: Missing Orson Welles’ screenplay based on Luigi Pirandello play October 16, 2023 Ambitious reporter Harry Langley pretends to be the murderer of unidentified woman, to boost sales with a special report from prison. But once arrested, the authorities seem to be convinced that he is indeed the killer - because the victim has been identified as his fiancee! When Sheile Parnell is phoned by her employer and warned that one of the three experts who are arriving to view his collection of valuable old manuscripts has been replaced by a thief, she is worried... and then when call is interrupted and she receives news that her employer has been found dead, she is terrified. But the road is snowed in by a blizzard, and the murderer has cut the phone line, so apart from the curmudgeonly driver who does not believe her story, she has no-one to rely on but herself, as she tries to listen to the three experts talk and find out which one of them could be the murderer... The Furnished Room (based on a story by O. Henry) is unusual in that we’re offered, in the intro by Orson Welles, a hint of the possibility of the supernatural. Whether anything supernatural actually occurs is something I’m not going to tell you. A young man is tramping from one furnished room to another in New York, looking for his girlfriend. This story relies very heavily on trying, with limited success, to achieve an atmosphere of subtle ambiguous unease. Unfortunately it’s also a story that doesn’t amount to very much. One of the lesser episodes.An Affair of Honour starring Harry Andrews, Michael Gambon and Jeremy Clyde; script by Carey Harrison; story by F. Britten Austin; directed by Alan Bromly Anglia Television (the independent British TV company serving the commercial network for the south east of England) had been producing some consistently outstanding dramas since its opening night in 1959 when it presented The Violent Years, a play starring Laurence Harvey and Hildegarde Neff, about a man on trial in an American court. But the fledgling network faced resistance from the big four companies who were at that time producing a large part of ITV’s drama output and were reluctant to reduce that output to accommodate the new company. Eventually, they provided network time for Anglia to broadcast eight plays a year, but insisted they be made at the Wembley studios, using Associated-Rediffusions’ technicians. A Spanish officer, captured by the French during the Peninsular War, is imprisoned near the country house of an elderly aristocrat with a bored young wife - whose lover he becomes, with deadly consequences. (Based on a story by Honoré de Balzac The Inspiration of Mr. Budd starring Hugh Griffith; story by Dorothy L. Sayers; directed by Peter Sasdy

For some bizarre reason Network have decided to release only thirteen of the twenty-six episodes in a two-disc DVD set. Whether the other thirteen ever see the light of day remains to be seen. The transfers are reasonably good. Orson Welles was fronting a series for Anglia called The Great Mysteries - a forerunner to Anglia's Tales of the Unexpected. Last year, Network Distribution brought out volume one of the collection, featuring tales starring such luminaries as Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee and Donald Pleasence. Produced by Anglia Television, the 25-minute long episodes were originally broadcast by Britain’s ITV between September 1973 and February 1974. Thirteen episodes were featured on the first volume and the remaining 13 shows are contained on Volume 2.

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Death of an Old-Fashioned Girl starring Francesca Annis, Carol Lynley and John Le Mesurier; story by Stanley Ellin At the end of the semester, college professor Richard Lumsden is getting ready for vacation - and retirement. However he is interrupted by an angry parent of a student, blaming him for his son's suicide after he was expelled for stealing. The man makes it clear he wants to murder Lumsden and frame his death as a suicide, and the professor engages his to-be-murderer in a battle of wits to convince him he cannot make it look believable for the police... (Based on a story by Maisie Sharman All episodes were introduced by Orson Welles himself, though, in actuality, the great man provided little more than window dressing.

Like the previously issued 10-episode German DVD set from Pidax Film Media,, the UK release is encoded in the PAL, Region 2 format, which means it is not compatible with most North American players. (There has been no word of a U.S. release.) The home media rights are held by ITV Studios. In 2019 Network released half of the series on Region 2 DVD as Volume 1 in the UK. [3] He may have been one of the world’s greatest and most innovative film-makers, but Orson Welles wasn’t appreciated by Hollywood during his lifetime, so spent much of his career struggling to get the money needed to finance his own projects. We thought it was like Christ entering the gates of Jerusalem. But Orson didn't like the idea of working for a regional TV company because he was such a great man." Steve Peart, Retired Anglia Television film editor Anyone expecting a TV equivalent of Mercury Theatre on the Air was disappointed by this pedestrian series, filmed on videotape and hosted by a bored-looking Welles in his F for Fake garb of billowing cape and sloping hat. Great Mysteries lasted but one season (26 episodes). Welles didn't direct any episodes.A young man talks with the uncle of the girl he wants to marry, and is told a strange story about a curious funnel made of leather. While falling asleep next to the device, he has a presentiment that it was once used as an instrument of torture. (Based on a story by Arthur Conan Doyle) His visit to Norwich was very, very brief. The show was all footage that had been filmed elsewhere which we bought and just filmed Orson’s parts to introduce them.

The episodes featured on the second volume of Orson Welles Great Mysteries – include tales from Margery Allingham, Dorothy L. Sayers, Stanley Ellin and W. Somerset Maugham.

There’s quite an array of acting talent on view in this series including quite a few who were already major stars (such as Susannah York and Bond girl Jane Seymour). And there are plenty of cult movie stars, like Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and Donald Pleasence. And some good directors, like Peter Sasdy. Even by the standards of half-hour television drama these stories are rather simple, with just one little sting in the tail. Sometimes the payoff isn’t quite as satisfactory as one might have hoped, and too often it’s too easy to see the payoff coming. Jerry Norton arrives to London from America, following instructions by the actress he wants to marry, arriving at a hotel room... and finding a murdered man inside. The police arrives as he tries to leave, and soon he finds out he is the main suspect - in the murder of the husband of the woman he wanted to marry! (Based on a story by Bruce Graeme) The Ingenious Reporter starring Geoffrey Bayldon, Ronald Radd and David Birney; script by Carey Harrison