Presenter: Stefan Drößler (Filmmuseum München) The museum holds the largest collection of Welles materials, including film copies of the Sketch Book series. In 1995, the Munich Film Museum acquired crates (think Citizen Kane finale) containing what its press released described as "1.8 tons" of Welles material via Oja Kodar, the director's partner from 1961 until his death in 1985. Said crates' contents included the majority of the surviving elements from Welles' unfinished film, television, radio, and theater projects. Made for BBC television in 1955, Orson Welles’ Sketch Book was a series of six weekly fifteen-minute episodes in the form of intimate monologues augmented by Welles’ own illustrations from the titular sketchbook. Episode 4 originally aired on May 5, 1955. Welles focuses his commentary on the theme of police restrictions on freedom of movement. He begins with a synopsis of the 1946 case of a "Negro soldier" beaten blind by a white rogue policeman. He does not name the soldier whose sketch he draws -- Isaac Woodard, whose victimization Welles helped make a national issue by calling attention to the injustice on his radio program.* The remainder of the TV episode consists of the actor-director telling of his own encounters with police while crossing international borders. At the end of 2009, BBC 4 television rebroadcast the series. In early 2010, off-air video recordings were added to YouTube (by the pseudonymous "CountPierreBezukhov"). ------------------- *Listen to the daring fifteen-minute commentary broadcast on ABC radio in summer 1946, in which citizen Welles calls out the white policeman who beat and blinded Isaac Woodard. Most accounts of the Woodard case agree that it was instrumental in President Truman's decision to order the racial integration of the U.S. military in 1948. http://www.archive.org/details/1946OrsonWellesCommentaries Orson Welles’ Sketch Book, episode 4 of 6 (1955, sound, b&w, 15 min.) Production Company: BBC Cast: Orson Welles Producer: Huw Wheldon Camera: Edward Lloyd Editor: William Morton Retitled The Orson Welles Sketchbook (Production credits adapted from British Film Institute’s Film & TV Database) Resources: Barbara Leaming. Orson Welles: A Biography. 1985. New York: Limelight, 1995. Joseph McBride. What Ever Happened to Orson Welles? A Portrait of an Independent Career. U of Kentucky Press, 2006. Kevin Thomas. “Video Festival Offers Survey of Orson Welles.” Los Angeles Times, Dec. 3, 1986. Ben Walters. “Orson Welles’ TV Revolution that Never Was.” The Guardian, Dec. 17, 2009. http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2009/dec/17/orson-welles-television Wellesnet.com hosts a transcript of Welles' monologue (mistakenly labeled as Episode 3) and samples of his illustrations. Holdings: Filmmuseum München |
