Welles played this in vaudeville, a disastrous experience, just before he went to Hollywood. It sort of sticks out like a sore thumb in Orson Welles’ theatre career – Shakespare, Marlowe, Native Son… and a junky melodrama about some British citizens captured by an Oriental despot. So it’s fascinating to hear it on radio.
But you know something... junky or not, this is still pretty good fun, with Orson having a high old time as a prince threatening to kill Madeleine Carroll and her two colleagues unless the British release some prisoners. Welles’ character is interesting – he keeps saying he doesn’t want to do it, but has toin order to keep the locals happy; of course he falls for Carroll. I had to listen hard to catch the fact that the British come to the rescue in the end.
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