1) This is the one section of Welles’ career that feels fulfilled. In film (especially), theatre and TV there is this aura of unachieved greatness… projects unmade, classics that never came into existence. This may not be actually true (I get the impression he just got sick of theatre, getting satisfaction from lecture tours instead) but that’s the myth. But not for radio. On that medium you feel he accomplished everything he wanted to, and more… Indeed, he probably stuck at it longer than he wanted to in order to make money. Radio was his bread and butter for a long time, paying rent while he did theatre in the 30s, recovered from his film career flaming out in the mid 40s, and when he was seeking to raise funds for his films in the 50s.
2) His productions weren’t super-experimental. Everyone knows War of the Worlds – but this sort of liberty with the text was the exception rather than the rule for Welles on radio. His adaptations tended to be faithful – yes, lots of cutting and jazzing up, but he didn’t turn them on his ear.
3) He was obsessed with Americana. Welles loved – and I mean LOVED – nostalgic tales about America, particularly small town America, in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Whimsical classics, family sagas, gentle comedies: Huckleberry Finn, Our Town, Ah Wilderness, Magnificent Ambersons, Life with Father… He was obsessed. It certainly put the films Citizen Kane and Magnificent Ambersons in context with me. Incidentally, these were often the weakest Welles shows because he was always miscast playing innocent aw shucks boys who come of age.
4) He was a terrific radio actor, which that booming voice and charm, but he like any actor he could be miscast. See above.
5) He longed to play comedy, and could be surprisingly effective, especially in a well constructed piece – this could either be a regular series, like The Jack Benny Show, or a play, like Twentieth Century. If just left to his own resources as comic, he floundered through lack of technique and experience – Orson Welles’ Almanac was a case in point.
6) Harry Lime was a marvellous vehicle - handsome, charismatic, sexy, funny, charming. Perhaps his best "hero" role. If he hadn't gotten so fat surely he would have lasted longer as a Hollywood star, as opposed to character actor - and he might have been able to parlay that into more films as director. But such things never mattered on radio.
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