Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles

2014
12A
1h 31m

IMDb RATING

6.9/10

984

YOUR RATING

Orson Welles in Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles (2014)

Trailer for Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles

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2 Videos

1 Photo

Biography Documentary

A look at the life and work of the great theatre, radio and film artist.A look at the life and work of the great theatre, radio and film artist.A look at the life and work of the great theatre, radio and film artist.

Director
- Chuck Workman
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.9/10

984

YOUR RATING

Director
- Chuck Workman
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 2 nominations

Videos2

Trailer 2:05

Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles

Photos

Top cast88

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Orson Welles

Self
(archive footage)

Simon Callow

Self

Christopher Welles

Self
(as Christopher Welles Feder)

Joanne Hill Styles

Self

Norman Lloyd

Self

Micheál MacLiammóir

Self
(archive footage)

Ruth Ford

Self
(archive footage)

Julie Taymor

Self

Paolo Cherchi Usai

Self

Norman Corwin

Self
(archive footage)

Peter Bogdanovich

Self

James Naremore

Self

William Alland

Self
(archive footage)

Reggie Armour

Self
(archive footage)

Steven Spielberg

Self

William Randolph Hearst

Self
(archive footage)

John Houseman

Self
(archive footage)

William Friedkin

Self

Storyline

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Did you know

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Goofs
When the paternity of Welles's alleged son is mentioned, one of the photographs which is shown and purported to be of Welles is actually a photograph of Vincent D'Onofrio, who played Welles in Ed Wood (1994).

Connections
Features The Hearts of Age (1934)

User reviews16

Review

Featured review

8/10

Workmanlike <- see what I did there?

Is it too on-the-nose to point out that this documentary is directed by someone named "Workman"?

Perhaps.

This is an absolutely fine documentary that does two things very well:

1. It covers his entire life.

2. It grapples with all of his work on a fairly equal footing, not portraying him as a "once great man".

(I lie ... it does a third thing well. It portrays Welles as a person who must have been one hell of a great person to hang around with.)

Because it covers so much ground in a taught 90 minutes, it doesn't cover much of anything in any depth. It's best for folks with at least some significant Welles gaps that require filling.