Editing Orson Welles (section)

=== ''Othello'' ===

{{Main|Othello (1951 film)}}
[[File:Othello-Welles-Cloutier.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|Welles and [[Suzanne Cloutier]] in ''[[Othello (1951 film)|Othello]]'' (1951)]]

During this time, Welles was channeling his money from acting jobs into a self-financed film version of Shakespeare's ''[[Othello]]''. From 1949 to 1951, Welles worked on ''[[Othello (1951 film)|Othello]]'', filming on location in Italy and Morocco. The film featured Welles's friends [[Micheál Mac Liammóir]] as [[Iago]] and [[Hilton Edwards]] as [[Desdemona (Othello)|Desdemona]]'s father [[Brabantio]]. [[Suzanne Cloutier]] starred as Desdemona and [[The Campbell Playhouse (TV series)|Campbell Playhouse]] alumnus [[Robert Coote]] appeared as Iago's associate Roderigo.

Filming was suspended several times as Welles ran out of funds and left for acting jobs, accounted in detail in MacLiammóir's memoir ''Put Money in Thy Purse''. The American release prints had a technically flawed soundtrack, suffering from a dropout of sound at every quiet moment. Welles's daughter, Beatrice Welles-Smith, restored ''Othello'' in 1992 for a re-release. The restoration included reconstructing [[Angelo Francesco Lavagnino]]'s original score, which was originally inaudible, and adding ambient stereo sound effects, which were not in the original. The restoration went on a successful theatrical run in America. [[David Thomson (film critic)|David Thomson]] writes of Welles's ''Othello'', "the poetry hangs in the air, like sea mist or incense." [[Anthony Lane]] writes that "Some of the action was shot in Venice, and I occasionally wonder what crept into the camera casing; the movie looks blackened and silvery, like an aged mirror, or as if the emulsion of the print were already poised to decay. You can't tell what is or isn't Shakespeare, where his influence begins and ends."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lane |first=Anthony |author-link=Anthony Lane |title=Nobody's Perfect |year=2002 |pages=585–586}}</ref> The movie premiered at the [[Cannes Film Festival]], where it won the ''Grand Prix'' (precursor of the [[Palme d'Or|Palme d'or]]).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bogdanovich |first=Peter |title=[[This is Orson Welles]] |year=1998 |edition=Revised |page=411}}</ref>

In 1952, Welles continued finding work in England after the success of the ''Harry Lime'' radio show. Harry Alan Towers offered Welles another series, ''[[The Black Museum (radio series)|The Black Museum]]'', which ran a year with Welles as host and narrator. Director Herbert Wilcox offered Welles the part of the victim in ''[[Trent's Last Case (1952 film)|Trent's Last Case]]'', based on [[Edmund Clerihew Bentley]]'s [[Trent's Last Case (novel)|novel]]. In 1953, the [[BBC]] hired Welles to read an hour of selections from [[Walt Whitman]]'s ''[[Song of Myself]]''. Towers hired Welles again, to play [[Professor Moriarty]] in the radio series ''[[The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (radio series)|The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes]]'' starring [[John Gielgud]] and [[Ralph Richardson]].

Welles briefly returned to America to make his first appearance on television, starring in the ''[[Omnibus (US TV series)|Omnibus]]'' presentation of ''[[King Lear (1953 TV drama)|King Lear]]'', broadcast live on [[CBS]] October 18, 1953. Directed by [[Peter Brook]], the production costarred [[Natasha Parry]], [[Beatrice Straight]] and [[Arnold Moss]].<ref>[https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/40866/king-lear/ DVD Talk review] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803081939/https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/40866/king-lear/ |date=August 3, 2020 }} February 9, 2010 (Retrieved December 29, 2011)</ref>

In 1954, director George More O'Ferrall offered Welles the title role in the 'Lord Mountdrago' segment of ''[[Three Cases of Murder]]'', co-starring [[Alan Badel]]. [[Herbert Wilcox]] cast Welles as the antagonist in ''[[Trouble in the Glen]]'' opposite [[Margaret Lockwood]], [[Forrest Tucker]] and [[Victor McLaglen]]. Old friend [[John Huston]] cast him as Father Mapple in his [[Moby Dick (1956 film)|1956 film adaptation]] of [[Herman Melville]]'s ''[[Moby-Dick]]'', starring [[Gregory Peck]].