Category Archives: Orson Welles

Lime with a twist: Violets, Violence and Recycled Radio

Posted on June 10, 2013 by Bob Stepno

Here’s a special case of radio recycling, another Orson Welles’ script from “The Lives of Harry Lime,” turned into a “Europe Confidential” journalist-hero script a few years later, part of a pattern I began writing about some months ago. This … Continue reading →

Posted in 1950s, adaptations, Drama, ethics, Europe, foreign correspondents, Orson Welles | Leave a comment

An as-told-to tale of blackmail

Posted on January 19, 2013 by Bob Stepno

The best rewrite of a “Lives of Harry Lime” episode that I’ve heard so far, transformed into a “Europe Confidential” episode with the addition of a journalist narrator, is this tale of political blackmail in which a racketeer anti-hero comes … Continue reading →

Posted in 1950s, adaptations, Drama, Europe, foreign correspondents, Orson Welles | Leave a comment

Journalist frames art-theft story

Posted on January 18, 2013 by Bob Stepno

Listening to 1951’s Orson Welles “The Lives of Harry Lime” in parallel with the 1957 radio series “Europe Confidential” can be a surreal experience — and never more than in this episode about a stolen painting that changes from Rubens … Continue reading →

Posted in 1950s, adaptations, Europe, foreign correspondents, Orson Welles, reporters | Leave a comment

Reporter stands back in recycled story

Posted on January 9, 2013 by Bob Stepno

This “Europe Confidential” story is a less-satisfying adaptation of a “Lives of Harry Lime” script than the espionage episode mentioned last time, but this one illustrates a very different way journalism can become part of dramatic storytelling. In the previous … Continue reading →

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Halloween journalists on old-time radio

Posted on October 28, 2012 by Bob Stepno

The obvious choice for a Halloween-week radio show incorporating journalist characters in a dramatic production has to be Orson Welles’ Mercury Theater broadcast of “War of the Worlds.” Welles’ dramatic technique of imitating radio news alerts, simulating interruption of a … Continue reading →

Posted in 1930s, Orson Welles, radio, science fiction, science reporting, sensationalism | 2 Comments