The second volume of Simon Callow’s detailed biography of film maker Orson Welles is in the shops now.
The book heads straight into the Hollywood years after the release of Citizen Kane in 1941.
In his first volume of biography (Orson Welles: The Road to Xanadu) — published over ten years ago — Callow painted an exciting portrait of a young genius with a bright future.
The second stage ‘Hello Americans’ is darker as it tackles the impulsive film maker’s gradual decline of faith, his failed marriage to Rita Hayworth and his growing unpopularity with the political causes that he once championed.
