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Two years after the 20th Century Fox movie was released, Orson Welles created a seven episode (3.5 hour) version of Hugo's classic work. Best known for his movie Citizen Kane (made ten years later) and his 1938 radio broadcast of War of the Worlds (a year after this production), Orson Welles's name has become synonymous with "classics". What is astonishing is that at the time this production was mounted, which he wrote, directed, and produced, Orson Welles was 22 years old.

Welles was given by the CBS network an unusual lattitude in his productions, and he used it to the full in this one—he described this production as "projected", meaning that it would not be an adaption; the dialog would be Hugo's, and the action taken from the book, and much of it would be narrated from passages lifted entirely from the text. Where it is necessary that we know interior dialogue or thoughts, either narration is used (for Valjean, which is simple, as Orson Welles does the voice of Jean Valjean as well as that of the narrator), or, for the case of Javert, we hear excerpts from "Javert's notebook". The sound effects in here are truly imaginative, as well as in some cases the lack of sound effects: when Madeleine is lifting the cart all crowd noises stop, the mikes are dead for a moment, and then, all you can hear is the sound of wood creaking, a sound that gets louder as the cart is lifted from Fauchelevant. The argument at Fantine's deathbed is remarkable, too, that three people can talk together and still be understood by an audience, rather than having it turn to babble (something hard to do, outside of opera). Also, this is the only version I am aware of that even touches on the problem of Valjean having to leave the convent in a coffin so he can come in as Fauchelevant's brother—and Valjean is very nearly buried alive for it. By this time there are only two episodes left, so the student uprising is only barely glanced over, and Marius and Cosette's courtship spoken of as having taken place between episodes, as it were. The entire matter of the barricade is dealt with in a half-hour, and the final episode covers the hundred pages usually left out of the movie versions, that cover the time following Javert's suicide and leading up to Valjean's own death.

C A S T   N O T E S

• Much has been written about Orson Welles by other people, and far better, too. He was a genius unappreciated in American media until it was much too late; Hollywood strangled his talents and hardly anyone under the age of 30 remembers him for anything other than some wine commercials. He was a young, bright, promising, rising star; at the age Victor Hugo was when he was writing Hérnani, Orson Welles had his own radio theatre troup, the Mercury Theater On The Air (the cast of which would later appear, almost entire, in Citizen Kane). Then, as now, Europe loves its creators, while America stifles them: that's why Britain's 10-pound note has Charles Dickens on it and the US 10 dollar bill has a president so obscure that almost no one can tell you what party he belonged to, who his Vice President was, or what he did while in office. In fact, it's more than likely that nine of 10 people reading this won't even be able to name him without pulling out a $10 from their wallet and looking. Give up? Click here.



• Virginia Welles, who plays the voice of Cosette, was Orson Welles's wife. There's that whole Valjean-Cosette, Woody-Allen-and-Soon-Li-Previn thing again… like in the 1935 movie. Gives me the creeps just thinking about it.



• Ray Collins, who plays many of the male background voices, is better known as the actor who played Inspector Tragg in the old Raymond Burr "Perry Mason" series of the 50's and 60's.

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Orson Welles! Radio! ‘Nuff said!

This is the only (movie) version to include one of the neatest bits of "almost" from the original book—where, outside a church, Valjean gives money to a beggar who looks up at him momentarily… and it's Javert! But Javert doesn't get a good enough look at him to be sure it's Valjean, and Valjean doesn't get a good enough look at him to be sure it's Javert....

The jacket art is really beautiful—the main page to this website has the same background, the red and gold bread-and-chains wallpaper. That's where I got it from. I wish I knew who designed that art so I could properly credit him/her on the main page, rather than the note I inserted in the HTML code.

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As with many radio shows, there is too much expository dialog, such as (not from the show, obviously): "What are you looking at?" "There, in the distance, behind the mossy rock, do you see it?" "What, the elephant?"

The last episode, one-seventh of the production, is almost entirely a recap of the previous six!

No one can pronounce anything French in this production. Montreuil is pronounced as Montroo, and Montfermeil is pronounced Mont-fur-mail.

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And the awards go to....

• Youngest Actor To Play Jean Valjean Award to Orson Welles, of course. Twenty-two years old. Sheesh.



• Best Attempt To Remain Faithful To The Original Award again, Orson Welles. In the 1935 movie, it was not acceptable for Fantine to be portrayed as a "loose woman" (prostitute), no matter the circumstances. In this 1937 production, not only does Welles have Fantine say the words, "I have nothing left to sell… I will sell the rest," he (as narrator) goes on to quote from the section beginning, "What is the story of Fantine? It is the story of society buying a slave…." Which is a section that has in many editions been left out or appendixed at the end, out of sequence, because it contained the shocking notion that a woman who sells herself into prostitution because she has no other options left is not a "loose woman".



• Best Costumes, Lighting, and Cinematography Award Just kidding.



• Best Almost-Typecasting Award If only Ray Collins had been the voice of Javert. As the long-suffering Inspector Tragg on the old Perry Mason series, he rarely made an arrest but that Perry Mason proved the person innocent. Some things never change....

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I found this at Waldenbooks. It is available on 3 cassettes or 3 CDs. It is produced under the banner of Smithsonian Historical Performances. I do not offhand remember the exact price I paid for it but I believe I got the CD set for around $30.