Aside from being one of my most prolific and talented colleagues over at The Big Picture, Jez Conolly is the only one to have written a book (Beached Margin) about the role and representation of the seaside resort in British cinema. More relevant to this post, he is also the only member of TBP’s staff who is often told he resembles Orson Welles. We’re thrilled to have him here at Touching From A Distance taking a look at some of the lowlights of the twilight of The Big O’s career. – Scott Jordan Harris

Over to Jez…

‘That it should come to this!’ (Hamlet: Act I, Scene II)

The ‘work’ that God-like genius Orson Welles chose to accept in the winter of his career is a sad reflection on the man’s talents. Even more tragic, and yet painfully amusing, are the outtakes that exist of his various forays into product endorsement and advertising voice-overs in the 1970s.

Here are two such clips: the first an intoxicated attempt to espouse the merits of Paul Masson champagne, the second an extended essay in resentful curmudgeonliness that is frankly all that the advertising of frozen peas deserves. If you don’t wish to witness what the great man was reduced to then look away. The rest of us are at liberty to wet ourselves at the disgruntled disdain that Welles generates towards his employers, and the weary pedantry that he uses to dissect the execrable script with which he is presented.