''One Man Band'', also known as ''London'' and ''Swinging London'' is an unfinished short film made by

Orson Welles George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...

between 1968 and 1971. The film started life as a part of a 90-minute TV special for

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

, entitled ''Orson's Bag'', consisting of Welles' 40-minute condensation of ''

The Merchant of Venice ''The Merchant of Venice'' is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. A merchant in Venice named Antonio defaults on a large loan provided by a Jewish moneylender, Shylock. Although classified as ...

'', and assorted sketches around Europe. This was abandoned in 1969 when CBS withdrew its funding over Welles' long-running disputes with US authorities regarding his tax status, and Welles continued to fashion the footage in his own style. The film features contributions from British comedians

Tim Brooke-Taylor Timothy Julian Brooke-Taylor OBE (17 July 194012 April 2020) was an English actor and comedian best known as a member of The Goodies. He became active in performing in comedy sketches while at the University of Cambridge and became president ...

Graeme Garden David Graeme Garden OBE (born 18 February 1943) is a Scottish comedian, actor, author, artist and television presenter, best known as a member of The Goodies and a regular panellist on ''I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue''. Early life and education ...

, and

Bill Oddie William Edgar Oddie (born 7 July 1941) is an English writer, comedian, songwriter, musician, artist, birder, conservationist, television presenter and actor. He was a member of comedy trio The Goodies. A birder since his childhood in Quinto ...

, before the trio became known as

The Goodies The Goodies were a trio of British comedians: Tim Brooke-Taylor (17 July 1940–12 April 2020), Graeme Garden (b. 18 February 1943) and Bill Oddie (b. 7 July 1941). The trio created, wrote for and performed in their eponymous television com ...

Segments

The film consists of five segments, all of them comic: ''Churchill'', ''Swinging London'', ''Four Clubmen'', ''Stately Homes'' and ''Tailors''.

1. Churchill

The first segment is filmed entirely in silhouette. Welles plays

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...

fielding press questions and then exchanging ''bons mots'' with

Nancy Astor Nancy Witcher Langhorne Astor, Viscountess Astor, (19 May 1879 – 2 May 1964) was an American-born British politician who was the first woman seated as a Member of Parliament (MP), serving from 1919 to 1945. Astor's first husband was America ...

(

Oja Kodar Oja Kodar ( ; born Olga Palinkaš; 1941) is a Croatian actress, screenwriter and director known as Orson Welles's romantic partner during the later years of his life. Personal life Olga Palinkaš was born in Zagreb to a Hungarian father and a ...

). Each line spoken by Churchill is a well-known witticism commonly attributed to him.

provides narration.

2. Swinging London

The longest segment of the film (9 mins) has a bowler-hatted reporter (

) wandering through " Swinging London", searching for

Carnaby Street Carnaby Street is a pedestrianised shopping street in Soho in the City of Westminster, Central London. Close to Oxford Street and Regent Street, it is home to fashion and lifestyle retailers, including many independent fashion boutiques. S ...

with limited success. Most of the supporting roles are played by Welles in a variety of disguises: a British policeman, an old lady selling "dirty postcards", a Chinaman luring customers into a strip club, and the omnipresent

one-man band A one-man band is a musician who plays a number of instruments simultaneously using their hands, feet, limbs, and various mechanical or electronic contraptions. One-man bands also often sing while they perform. The simplest type of "one-man ban ...

. The song "One Man Band" was written by

(who had joined Brooke-Taylor and Garden for the second season of the TV sketch series ''Broaden Your Mind''). Garden appears briefly as a rude workman and as a Morris dancer. This segment is noteworthy for what reviewers have called its "

Python Python may refer to: Snakes * Pythonidae, a family of nonvenomous snakes found in Africa, Asia, and Australia ** ''Python'' (genus), a genus of Pythonidae found in Africa and Asia * Python (mythology), a mythical serpent Computing * Python (pro ...

esque" style - which is significant as it was filmed before '' Monty Python's Flying Circus'' first aired in October 1969. A shortened, not restored version of ''Swinging London'' appeared in the documentary ''Orson Welles: One-Man Band'' on the 2005 Criterion DVD of ''

F for Fake ''F for Fake'' (french: link=no, Vérités et mensonges, es, link=no, Fraude, "Truths and lies") is a 1973 docudrama film co-written, directed by, and starring Orson Welles who worked on the film alongside François Reichenbach, Oja Kodar, and ...

''.

3. Four Clubmen

Apart from Welles' introduction, the soundtrack has been lost for this segment. It is set in a

London club The London Club is an informal group of private creditors on the international stage, and is similar to the Paris Club of public lenders. The London Club is not the only informal group of private payables. The first meeting of the London Club took ...

in which Welles plays four different members, all under heavy make-up, plus a noisy waiter who drops things.

4. Stately Homes, a.k.a. Lord Plumfield versus Welles

This segment features Welles as a journalist wandering around the stately home of Lord Plumfield. Welles also plays the eccentric, penniless Plumfield;

has a cameo as Plumfield's moronic son; and

plays Plumfield's feeble butler, Blemish, who does chicken impressions. (Plumfield says, "I'd give him the sack except we need the eggs.") Garden also provides some narration.

5. Tailors

Welles plays a shy American tourist being measured by two rude English tailors ( Charles Gray and

Jonathan Lynn Jonathan Lynn (born 3 April 1943) is an English stage and film director, producer, writer, and actor. He is known for directing the comedy films such as '' Clue'', '' Nuns on the Run'', ''My Cousin Vinny'', and '' The Whole Nine Yards''. He als ...

) who are dismissive of his ignorance of tailoring, and keep mocking his weight.

Production

In 1969, Orson Welles was in London and got in touch with writer/performers

and

. Brooke-Taylor recalled, The collaboration between Welles and Brooke-Taylor led to both men appearing in the Italian comedy ''

The Thirteen Chairs ''The Thirteen Chairs'' (french: 12 + 1; it, Una su 13) is a 1969 comedy film directed by Nicolas Gessner and Luciano Lucignani and starring Sharon Tate, Vittorio Gassman and Orson Welles, and featuring Vittorio De Sica, Terry-Thomas, Mylène ...

'' (a.k.a. ''12 + 1''). Of the "Lord Plumfield" sketch, Garden recalled, The bulk of filming was completed in 1968-9, although assorted linking narrations and inserts were filmed by Welles in 1971. The 1971 sequences are noticeable because Welles had grown a long beard by then, whereas he was clean-shaven in all the parts he played in 1968-9. The film was left unfinished in Welles' lifetime. After Welles' death in 1985, all of his unfinished films were bequeathed to his long-term companion and mistress

, and she in turn donated many of them (including ''One Man Band'') to the

Munich Film Museum The Munich Film Archive, in the Munich Stadtmuseum, is one of eight film museums in Germany. It has no showrooms and is limited to screening the films in a single cinema with 165 seats, as well as collecting, archiving, and restoring film copies. ...

for preservation and restoration. In 1999 the Munich Film Museum then edited together the complete footage into a 29-minute cut, which has subsequently been screened at numerous film festivals. The full restored footage has never been released on video or DVD, although an unrestored print is used in Vassili Slovic's 1995 documentary ''Orson Welles: the One Man Band'', which includes the segments ''Churchill'', ''Stately Homes'' and ''Tailors'' in their entirety, as well as clips from ''Four Clubmen'' and ''One Man Band''. The non-London sketch segments of ''Orson's Bag'' were edited by the Munich Film Museum into the 9 minute short ''

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

''.

Cast

as Presenter /

One-man band A one-man band is a musician who plays a number of instruments simultaneously using their hands, feet, limbs, and various mechanical or electronic contraptions. One-man bands also often sing while they perform. The simplest type of "one-man ban ...

/ Policeman / Morris dancer / Old lady / Chinaman / Four clubmen / Journalist / Lord Plumfield / American tourist *

as Reporter / Young aristocrat *

as "Churchill" narrator / Butler / Morris Dancer * Charles Gray as Tailor *

as Tailor's Assistant / Waiter *

References

External links

*
''Orson Welles' London''
on

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery (United Kingdom), National Lot ...

{{Orson Welles 1971 films American avant-garde and experimental films Short films directed by Orson Welles 1971 short films 1970s avant-garde and experimental films 1970s American films