(Photo by Courtesy Everett Collection)
Orson Welles Movies Ranked by Tomatometer
Orson Welles made the greatest directorial debut ever with 1941’s Citizen Kane, the story of the life and death of media magnate Charles Foster Kane. It’s a drama epic in dramatic and temporal scope, awash in narrative and moral ambiguity, and groundbreaking camerawork that expanded the cinematic language. Welles, who rose to fame through radio and theater (his 1938 adaptation broadcast of The War of the Worlds is mythologized for creating an actual Martian invasion panic), followed up with 1942’s family drama The Magnificent Ambersons. The film, which is celebrating its 80th anniversary, was taken away from Welles during editing. Studio financer RKO destroyed roughly a third of the footage, yet the 88-minute final film is still a masterpiece.
Welles closed out the ’40s with noir The Lady from Shanghai, which he co-starred in with Rita Hayworth. He made the final great classic noir Touch of Evil, though he was also forced out of the edit room there by Universal. Welles’ revolutionary methods and uncompromising perfectionism led to frequent wrestling with external forces and powers, with multiple films released posthumously, including 1993’s It’s All True (a documentary on his unfinished three-part South American epic), Hopper/Welles (a conversation with Dennis Hopper), and The Other Side of the Wind, completed and released in 2018.
Welles slowed down as a director in the decade before his death in 1985, but had released major works in 1970s (the intricate meta-documentary F for Fake) and the 1960s (adaptations of Franz Kafka’s The Trial and Shakespeare’s Falstaff, released in America as Chimes at Midnight). —Alex Vo
#1
Adjusted Score: 119637%
Critics Consensus: Orson Welles's epic tale of a publishing tycoon's rise and fall is entertaining, poignant, and inventive in its storytelling, earning its reputation as a landmark achievement in film.
Synopsis: When a reporter is assigned to decipher newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane's (Orson Welles) dying words, his investigation gradually reveals...
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#2
Adjusted Score: 102619%
Critics Consensus: A classic story adapted by a filmmaker near his creative peak, Chimes at Midnight unites Welles and Shakespeare - and powerfully distills the best of both.
Synopsis: Henry IV (John Gielgud) usurps the English throne, sets in motion the factious War of the Roses and now faces...
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#3
Adjusted Score: 110017%
Critics Consensus: Artistically innovative and emotionally gripping, Orson Welles' classic noir is a visual treat, as well as a dark, sinister thriller.
Synopsis: When a car bomb explodes on the American side of the U.S./Mexico border, Mexican drug enforcement agent Miguel Vargas (Charlton...
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#4
Adjusted Score: 95467%
Critics Consensus: Assembled with bold visual craft and penetrating insight, The Magnificent Ambersons further establishes writer-director Orson Welles as a generational talent.
Synopsis: Orson Welles' acclaimed drama follows two generations in a well-to-do Indianapolis family. Isabel Amberson receives a proposal from dashing Eugene...
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#5
Adjusted Score: 93131%
Critics Consensus: F for Fake playfully poses intriguing questions while proving that even Orson Welles' minor works contain their share of masterful moments.
Synopsis: Orson Welles' final film documents the lives of infamous fakers Elmyr de Hory and Clifford Irving. De Hory, who later...
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#6
Adjusted Score: 86708%
Critics Consensus: A satisfying must-watch for diehard cineastes, The Other Side of the Wind offers the opportunity to witness a long-lost chapter in a brilliant filmmaker's career.
Synopsis: After years of exile in Europe, a maverick director returns to Hollywood to finish his comeback movie, "The Other Side...
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#7
Adjusted Score: 93392%
Critics Consensus: Energetic and inventive, The Lady from Shanghai overcomes its script deficiencies with some of Orson Welles' brilliantly conceived set pieces.
Synopsis: A seaman becomes involved in a complex murder plot when he is hired to work on a yacht. He soon...
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#8
Adjusted Score: 101139%
Critics Consensus: The sins of World War II reemerge in an idyllic American setting in this diabolically effective noir, buoyed by Orson Welles' virtuosic direction and performance.
Synopsis: Immediately following World War II, ex-Nazi Franz Kindler (Orson Welles) is living under a false identity as a teacher in...
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#9
Adjusted Score: 92841%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A bitter merchant (Orson Welles) tries to bring to life a legend of a sailor who seduces a rich man's...
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#10
Adjusted Score: 88486%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Legendary actor/filmmakers Dennis Hopper and Orson Welles sit down for an intimate conversation in 1970....
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#11
Adjusted Score: 91123%
Critics Consensus: This haunting, eccentric Macbeth may be hampered by budget constraints, but Orson Welles delivers both behind and in front of the camera.
Synopsis: In director Welles' retelling of Shakespeare's classic tragedy, Macbeth (Orson Welles), a medieval Scottish general, is told by three witches...
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#12
Adjusted Score: 89362%
Critics Consensus: Orson Welles may take big liberties in his adaptation of The Trial, but the auteur constructs an absurd nightmare that is unmistakably Kafkaesque -- grounded by an excellent Anthony Perkins as the befuddled Josef K.
Synopsis: Josef K. (Anthony Perkins) is accused of an unspecified crime and shambles through a series of bizarre encounters in an...
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#13
Adjusted Score: 84507%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: In 1942, fresh off the success of "Citizen Kane," director Orson Welles journeys to Brazil to make a documentary. The...
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#14
Adjusted Score: 74894%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Claiming that he doesn't know his own past, a rich man enlists an ex-con with an odd bit of detective...
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