BW - EP141—005: Orson Welles In Europe—Moriarty

In 1953 Orson Welles met Italian actress Paola Mori. She was twenty-four, beautiful, and had lived for eight months in a concentration camp during World War II. Her father, a colonel in the Italian army under King Victor Emmanuel III, was a member of the anti-Mussolini resistance. They were soon dating. In early 1954, Welles played a small part as Benjamin Franklin in the French/Italian historical drama Royal Affairs in Versailles. Later in the year he was cast by director Herbert Wilcox as the main antagonist in Trouble In the Glen, opposite Margaret Lockwood, Forrest Tucker and Victor McLaglen. It portended things to come, as Harry Alan Towers was still producing a series of Sherlock Holmes radio adventures, starring John Gielgud as Holmes and Ralph Richardson as Watson. On December 21st, 1954, Orson Welles appeared as Holmes villain Professor Moriarty in the last production of the series. The tale was called “The Final Problem.”