The best Orson Welles’s drama movies on YouTube

Orson Welles

Orson Welles

06/05/1915- 10/10/1985
If you love cinema, you will share this ranking of the best Orson Welles’s movies, although you may have ordered them differently. In any case, we hope you love it and with a little luck discovering a movie that you still don’t know about Orson Welles.

Citizen Kane

Citizen Kane
8.3/10
  • Genre: DramaMystery
  • Release: 17/04/1941
  • Character: Charles Foster Kane
Newspaper magnate, Charles Foster Kane is taken from his mother as a boy and made the ward of a rich industrialist. As a result, every well-meaning, tyrannical or self-destructive move he makes for the rest of his life appears in some way to be a reaction to that deeply wounding event.

The Magnificent Ambersons

The Magnificent Ambersons
7.6/10
The spoiled young heir to the decaying Amberson fortune comes between his widowed mother and the man she has always loved.

Moby Dick

Moby Dick
7.3/10
In 1841, young Ishmael signs up for service abroad the Pequod, a whaler sailing out of New Bedford. The ship is under the command of Captain Ahab, a strict disciplinarian who exhorts his men to find Moby Dick, the great white whale. Ahab lost his his leg to that creature and is desperate for revenge. As the crew soon learns, he will stop at nothing to gain satisfaction.

King of Kings

King of Kings
7/10
  • Genre: DramaHistory
  • Release: 11/10/1961
  • Character: Narrator (Voice)
Who is Jesus, and why does he impact all he meets? He is respected and reviled, emulated and accused, beloved, betrayed, and finally crucified. Yet that terrible fate would not be the end of the story.

A Man for All Seasons

A Man for All Seasons
7.7/10
  • Genre: DramaHistory
  • Release: 13/12/1966
  • Character: Cardinal Wolsey
A depiction of the conflict between King Henry VIII of England and his Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas More, who refuses to swear the Oath of Supremacy declaring Henry Supreme Head of the Church in England.

Catch-22

Catch-22
7.1/10
  • Genre: ComedyDramaWar
  • Release: 24/06/1970
  • Character: Brigadier General Dreedle
A bombardier in World War II tries desperately to escape the insanity of the war. However, sometimes insanity is the only sane way to cope with a crazy situation.

Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre
7.5/10
  • Genre: DramaRomance
  • Release: 24/12/1943
  • Character: Edward Rochester
After a harsh childhood, orphan Jane Eyre is hired by Edward Rochester, the brooding lord of a mysterious manor house to care for his young daughter.

Is Paris Burning?

Is Paris Burning?
6.8/10
Near the end of World War II, Gen. Dietrich von Choltitz receives orders to burn down Paris if it becomes clear the Allies are going to invade, or if he cannot maintain control of the city. After much contemplation Choltitz decides to ignore his orders, enraging the Germans and giving hope to various resistance factions that the city will be liberated. Choltitz, along with Swedish diplomat Raoul Nordling, helps a resistance leader organize his forces.

The Lady from Shanghai

The Lady from Shanghai
7.5/10
A romantic drifter gets caught between a corrupt tycoon and his voluptuous wife.

The Long, Hot Summer

The Long, Hot Summer
7.3/10
  • Genre: DramaRomance
  • Release: 03/04/1958
  • Character: Will Varner
Ben Quick arrives in Frenchman's Bend, MS after being kicked out of another town for allegedly burning a barn for revenge. Will Varner owns just about everything in Frenchman's Bend and he hires Ben to work in his store. Will thinks his own son, Jody, who manages the store, lacks ambition and despairs him getting his wife, Eula, pregnant. Will thinks his daughter, Clara, a schoolteacher, will never get married. He decides that Ben Quick might make a good husband for Clara to bring some new blood into the family.

Compulsion

Compulsion
7.4/10
  • Genre: CrimeDrama
  • Release: 01/04/1959
  • Character: Jonathan Wilk
Two close friends kidnap and murder a young boy and are defended in court by a renowned attorney who makes an impassioned plea against capital punishment.

Chimes at Midnight

Chimes at Midnight
7.6/10
The culmination of Orson Welles’s lifelong obsession with Shakespeare’s robustly funny and ultimately tragic antihero, Sir John Falstaff; the often soused friend of King Henry IV’s wayward son Prince Hal. Integrating elements from both Henry IV plays as well as Richard II, Henry V, and The Merry Wives of Windsor.

The Kremlin Letter

The Kremlin Letter
6.2/10
A network of older spies from the West recruits a young intelligence officer with a photographic memory to accompany them on a mission inside Russia. They must recover a letter written by the CIA that promises American assistance to Russia if China gets the atomic bomb.

The V.I.P.s

The V.I.P.s
6.3/10
  • Genre: Drama
  • Release: 01/09/1963
  • Character: Max Buda
Wealthy passengers fogged in at London's Heathrow Airport fight to survive a variety of personal trials.

Prince of Foxes

Prince of Foxes
6.9/10
In 1500, Duke Cesare Borgia hopes to marry his sister to the heir apparent of Ferrara, which impedes his conquest of central Italy. On this delicate mission he sends Andrea Orsini, his sister's lover and nearly as unscrupulous as himself. En route, Orsini meets Camilla Verano, wife of the count of Citta' del Monte, and sentiment threatens to turn him against his deadly master, whom no one betrays twice...

David and Goliath

David and Goliath
4.8/10
  • Genre: ActionDrama
  • Release: 22/01/1960
  • Character: Re Saul
Orson Welles stars in this familiar Old Testament tale about the Philistines and the Israelites. When the Philistines attack, the Israelites are hopeless against the fierce giant Goliath and don't know what to do. King Saul takes the advice of the prophets and sends an adolescent shepherd, David, into battle to conquer the oversized Philistine. David is victorious and becomes the King of Israel.

The Immortal Story

The Immortal Story
7/10
  • Genre: Drama
  • Release: 01/06/1968
  • Character: Charles Clay
An aged, wealthy trader plots with his servant to recreate a maritime tall tale, using a local woman and an unknown sailor as actors.

The Roots of Heaven

The Roots of Heaven
6.3/10
In Fort Lamy, French Equitorial Africa, idealist Morel launches a one-man campaign to preserve the African elephant from extinction, which he sees as the last remaining "roots of Heaven." At first, he finds only support from Minna, hostess of the town's only night club, who is in love with him, and a derelict ex-British Army Major, Forsythe. His crusade gains momentum and he is soon surrounded by an odd assortment of characters: Cy Sedgewick, an American TV commentator who becomes impressed and rallies world-wide support; a U.S. photographer, Abe Fields, who is sent to do a picture story on Morel and stays on to follow his ideals; Saint Denis, a government aide ordered to stop Morel; Orsini, a professional ivory hunter whose vested interests aren't the same as Morel's; and Waitari, leader of a Pan-African movement who follows Morel only for the personal good it will do his own campaign.

Genocide

Genocide
7.3/10
The mass murder of Jewish people by the Nazi regime is chronicled, with a warning that anti-Semitism is on the rise and the events of the Holocaust could happen again. The history of European Jewish culture and events before and during the Holocaust are seen in newsreels, photographs, and animated segments. The words of the victims of the era are read, and footage from the liberation os a concentration camp is shown.

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