World's best film? Orson Welles would've turned 100

The maker of "Citizen Kane" would've turned 100 on May 6. Orson Welles, born 1915 in Wisconsin, rose to fame as a radio play producer. He adapted H.G. Wells' "The War of the Worlds" for the new medium in 1938. Legend has it a panic broke out because the listeners were convinced aliens were about to invade Earth. The panic is mere myth - but the coup certainly got attention in Hollywood.

In 1940-41, Orson Welles produced the movie that garnered him instant fame - despite criticism and poor box office showings. "Citizen Kane" tells the story of publishing baron Charles Foster Kane, a fictional character drawn closely to the likeness of powerful US publishing tycoon William Randolph Hearst.

Welles owes his fame to an uncanny knack for using the tools of the trade. He experimented with depth of focus, cross-fading, bold camera moves, and an interlaced narrative. He also took the lead role in the film. For decades, critics voted "Citizen Kane" as the best movie of all times.

"Citizen Kane" was anything but a box office hit, so the Hollywood studios took a very close look at Welles' second feature film, "The Magnificent Ambersons." The film was heavily edited and cut - and the enraged director sulked.

Finally, the director broke with almighty Hollywood after his 1947 film "The Lady of Shanghai" flopped. The poor showings were also due to how Welles cast his wife Rita Hayworth, who was the sex goddess of US film at the time: She was the bad girl and wore her hair short and blond. The audience wasn't amused.

Orson Welles turned his back on Hollywood and moved to Europe, where many of his next works were filmed. He worked in front of the camera, too, in order to finance his own projects. In the British film noir "The Third Man," Welles has a memorable cameo appearance as black market opportunist Harry Lime.

Welles had a huge interest in literature. He adapted "Macbeth" and "Othello," and his appearances in front of the camera in Shakespeare's royal dramas are legendary. He also wrote the screenplay for and directed Kafka's "The Trial," with Anthony Perkins and Romy Schneider in the lead roles.

Over the years, Welles increasingly gained weight. He loved good food. But his figure didn't keep him from acting - quite to the contrary. He not only directed "Chimes at Midnight," he also portrayed the massive John Falstaff, the hero in this 1966 compilation of extracts from Shakespeare plays.

Of the Welles movies that made it to the screen, at least as many failed or were never finished. The genius in the director's chair often got bogged down, fell out with producers or couldn't swing the financing. "Don Quixote" - Mischa Auer is pictured here in the title role - was left as a fragment.

Toward the end of his career, Welles spent more time in front of the camera than behind it. In the 1970 film adaptation of the satirical novel "Catch 22," Welles plays Brigadier General Dreedle. In 1973, he directed and starred in his last major film, "F for Fake," the story of a professional art forger.

Orson Welles gave otherwise unremarkable films a boost by taking on roles, for instance Long John Silver in the 1972 adaptation of "Treasure Island." In 1985, Orson Welles died in California, and his ashes were scattered at the country house of a friend in southern Spain. What is left to film aficionados around the world is a trove of cinematic treasures.