Lives of Harry Lime - Single Episodes
Harry Alan Towers
The Lives of Harry Lime was a British radio series produced in London by Harry Alan Towers. Originally called The Adventures of Harry Lime when first broadcast in Great Britain, the program featured Orson Welles as the title character, reprising his role from the 1949 cult movie, The Third Man.
The series depicted Harry Lime's many misadventures as a con-artist, opening with the haunting The Third Man Theme by Anton Karas, followed by a gunshot. Welles would then intone, "That was the shot that killed Harry Lime... But it was not the beginning. Harry Lime had many lives... and I can recount all of them."
This program was the first independently-produced series that the BBC had ever broadcast, though it only acquired sixteen of the series' fifty-two episodes. It inspired a Pocket Book of short stories based on scripts, including several reportedly written by Orson Welles himself.
This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.
Chapitres
Select a chapter to play
Critiques
A must listen for OTR Fans, and Orson Welles Fans, and Fans of Crime Capers
Den NC USA
Simon Callow, fine English actor and biographer, writes in ORSON WELLES Volume 3, One-Man Band, Chapter 5... "At no point did Welles think of The Adventures of Harry Lime as anything other than a quick way of making a quick buck, though his performance is effortlessly charismatic: he remained an incomparable radio actor, engaging, witty, suggestive, with an extraordinary gift for creating instant intimacy with the listener. He usually wrote the introductory sequences himself. This Harry – affable, worldly-wise, wry, of course – is a much less hard-edged one that Greene's." (Graham Greene) And one more quote by Callow..."He recorded several shows a day, sometimes as many as ten, urging on his little company of actors to sharp and credible accounts of their various shady characters. They often recorded in Paris, and the atmosphere was uproarious, with everyone playing two or three parts, while Welles bawled out colorful commentary on their work." Wow, from this, and Welles, comes one of the great personality crime shows on radio. IMHO, none of these "capers" are a dud, and many are truly memorable. They can be charming, poignant, rife with intrigue and revenge, and always a step or two ahead of the usual. Truly one of the best ever, and without doubt one of my favorites, The Adventures (Lives) of Harry Lime cannot be taken for granted. In fact, perhaps he cannot be taken. He just might be taking you... Enjoy!