The latest homage to that master magician Orson Welles is Fade to Black, out tomorrow, proving that the spells he conjured half a century ago still hold us in thrall today. Directed by Oliver Parker, this feature shows how Welles - in an attempt to recover from his disastrous divorce from Rita Hayworth - travels to Italy in 1948, hoping to raise finance for one of his many unmade film scripts.
Orson was in need of some ready cash to keep him in cigars, whisky and wild, wild women while he did the rounds of potential financiers. He accepted the lead role as Cagliostro in Black Magic (1949) - a third-rate script by a second-rate director. Backed with a paycheck of $100,000, it was an