It's not very hard to find things wrong with The Immortal Story…. The sound, at least in the English-language version is rather bad. The lighting, sets, props and makeup have a decided air of cheapness and haste, reflecting the fact that this was, after all, only a television production. The continuity and editing tend toward a certain sloppiness, and the acting and mise-en-scène appear stolid, completely antithetical to the wild Welles we have known. Even more damning, perhaps, is the virtually total subservience to the narrative structure and dialogue of Baroness Blixen's fable. Unlike Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons, The Lady from Shanghai, Touch of Evil and even Falstaff, the points here seem to be made verbally rather than visually and, superficially at least, they appear to be those of Miss Dinesen, not those of Mr. Welles.

But most of what is important about The Immortal Story...