Welles' film audience is missing a revealing experience in not being able to see [his made-for-television film] The Fountain of Youth. Its mixture of bold theatrical stylisation, puckish humour and bardic intimacy draws on a side of Welles, the 'radio side', which seldom pokes through the intricate architectonics of his feature film work. The Immortal Story is told with a fabulist's simplicity, but it is still a story film conceived for the large screen, with all the pretence of showing real people involved in a real drama. The Fountain of Youth is more a chamber play than a drama. (p. 40)

But in The Fountain of Youth form follows function, for the theme of the piece is narcissism…. None of [Welles'] films has ever made such extensive use of mirrors, for instance, and the sheer physical data of the characters' faces and bodies … speak volumes. In fact, it is...