In My Father's Shadow

William Faulkner, responding to his daughter's disappointment that he had missed an important (to her) birthday party, snapped that no one remembers Shakespeare's daughter. Orson Welles's daughter, whom he named Christopher in the womb, had a similarly difficult time catching the attention of her famous father. A memoir like this needs two things at least: great anecdotes and previously unseen family photos. Chris Welles Feder delivers on the second and tries hard at the first, but the fact is that Orson Welles was too busy to give his firstborn much of his time. He moved on to other marriages, other continents, new projects. Welles Feder gives little insight into her father's filmmaking but adds some facts around the margins, such as that Welles despised being praised for Citizen Kane and thought Chimes at Midnight was his best film.