“A STOLEN MASTERPIECE”

By Raymond Benson

In a fascinating interview supplement contained on this amazing new release by The Criterion Collection, film historian Joseph McBride calls The Magnificent Ambersons one of the great Hollywood tragedies in that the film we got from writer/director Orson Welles was not the one he intended. It is widely known that RKO Radio, the studio behind the production, deleted forty-three minutes from Welles’ final cut, reshot the ending, and released the film their way—all against Welles’ wishes—and then promptly destroyed the cut footage so that the movie could never be reconstructed.

The Magnificent Ambersons is a stolen masterpiece.

That said, the film is still a great movie. In fact, it earned Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress (Agnes Moorehead), Best Cinematography (Black & White, by Stanley Cortez), and Best Art/Interior Set Decoration (Black & White).

Ambersons, based on Booth Tarkington’s 1918 novel (Welles claims that Tarkington was a “friend” of his father’s), the picture was the director’s follow-up to Citizen Kane. Once again featuring some of the Mercury Players (Joseph Cotten, Ray Collins, and Moorehead) and new casting choices (Dolores Costello, Tim Holt, Anne Baxter), the production of Ambersons went well, with the picture going only a little over budget. Welles delivered a 148-minute cut—and then Pearl Harbor happened. Welles was appointed by Nelson Rockefeller to be a goodwill ambassador to Latin America so that he could attempt to persuade South American countries from entering the war on the Axis side.

Welles dutifully went to Brazil and started shooting a film (It’s All True, another picture sabotaged by RKO) and was essentially unavailable to receive notes and requests from RKO regarding Ambersons. RKO, unhappy with the film, then took it upon themselves to change it to suit their needs, and there was nothing Welles could do about it. The picture released in July 1942 was 88-minutes in length.

Would a Magnificent Ambersons that is an hour longer be a better film than it already is? We can only assume. For one thing, the ending was drastically different. Welles’ version was cynical, dark, and ironic. Given the wartime climate, RKO wanted a more upbeat ending—never mind that it really doesn’t make sense that the characters suddenly change entire attitudes they have held throughout the film. Never mind that the final half-hour of the movie feels choppy, rushed, and out-of-rhythm from the first hour. The 88-minute version is what we have and must live with.

It should be stated again—The Magnificent Ambersons is still a great picture.

The story concerns the wealthy Amberson family in the early 1900s Indianapolis. Beautiful Isabel Amberson (Costello) marries Wilbur Minafer (Don Dillaway) instead of Eugene Morgan (Cotten), but she regrets it… and she and Morgan carry torches for each other for the remainder of their days. Enter Isabel and Wilbur’s bratty son, George (Holt), who terrorizes the town with his bad manners, arrogance, and boorishness. Things get complicated when he begins to woo Morgan’s daughter Lucy (Baxter) and at the same time insult and humiliate her father. All the while, Wilbur’s sister Fanny (Moorehead) also carries unrequited love for Morgan and inserts herself into the already-touchy situation.

Ultimately, Ambersons is about the downfall of a respected and wealthy family to that thing called Progress—namely, the invention and proliferation of the automobile and other industrial evolutions. Welles makes an ecological statement with the picture (back in 1942!) which is something else RKO was unhappy with, seeing that American industries had to ramp up to support the war effort.

Criterion’s new 4K digital restoration looks marvelous, and it contains two separate audio commentaries with scholars Robert L. Carringer and James Naremore, and critic Jonathan Rosenbaum.

The packaging is first-rate. The numerous and excellent supplements alone make the product a 5-star purchase. Especially interesting and informative are the new interviews with (previously mentioned) McBride and one with film historian Simon Callow. Both men relate different insights into the history of the production and the editing debacle. Director Welles appears on a 1970 segment of The Dick Cavett Show (along with second guest Jack Lemmon) for an often-hilarious and always-entertaining half-hour discussion. New video essays on the cinematography and Bernard Herrmann’s uncredited score (that was also chopped up with RKO’s editing), by Francois Thomas and Christopher Husted, respectively, are a welcome addition.

Also included is the silent version of Ambersons, originally called Pampered Youth (1925), and re-edited for the U.K. as Two to One (1927). If that wasn’t enough, we get two Mercury Theatre radio plays: the 1939 adaptation by Welles of Ambersons (with Welles playing the role of George), and a 1938 adaptation of Seventeen, another Booth Tarkington creation. There’s more, such as audio interviews with Welles by Peter Bogdanovich and at an AFI symposium, and the theatrical trailer. The booklet comes in a stapled “manuscript” that resembles a typed screenplay. It contains essays by authors and critics (Molly Haskell, Luc Sante, Geoffrey O’Brien, Farran Smith Nehme, and Jonathan Lethem), and excerpts from a Welles memoir.

The Magnificent Ambersons, even in its sadly truncated form, further illustrates the genius that was Orson Welles. This Criterion release is a must-have.

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