42. The Magnificent Ambersons

Orson Welles, 1942

“Something had happened. A thing which, years ago, had been the eagerest hope of many, many good citizens of the town, and now it had come at last; George Amberson Mainafer had got his comeuppance.”

The magnificence of the Ambersons began in 1873, or so Orson Welles’ opening narration tells us. The film then proceeds to chronicle not the family’s rise, but their inevitable decline as their old monied arrogance falls, and falls hard, in the face of neuvo riche industrialism. Standing in the face of this decline is Major Amberson, Richard Bennett in his final performance, the aging head of the household, his daughter Isabel, somewhat broken by the death of her husband and the incredible selfishness of her son George Amberson Mainafer, played excellently by Tim Holt. The film revolves mostly around Eugene, Joseph Cotten as Isabel’s true love from before her first marriage, returning to town to open an automobile plant. He brings his daughter, Lucy, with him. The film then follows Eugene’s rise and the Ambersons’ decline from once great family to near destitution. Along with this is the story of Eugene’s attempts to reconnect with a clearly willing Isabel. In fact, Eugene and Isabel would almost certainly get married, if not for the emotional bullying of George, who wants to keep his mother all to himself and away from an ordinary man like Eugene. The performances here are all terrific, but the stand out work is done by Agnes Moorehead. You might remember Ms Moorehead from her roles as Charles Foster Kane’s mother in Citizen Kane and, who am I kidding, as Endora on Bewitched. Agnes plays Fanny Amberson here, Isabel’s spinster sister and a woman filled with just as much unreasonable hatred as George, although it is an often more subtle, and complicated hatred. Fanny is a woman broken by years of disappointment and Moorehead captures her perfectly. For her work, Agnes was nominated for an Academy Award for best supporting actress and won best actress from the New York Film Critics.

As great as the story, characters, and performances are in this film, it is, in many ways, only the dream of a great film. Don’t get me wrong, everything behind the camera is just as perfect. The cinematography is fantastic, including some great deep focus staging, as in the kitchen scene with George and Fanny, and the direction is exceptional. Watching this movie, it is clear that Welles really was at the top of his craft in this period and Ambersons certainly had all the potential to be the perfect follow up to Citizen Kane. That was not to be, however. After the fiasco in which William Randolf Hearst tried to bury Citizen Kane, RKO was less interested in granting Welles carte blanche with this film. He would not have the final cut say he had with his previous film. Still, Welles entrusted the final editing of Ambersons to Robert Wise. With that, Welles took off for South America to shoot the documentary It’s All True. While he was away, the studio began to look at Welles’ cut of the picture and set up test screenings. The screenings went horribly. Audiences of specifically average movie goers were brought in, who either didn’t understand or resented the film’s artistic qualities. RKO panicked, as did Robert Wise, Joseph Cotton, and Agnes Moorehead. Welles tried to console them and fight for his cut by telegram, but simply wasn’t able to return to Hollywood to fight for it in person. Without Welles around, the studio began to aggressively recut the film and decided to shoot extra scenes. In an attempt to save something of his film, Welles wired suggested cuts and a few new scenes to Hollywood. These were ignored. The result was that the film, which initially ran 148 minutes, was cut to 88 minutes and new ending, featuring an uncharacteristically cherry Fanny, was added. Watching the film today, the first half or so is pretty much as Welles intended and that half is terrific. In the second half, some brilliant, crucial scenes remain, such as the depiction of George’s comeuppance and the final mournful thoughts of Major Amberson, sitting alone in the dark. Otherwise, the entire second half moves at a breakneck speed, as huge chunks of action are clearly missing. The new ending is clearly tacked on, lacking the subtle acting of the rest of the film and even the visual style. Don’t get me wrong, this is still a very watchable film and one I like a lot, but the flaws are very evident. Still, there is more than enough here to see what Welles intended and that would have been an utterly brilliant film. For the record, no known copy of the original cut of The Magnificent Ambersons exists. Because of that, we will likely only have the dream of this film.