Classic movie site with rare images, original ads, and behind-the-scenes photos, with informative and insightful commentary. We like to have fun with movies!
Archive and Links
grbrpix@aol.com
Search Index Here




Thursday, November 26, 2020

Happy Ambersons Thanksgiving

 


The Spell Welles Still Casts


Watching The Magnificent Ambersons led me again to ponder what-ifs as to fate of Orson Welles' second feature for RKO, and how fate dealt us, and him, something very different from what was intended. I looked back to see when The Magnificent Ambersons came first into collecting life. Record shows it was June 1978, an “original” 16mm print gotten from Canada for $200. Such a thing was rare as a hen’s tooth in those days. I “taught” the Ambersons for a Community College course a few years later, ran the print on their old “Jan” military surplus projector, then described for the class all of lost scenes as enumerated in Charles Higham’s book, The Films of Orson Welles. My course was called “The Great Romantic Films,” into which I shoehorned the Ambersons, for even then, I was hung up on what was had, then lost, from Welles’ work, upshot being I can never come to this film without getting all misty over what happened to it, a situation persistent since that Canadian print limped through the door in 1978. 



Among questions that arise during an umpteenth view of The Magnificent Ambersons: Why didn’t Aunt Fanny invest her inheritance with Eugene Morgan instead of the headlight company? Eugene’s had to have been a safer bet, based on the factory visit he hosted where Fanny was present. He also would move heaven and earth to protect her investment, out of affection for the family if nothing else. He might even have married Fanny someday, once the estate and George’s future was sorted out. The film’s ending, what I refer to as Freddie Fleck’s The Magnificent Ambersons, suggests that Eugene will take charge of the family’s welfare, what is left of it. 



Toward scratch of itch that is the Ambersons came 2/2018 dredge of '42 ads where I could find them, wanting to know who/when played it … search continuing for mythical occasion where Welles ran as a second feature to Mexican Spitfire Sees a Ghost. Historians assure us it did --- but I say, show me. Also there was Pomona dive to better comprehend The Fleet’s In that pleased more those wretched gum-poppers who would not embrace the Ambersons as we so wisely do.



Every existing foot of Ambersons rouses a same question, might the whole thing still exist?, a topic well-flogged at Greenbriar and elsewhere (see reader comments from a 2010 post). Assuming Ambersons was not shipped back to RKO along with elements for It’s All True (and destroyed upon receipt in California), might it have been rescued by a South American collector, or archive? There was testimony from those who claimed to have seen Ambersons during the 50’s or 60’s, in stored cans if not on Brazilian screens. As to evidence that RKO sent instruction for the film to be disposed of on site, that order carried out … or not, I would cite TV stations duly signing a “Certificate of Destruction” for 16mm feature packages, at times containing hundreds of titles, then back-dooring the lot to collectors. Believe me, this happened plenty. To have burned all that asset would be a same as century notes put to a dried leaf bonfire. How many low paid station employees turned down cash (always cash) for stuff nobody cared about? 16mm was all a more useless once video transmission got hold, stations the happier to free up shelf space, so no questions asked when pallets of film went missing (other than perhaps, where’s my rake-off?). Bet south-of-border RKO staffers in 1942 were as pliable. Here’s luck to the young man who plans yet to fly down and investigate possibilities, these to include interviewing families of one-time collectors (good idea). That Ambersons could still exist in this circumstance is no mere flight of fancy.



Favorites work all a better where seen through hopefully matured eyes. When it’s The Magnificent Ambersons, potential for fresh insight is immense. My sympathy was always with the family, even George, especially George. Seems to me Eugene made a wrong move from the moment he was introduced, Remember you very well indeed an admitted rote politeness from George, to which Eugene, putting on a little much to impress lost love Isabel, replies George, you never saw me before in your life, but from now on, you’re going to see a lot of me, George annoyed by a stranger behaving so familiar toward his mother, Joseph Cotten the more intimidating as he is taller than either. For Eugene to enter this house, after so many years, as though it were to an extent his because of a prior, and long past, relationship with the Ambersons … well, I don’t blame George for being immediately put off by him (George: He certainly seems to feel awfully at home here, the way he was dancing with Mother and Aunt Fanny). Worse is Eugene letting it be clear that Isobel would have been his wife but for a mishap with the viola for his botched serenade.  Older Ambersons tease him over this, but realize that indeed, but for his trip-and-fall, Eugene might have become putative head of the family. And what would he have done given that license? I suspect the Ambersons would have held on to their fortune, built now upon automobiles rather than downtown properties, but would Eugene have replaced their lovely hardwood flooring with tile?



There is an amazing site dedicated to The Magnificent Ambersons, overseen by writer and historian Joseph Egan. Among other things, he has reconstructed the film as it would have played at 131 minutes, using a cutting continuity found in RKO archives, plus existing images from footage otherwise removed prior to Ambersons’ spring 1942 release at 88 minutes. I find myself almost pathetically eager to embrace The Magnificent Ambersons as it is presently constituted, a way to cope, I suppose, with sad fact we will not likely see the whole of it again. What invariably happens is, I watch the movie, then exhaust myself for two-three days reading yet again what became of it --- the Pomona preview, desperate communiques back-forth with Welles in Brazil, RKO staff trying to adjust Ambersons to conventional fit. Robert Wise, a more than capable editor, was obliged to speed the pace, “lighten” mood if possible (Ambersons having been declared a hopeless downer by panicked execs), to trim fat from bone that was narrative. This of course was not the movie Orson Welles set forth to make, but was Wise, and concerned others, altogether misguided? Those who subscribe to Welles Against The World say yes, but I’m not as sure.



Consider The Magnificent Ambersons running 131 minutes. That’s a mighty lot of aristocracy crumbling. There are some scenes editor Wise wisely took out. Welles from long distance agreed on a number of trims, and I don’t think that was altogether because he felt pressured to do so. He knew Ambersons needed tightening. Had Welles come home in time to save it, would he and Wise have left The Magnificent Ambersons at 131 minutes, Welles insisting it stay at that length? I think the only point he might have been intractable on was the ending at the boarding house, which to Welles was the entire point of Ambersons, or so he said over years to come. Everyone else seems to have viewed that finish as finish for the movie, poisonous to public acceptance. Were they right? It reads heavy at Joseph Egan’s site. He even found the old vaudeville song that backgrounds dialogue between Joseph Cotten and Agnes Moorehead, and gives us a recording to listen to as we peruse their dialogue. Welles was too far away to realize how serious his Ambersons problem was. Had he gotten back, I’d like to think The Magnificent Ambersons would have resolved at 105 or so minutes. Notwithstanding changes RKO made to the third act, I say Robert Wise did a fine job of editing given incredibly stressed circumstances (eighteen-hour days, every day, to meet scheduled release). Welles said later that Ambersons  was “his” movie up to Major Amberson dying. There have been more hope-than-reality moments where I’ve thought Wise’s version was as good, maybe better, than a “complete” Ambersons would have been. Again, that’s avoidance of truth that even Wise acknowledged, in fact emphasized. He knew this was a great picture he was obliged, for the sake of his livelihood, to deface. Still, I believe there would be risk in finding The Magnificent Ambersons at 131 minutes. Would we like it more, even as much, as what we have now?

5 Comments:

Blogger Kevin K. said...

Maybe I wouldn't like it more, but I'd want to see it.

Peter Bogdonavich tells a story about how he was flipping through the tv channels and came across "Ambersons". Welles, his houseguest, refused to watch. But, while standing in the doorway, simply cried at what could have been.

10:21 AM  
Blogger Reg Hartt said...

This and Erich Von Stroheim's GREED and perhaps FOOLISH WIVES.

4:40 PM  
Blogger DBenson said...

I'd love to see a director's cut of Richard Williams's "Cobbler and the Thief", but even in the mutilated version it's clear Williams intended the two lead characters to be mute with long sequences free of dialogue -- maybe a hard sell for modern audiences. The released version has both characters providing relentless voiceovers, with the hero talking in new scenes by other hands.

In Billy Wilder's "Private Life of Sherlock Holmes", what we have is still a solid, superior movie. Only one missing sequence really makes a difference: the flashback to Holmes's college days, which adds resonance to the main plot (a few lines during a train ride offer an alternative narrative). Other scenes, reconstructed on the DVD, are entertaining but don't leave visible holes.

Coppola had a neat idea in rebuilding the first two Godfather films into a television serial. Surprised nobody has thought to do the same with the Harry Potter movies, which evidently made plentiful cuts purely for length. A public that has embraced binge watching would welcome a few extra hours.

5:57 PM  
Blogger John McElwee said...

Dan Mercer considers THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS:


“The Magnificent Ambersons” is such a superb film, even in its present “defaced” state, that it almost seems churlish to mourn it for what might have been. There are few other films that meld human character and ideas and social dynamics so seamlessly and so true to life. That it could have been even greater, and that this greatness was so close to being realized, is heartbreaking.

I do not know that Booth Tarkington was familiar with the thoughts of the economist Henry George, but I imagine that he was. Most intelligent Americans then were, even though George has become as obscure today as Tarkington is. His big idea was that land is the source of all wealth. Prosperity, then, is land plus ideas. The Ambersons had become rich as landlords, providing the means that other men would use in producing wealth. That model was becoming outmoded, especially as new ways of transportation took people away from the downtown where their property was concentrated. Eugene Morgan had a better idea, the automobile, and this not only made him wealthy, but accelerated the destruction of the Amberson’s wealth.

Aunt Fanny would have been wise to have placed her money with Eugene, for just the reasons you say. He would have safeguarded it and the success of his business would have become hers. I cannot help but believe, however, that he would have been the last person she would have turned to in that way. She was in love with him, and he loved someone else. As much as George, she did not want Eugene to enjoy happiness with Isobel, though her methods were less direct. Hers were little cuts, deftly made, though in the end, the wounds inflicted were upon herself.

George Minafer is the central character and the great weakness of the film as it was released. He is the grandson of Major Bennett, the most magnificent of the Ambersons, and a most unpleasant individual: selfish, overly indulged, and lacking in kindness. His willfulness is the axis around which the story turns, everyone either bending to it or going their own ways, apart from him and his family. Even as the family’s fortunes are eroding, he cruelly destroys his mother’s possible happiness with the unworthy Eugene Morgan, which happiness, incidentally, would have become the family’s as well. In the novel and, I believe, in the film as intended, he would find redemption in hard work and newly assumed responsibility. In a way, this does come to pass. The new ending of the film prepared in Welles’ absence, is still substantially the same. What has changed are the incidents leading up to it. All the subtlety and nuance that characterizes the first two thirds of the film are largely absent, so the possibility of redemption and transcendence is not fully realized. It is more like a coda to a piece that is largely at odds with what preceded it.

I understand that Tod Browning’s “The Unknown” was for a time considered a lost film, until a print was discovered in a French archive. Its title as translated, “L’Inconnu,” had caused it to be stored with cannisters in a section marked “Inconnu,” containing unidentified reels of film. Possibly somewhere, the portions of film Orson Welles had worked on are still in existence, misidentified, and waiting for the time in which someone will chance upon them. There have been too many discoveries to allow for any certainty that nitrate film invariably disintegrates, and I have lived long enough to know that nothing occurs entirely by chance. We can hope then that “The Magnificent Ambersons” will one day appear in the form that was intended. In the meantime, in its present form, it is indeed a superb film.

8:34 AM  
Blogger Scott MacGillivray said...

John, I note that you've been trying to find evidence that THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS played under MEXICAN SPITFIRE SEES A GHOST. All the ads I've seen have the Spitfire as the second feature, when they played together at all -- usually AMBERSONS played above something else, and not always an RKO picture.

Another possible Spitfire connection: I remember reading somewhere that a Welles soundstage was shut down by RKO because the Mexican Spitfire unit was scheduled to use it next. I bow to the Welles scholars to confirm or dismiss this one.

2:28 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home

grbrpix@aol.com
  • December 2005
  • January 2006
  • February 2006
  • March 2006
  • April 2006
  • May 2006
  • June 2006
  • July 2006
  • August 2006
  • September 2006
  • October 2006
  • November 2006
  • December 2006
  • January 2007
  • February 2007
  • March 2007
  • April 2007
  • May 2007
  • June 2007
  • July 2007
  • August 2007
  • September 2007
  • October 2007
  • November 2007
  • December 2007
  • January 2008
  • February 2008
  • March 2008
  • April 2008
  • May 2008
  • June 2008
  • July 2008
  • August 2008
  • September 2008
  • October 2008
  • November 2008
  • December 2008
  • January 2009
  • February 2009
  • March 2009
  • April 2009
  • May 2009
  • June 2009
  • July 2009
  • August 2009
  • September 2009
  • October 2009
  • November 2009
  • December 2009
  • January 2010
  • February 2010
  • March 2010
  • April 2010
  • May 2010
  • June 2010
  • July 2010
  • August 2010
  • September 2010
  • October 2010
  • November 2010
  • December 2010
  • January 2011
  • February 2011
  • March 2011
  • April 2011
  • May 2011
  • June 2011
  • July 2011
  • August 2011
  • September 2011
  • October 2011
  • November 2011
  • December 2011
  • January 2012
  • February 2012
  • March 2012
  • April 2012
  • May 2012
  • June 2012
  • July 2012
  • August 2012
  • September 2012
  • October 2012
  • November 2012
  • December 2012
  • January 2013
  • February 2013
  • March 2013
  • April 2013
  • May 2013
  • June 2013
  • July 2013
  • August 2013
  • September 2013
  • October 2013
  • November 2013
  • December 2013
  • January 2014
  • February 2014
  • March 2014
  • April 2014
  • May 2014
  • June 2014
  • July 2014
  • August 2014
  • September 2014
  • October 2014
  • November 2014
  • December 2014
  • January 2015
  • February 2015
  • March 2015
  • April 2015
  • May 2015
  • June 2015
  • July 2015
  • August 2015
  • September 2015
  • October 2015
  • November 2015
  • December 2015
  • January 2016
  • February 2016
  • March 2016
  • April 2016
  • May 2016
  • June 2016
  • July 2016
  • August 2016
  • September 2016
  • October 2016
  • November 2016
  • December 2016
  • January 2017
  • February 2017
  • March 2017
  • April 2017
  • May 2017
  • June 2017
  • July 2017
  • August 2017
  • September 2017
  • October 2017
  • November 2017
  • December 2017
  • January 2018
  • February 2018
  • March 2018
  • April 2018
  • May 2018
  • June 2018
  • July 2018
  • August 2018
  • September 2018
  • October 2018
  • November 2018
  • December 2018
  • January 2019
  • February 2019
  • March 2019
  • April 2019
  • May 2019
  • June 2019
  • July 2019
  • August 2019
  • September 2019
  • October 2019
  • November 2019
  • December 2019
  • January 2020
  • February 2020
  • March 2020
  • April 2020
  • May 2020
  • June 2020
  • July 2020
  • August 2020
  • September 2020
  • October 2020
  • November 2020
  • December 2020
  • January 2021
  • February 2021
  • March 2021
  • April 2021
  • May 2021
  • June 2021
  • July 2021
  • August 2021
  • September 2021
  • October 2021
  • November 2021
  • December 2021
  • January 2022
  • February 2022
  • March 2022
  • April 2022
  • May 2022
  • June 2022
  • July 2022
  • August 2022
  • September 2022
  • October 2022
  • November 2022
  • December 2022
  • January 2023
  • February 2023
  • March 2023
  • April 2023
  • May 2023
  • June 2023
  • July 2023
  • August 2023
  • September 2023
  • October 2023
  • November 2023
  • December 2023
  • January 2024
  • February 2024
  • March 2024
  • April 2024
  • May 2024
  • June 2024
  • July 2024
  • August 2024
  • September 2024