So it goes.

365 of 365

The Magnificent Ambersons Orson Welles

I wanted to end this year with a bang, So I decided to review a film by one of my favorite directors, Orson Welles. This was his second film, just after Citizen Kane, that he made for RKO. This is a hard to find film because the rights to it are so completely fucked that no one seems to be able to work it out, so the last readily available release that I could find of it was a Criterion Collection Laserdisc release. It was even said (and watching it it is quite obvious that it was) to be a major influence on The Royal Tenenbaums. I bought this over a year ago, even before I had a laserdisc player, and I’ve kept it without watching it. I’m not quite sure why I waited so long, I’ve read so much about this film and done so much research that I guess I was afraid that I might be disappointed. 

The original cut of this film was seen by very few people. Welles left very specific editing notes with his editor because he couldn’t be there to help. He was off filming “It’s All True” another failed project that had a documentary made over it in the 90s, I’ve done a review of that documentary earlier if you want to read about it. But I digress. Very few people actually saw the original cut of this film. The few people that saw it that knew anything about film said that it was better than even Citizen Kane. Unfortunately RKO decided to do a test screening of this double billed with a war/musical in front of it. Needless to say, all the kids that came to see the light technicolor war/musical hated the black and white, moody, drama that was The Magnificent Ambersons. So they gave it bad reviews. Very bad reviews. And it just so happened that the people that ran RKO had recently changed, and the new guys didn’t like, or have any faith in Orson Welles. They cut his film to pieces, they cut around 40 minutes, and filmed a new, tacked on, happy ending to replace Welles’ ending. Sadly, this is the only surviving form of the film. But even in it’s mutilated state, this film is a cinema classic. It is quite noticeable where large chunks of the film have been removed, and the ending doesn’t work as well as it could have, but it is still a great film. 

The film is about a rich family living through the industrial revolution in America. The spoiled asshole son George is overly possessive of his lilting mother. After his father’s death, he spurns the advances of his mothers new suitor, a man who was with her at a very young age. I don’t want to give too much away of the plot, but this is one of my new favorite films. I loved this film and I hope you will too. I highly highly recommend this film.