The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) ***1/2
The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) is perhaps the most well-known example of a film being taken away from its director by a studio and it's impossible to discuss the film without mentioning it. RKO Pictures and editor Robert Wise famously re-cut Ambersons by removing 43 minutes and adding a happy ending while Orson Welles was in Brazil, making another film (which he never completed), refusing to return to the States or communicate properly with the production company, who supposedly repeatedly requested that he finish the film.
The cut footage ended up being destroyed and the final film remains at a mere 88 minutes (from the original 148 minute version). A 131-minute preview version was shown a short time after Pearl Harbor was bombed but that preview audience insisted that they didn't wish to see a depressing movie so, with Welles out of the country, the production team made the cuts without his input. It's understandable that that audience might not connect with this story of a spoiled heir and the decline of a wealthy family while World War II had made its way to America.
The tampering done to Ambersons caused Welles and Wise (who went on to become a renowned director of his own) to remain on poor terms for 42 years. Composer Bernard Herrmann was also so furious that his score had been compromised that he had his name removed from the credits. Most unfortunate of all though was the affect on Welles—while he made many more interesting films in his career, he never had the same control over his pictures that he had with Citizen Kane (1941) and after Ambersons, he was undoubtedly never quite the same person, though still a fascinating one nonetheless.
As to the film that we do have, it's terribly obvious that it was truncated—there is a feeling of a grand and sprawling narrative that necessitated at least some of that nearly extra hour of excised footage (from the preview version). Ambersons is still quite a good film with one particularly memorable scene from Agnes Moorehead and some impressive cinematography, though due to numerous contributors there is a feeling of inconsistency at times. The Magnificent Ambersons is a somber tale of nostalgia, family grudges, and industrialization, and the events surrounding the finished film are one of cinema's greatest tragedies.
The cut footage ended up being destroyed and the final film remains at a mere 88 minutes (from the original 148 minute version). A 131-minute preview version was shown a short time after Pearl Harbor was bombed but that preview audience insisted that they didn't wish to see a depressing movie so, with Welles out of the country, the production team made the cuts without his input. It's understandable that that audience might not connect with this story of a spoiled heir and the decline of a wealthy family while World War II had made its way to America.
The tampering done to Ambersons caused Welles and Wise (who went on to become a renowned director of his own) to remain on poor terms for 42 years. Composer Bernard Herrmann was also so furious that his score had been compromised that he had his name removed from the credits. Most unfortunate of all though was the affect on Welles—while he made many more interesting films in his career, he never had the same control over his pictures that he had with Citizen Kane (1941) and after Ambersons, he was undoubtedly never quite the same person, though still a fascinating one nonetheless.
As to the film that we do have, it's terribly obvious that it was truncated—there is a feeling of a grand and sprawling narrative that necessitated at least some of that nearly extra hour of excised footage (from the preview version). Ambersons is still quite a good film with one particularly memorable scene from Agnes Moorehead and some impressive cinematography, though due to numerous contributors there is a feeling of inconsistency at times. The Magnificent Ambersons is a somber tale of nostalgia, family grudges, and industrialization, and the events surrounding the finished film are one of cinema's greatest tragedies.
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