The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)

Directed by: Orson Welles | 150 minutes | drama | Actors: Joseph Cotten, Dolores Costello, Anne Baxter, Tim Holt, Agnes Moorehead, Ray Collins, Erskine Sanford, Richard Bennett, Orson Welles

In 1940 Orson Welles signed a unique contract with production company RKO for two films: it offered him complete artistic freedom, but a limited budget. ‘The Magnificent Ambersons’ is the lesser-known second film made under this contract. Welles started it after he completed ‘Citizen Kane’ (1941) and before the mortified William Randolph Hearst and his own erratic character ‘snuggled’ his Hollywood career. Welles’s film adaptation of Booth Tarkington’s novel ‘The Ambersons’ had at least as much meaning for him personally as ‘Citizen Kane’. He had already made a theatrical adaptation of the novel, which had also been broadcast on the radio.

Set around 1900, ‘The Magnificent Ambersons’ tells the story of George Amberson Minafer (Tim Holt), a gifted but unsympathetic scion of an aristocratic family who eventually, to everyone’s satisfaction, gets the lid on his nose. Welles, whose first name was actually George, bore many similarities to this figure. And not only that; In fact, when the film was made, Amberson’s fate for Welles had prophetic power. It is also commendable that Welles, despite his enormous ego, let Holt play the lead role, a youthful cowboy who would otherwise only play a serious role in ‘The Treasure of the Sierra Madre’ (1948).

The first seventy minutes of ‘The Magnificent Ambersons’ are brilliant and are not inferior to ‘Citizen Kane’. The film opens with a treatise on men’s fashion narrated by Welles and portrayed by Joseph Cotten, who also appears in Welles’ 1949 film noir ‘The Third Man’. Then the wonderful world of the Ambersons is accurately brought to life—a world which was ruined by the twentieth century (symbolized by the automobile) and its own hidden weaknesses. Welles, who this time used not Gregg Toland but Stanley Cortez as cameraman, made a film that was visually as strong as its predecessor, but also evoked a warm and melancholy nostalgia for trips by sleigh and other aristocratic customs – at the same time he showed how in the old class society decent people were condemned to a miserable existence. Entrepreneurial Eugene Morgan (Joseph Cotten) loses his beloved Isabel Amberson (Dolores Costello) to Wilbur Minafer, a chap of a prominent lineage and unable to free himself from his family’s glorious past, however little of its splendor eventually remains. . After Wilbur’s death, Eugene returns to Isabel’s life. However, her insufferable son George cannot bear to watch his mother start a romance with Eugene again and tries to put a stop to it together with his strange Aunt Fanny. With all its consequences. Strong supporting roles come from Anne Baxter (‘All About Eve’) as Eugene’s daughter Lucy and Agnes Moorehead (‘Citizen Kane’) as Aunt Fanny.

Everything flows together beautifully in this film: a fine example of this is a ball scene, in which the camera moves whirling between the dancers and now takes a bit of dialogue and then a bit of intrigue. Unfortunately, Welles’ original version was cut short while he was enjoying the good life in Brazil and not answering the phone. In the final ten minutes, the characters struggle through a happy ending that was put in by someone else (probably by Robert Wise, who edited the edit). It was as if the Mona Lisa had Groucho Marx’s mustache drawn on. Despite this, Alfonso Arau’s 2002 remake, which ended the way Welles intended, was not very successful: the magic that colored the original was sorely missed.”