the magnicent ambersons (1942)

the magnificent ambersons, orson welles' follow-up to citizen kane (1941) came just a year after its predessor. with kane failing to light up the world of film, welles was left with a comparitive failure, and as such lost most of the creative control that he was given upon his arrival to hollywood. as legend tells it, as with most of his post-kane work welles lost the right to final cut of the film, with rko themselves taking over the final film and delivering to audiences a far different picture from the one intended. its a considerable injustice, as the magnificent ambersons starts out so well. the opening narration (read by welles himself) leads the viewer to believe that we are on the verge of a story as wide scoped and epic, as magnificent if you will, as the title itself suggests. instead we are left with an often charming, yet fairly flat cinematic experience. hollywood-lore suggests that somewhere exists a directors cut of the film, that will one day emerge from the shadows, as if to save us all, although a more realistic theory is that the original negatives of the removed footage were destroyed to clear space in the vaults of the fledgling studio. although in 2002 a version was made for tv that was shot to the specs of the welles script and released in the edit that welles aimed for.

the character of george minafer is one of the cinema's great bastards. hes manipulative and sly and possibly responsible for the old adage that the children of rich folk are spoilt brats. it would have been great to see welles tackle this role himself, its not clear exactly why he didnt, but to see welles take on such a role would have been a real treat. there are echoes of macbeth in the character, yet minus the heroics.

the casting of agnes moorehead in the role of aunt fanny is just about the worst this viewer has ever seen. all scenes utilising her skills bring the film down to a level of amateur dramatics or soap opera. this is among the worst example of the theatrical stylings of 1940's over-acting. thank god for the method.