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MovieMail's Review
Having lost editing control of his much-cherished Magnificent Ambersons to RKO, Orson Welles famously went on to say that they let the studio janitor cut the film in his absence. Of course, the real story behind the creative tussle is more complicated (and is comprehensively explained by critic Bill Krohn on this disc’s extra features), but if Welles’ outrageous statement had been true, then the unnamed janitor could at least be credited with preserving the film’s remarkable style. For even in its abridged and ‘meddled’ form, Ambersons is a sublime visual and aural experience.
Spanning a generation in the life of an aristocratic family in an early 20th Century Indianapolis town, Ambersons expertly blends highbrow soap opera with issues of major socio-economic significance. Any suspicion that the director’s Citizen Kane, released the year before, was a fluke or the result of a happy collaborative accident must be laid to rest by the skill with which Welles weaves the personal and socio-political elements here. The fickle proclivities of high fashion and the far-reaching effects of technological advancement, industrialisation and, particularly, the rise of the automobile are as integral to the Amberson family fortunes – both financially and emotionally – as the petty jealousies and unfulfilled romances that trouble their lives.
Marvellously rich in aesthetic and narrative detail, every corner of every frame is filled with a measured vitality that is both compelling and seductive. And the film’s list of cinematic innovations is still remarkable: overlapping dialogue, sumptuous deep-focus photography, audacious tracking and dolly shots. There is little doubt that, had it survived intact, the 130-minute cut that Welles originally assembled would now rank alongside Citizen Kane, if not above it. But we can at least be thankful that, given the calamities of his later career, this much of The Magnificent Ambersons survived at all.
Resplendent period drama that brilliantly recreates a bygone age. Although chopped about on its release by RKO who removed then destroyed a third of the original footage and then tacked on an optimistic ending, what remains is still an innovative, intelligent and subtle film with fine performances throughout.
