PIC of the Week – The Magnificent Ambersons
Article series by Ray Schillaci
Even Criterion cannot bring the luster intended to Orson Welles’ second film. The forty minutes of footage Welles meticulously created – gone. Bernard Hermann’s original score – butchered. And a somewhat abrupt happy ending tacked on all by the studio, RKO, that also doled out directing duties without Welles’ permission to assistant director Fred Fleck and editor Robert Wise. Yet, Criterion does realize that even with RKO’s tampering, the film was still nominated for four Academy Awards including Best Picture, still considered by many as one of the finest American films, and it’s been added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. All that being said, Criterion does deliver the best presentation of this classic along with supplements that would make any cinephile ready and willing to add this remarkable film to their home library.
From the very beginning, the viewer feels the dark hand of Welles as we we did when introduced to his first film, Citizen Kane. There’s an air of dread that permeates throughout Ambersons, even with its cheery beginning, reminiscing about the past. It is a tale of one of the wealthiest families during the beginning of the 20th Century in the mid-west, and the deterioration of their wealth and health, both physically and mentally. Welles narrates with his usual magnificent bravado, taking us through the seasons, the changing of the times, with a poetic candor.
This is an incredulous story of a wealthy family and the town that is pushed around by the spoiled brat and only child that would eventually grow up physically, but never mature, George Minafer. He is the son of the sweet Isabelle Amberson Minafer. George considers himself an Amberson (his mother’s maiden name) through and through. The closest person he may hold with any regard would be his grandfather, Major Amberson.
George has no plans for life except for inheriting the family fortune and doing what he wants with it. His one obsession – keeping the family name in good standing. This becomes progressively harder when an old suitor revisits his mother. To reveal anymore would cheat you out of a very engaging story, even though it’s been truncated.
Any lover of film will appreciate Welles’ style and his storytelling technique with the adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Booth Tarkington. Welles successfully brings to the screen one of the most loathsome characters in cinema, George Minafer. Actor Tim Holt, who would later be known for his dozens of roles in westerns and his part in The Treasure of Sierra Madre, could not be more exasperating as George. God, to think this was one of the most likable actors in pictures back in the day, and Welles was able to mold him into this ugly jerk. It’s one hell of a feat, and it makes watching him almost unbearable. Personally, I almost turned off the TV midway through because the character was aggravating me so much.
Visually, this is the best presentation of The Magnificent Ambersons with as sharp as can be 4K digital restoration, a 1080p picture with the original aspect ratio of 1.37:1. The uninitiated may be put off at first by the soft focus in the beginning, but Welles did this on purpose to capture the feel of a bygone era. His signature use of shadows is well defined by Stanley Cortez’s lens, the cinematographer who also gave us the film noir classic The Night of the Hunter starring Robert Mitchum.
The audio is as expected, a clean uncompressed monaural soundtrack. Those use to the bells and whistles of 7.2, please lower your expectations. This is a film about storytelling where dialogue is key, and there is no reason to turn up the sound because every word can be heard. Whatever background noise there is, whether it be a steam engine or manufacturing plant dialogue always plays to the front as it should be.
Criterion gifts us with a handsome package with beautiful artwork that resembles more a classic book rather than a Blu. Bonuses are a plenty, and Welles fans and cinephiles can be thankful. Supplements include:
¥ Two audio commentaries by scholar James Naremore and critic Jonathan Rosenbaum
¥ New interviews with film historians Simon Callow and Joseph McBride
¥ New video essay on the film’s cinematographers by scholar François Thomas
¥ New video essays by scholars François Thomas and Christopher Husted
¥ Orson Welles on The Dick Cavett Show in 1970 discussing Citizen Kane, Ambersons, and other wonderful anecdotes along with guest, actor Jack Lemmon
¥ Segment from a 1925 silent adaptation of The Magnificent Ambersons
¥ Audio from a 1978 AFI symposium on Welles, and audio interviews with Welles conducted by filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich
¥ Two Mercury Theatre radio plays: Seventeen (1938), an adaptation of another Booth Tarkington novel by Welles, and The Magnificent Ambersons (1939)
¥ Trailer for The Magnificent Ambersons
¥ PLUS: An essay by critic Molly Haskell and (Blu-ray only) essays by authors and critics Luc Sante, Geoffrey O’Brien, Farran Smith Nehme, and Jonathan Lethem, and excerpts from an unfinished 1982 memoir by Welles
This Blu is one of the most highly anticipated releases in years. Once again, I will mention that Barnes & Noble is having their 1/2 off Criterion sale through the end of the month. Copies seem to be limited in some stores. I suggest ordering ASAP. A great Christmas gift for lovers of film.
Best Price – $19.99 – Barnes & Noble
If you miss the sale, the next best thing… $22.97 – Walmart or Amazon
