Review of The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) by Nikolai E — 17 Mar 2011

It's easy to play "what if" with this film, try to imagine the shots that aren't there or disregard the ones that were added later. Only Orson Welles could manage to release 'Citizen Kane' and then get kicked out of his own edit room one film later.

What we have on the screen is clearly a cut-and-paste job by a cowardly studio and a butcher of an editor, and judged as the film we have rather than the film that could have been, it's frequently brilliant and frequently flawed.

I don't think this could have been better than 'Kane,' as Welles claimed, but the mansion set and the ensuing ability to move the camera anywhere at any time are put to astonishing use by Welles, with deep-focus compositions and beautiful tracking shots.

The ambition and majesty of the production still come through clearly, even if the story seems meandering and disjointed without the missing pieces, and it relies a great deal on narration. I do love the voice-over credits though.