Review of The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) by Leighton T — 30 Aug 2009

Thematically there's a great deal to appreciate here, not to mention, Welles' technical expertise shines through, but I think a lot of film critics and scholars have given this film a bye, even in its mutilated form, because they love Welles, and because what the film was to be, in its original 2 hours and 15 minutes, was considered by everyone involved to be better than Citizen Kane. The film feels and is severely disjointed, and while the characters are beautifully written (George especially), the story's arc is all over the place and because of the crap RKO put Welles through (not to mention his brashness in the conflict), and the film never gets the solid flow it deserves. The acting from everyone involved is great and Agnes Moorhead is over-the-top fantastic. The photography and its depth of overlapping shadows is brilliant and adds dark contexts to the film's themes. When you look at the film though, there are some incredibly long cuts and then some short cuts, fadeouts when the scene doesn't feel complete (and a lot of fadeouts there are), there are scenes of dialogue added upon scenes of dialogue that become cardboardish and stuffy, with the movement that Welles wanted for the film lost (again, the result of cuts)- and thus, the film's themes get significantly hurt. The ease with which the narrative of Welles' first feature, Citizen Kane, flowed is sadly lost here. Oh, what could've been...

Accepting this film for what it is is regrettably hard, and at the end of the day, I just can't. Despite the film's strong resonance, it's feel is too restricted, too dicey, and when watching it I can't help but feel I'm nowhere close to seeing what should've been the real thing. As well, those tidy last couple of scenes that were not Welles' idea, but the studio's, are a sickeningly awkward conclusion to the film and its short 88 minute running time feels like an eternity.