Wellesnet: The Orson Welles Web Resource

By LAWRENCE FRENCH

'The Magnificent Ambersons' opens in Los Angeles - July 7, 1942

Even in it's truncated version, THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS received many excellent reviews and eventually was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress (Agnes Moorehead); Best Cinematography (Stanley Cortez); and Best Art Decoration. Certainly not an easy task for a film that was released in July of the awards year. And despite a widely perceived notion that the film was dumped without fanfare by RKO, this was not entirely the case. At least initially, RKO gave AMBERSONS an impressive campaign, with full page ads appearing in many national publications, such as LIFE and LOOK. In fact, according to Joseph McBride, AMBERSONS box-office returns for many major cities boded very well for the films prospects. "It was holding up beyond expectations in LA, doing sensationally in San Francisco, nice in New York and Baltimore, good in Denver and Omaha, and not bad in Boston and Philly." (as reported in 1942 by Variety).
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George Schaeffer and Orson Welles

By LAWRENCE FRENCH

As George Schaefer's position as head of RKO (as well as the Mercury's chief supporter) became extremely precarious, Herbert Drake, the press representative for Mercury productions, sent Welles this plan to help with his public relations efforts regarding IT'S ALL TRUE and the increasingly hostile RKO regime, which would soon be headed by RKO vice-president Charles Koerner.

HERBERT  DRAKE TO ORSON WELLES (excerpt):
June 1, 1942

You have got to come home right away - hugely - and not sneak in on a plane. You must return with trumpets and banners because the campaign really needs a good hot fillip of the old Welles personality. I have been planting pretty solid stuff locally and nationally and I think we have made par for the course.

There have been two other Welles pictures to keep alive, and the RKO anti-Welles battle to fight. It has never been so virulent. The juggling act done by your press office here has been nothing short of extraordinary.
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By LAWRENCE FRENCH

Details on the previews of the re-edited version of  THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS that were held in May are incomplete, but it appears Welles was no longer being advised on all the changes that the studio was making, even by his own manager, Jack Moss, who was working with Robert Wise in making the studio imposed changes.

May 4, 1942: A 93-minute re-cut version of AMBERSONS is previewed in Inglewood. The boarding house ending is still included in the film.
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By LAWRENCE FRENCH

This revealing telephone conversation between Reginald Armour, RKO President George Schaefer's executive assistant in Hollywood and Phil Reisman in New York, clearly shows the animosity towards Welles and his current project IT'S ALL TRUE, that was now shared by most of the top RKO executives.  Phil Reisman, however, was the exception, as he was quite friendly with Welles and was probably playing the role of a double agent here, going along with Armour’s negative assessments of the situation, in order to get information from him that he almost certainly passed on to Welles. This would seem to be supported by the fact that Reisman had been in Rio with Welles and knew what was actually happening, while Armour's information about IT'S ALL TRUE was coming from the biased reports that the studio was receiving from Lynn Shores. Reisman also failed to shut down the production of IT'S ALL TRUE in mid-May after he arrived in Rio, even though Schaefer had ordered him to do so. It actually seems probable that Reisman was the man who convinced George Schaefer to allow Welles to continue on with the  filming of  FOUR MEN ON A RAFT until the end of July, since that would only entail an additional expenditure of $12,000.

REGINALD ARMOUR and PHIL REISMAN
(Transcription of telephone call):
April 27, 1942

REGINALD ARMOUR: When are you leaving, Phil?

PHIL REISMAN: In about ten days. He's a tough baby—He's done a magnificent job of selling himself to Nelson Rockefeller.
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By LAWRENCE FRENCH

Nearly a month after the single bad preview of THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS in Pomona, George Schaefer decided to take the drastic step of shooting a new ending scene for the film.  Schaefer was also worried about the cost for the Urca club scene Welles wanted to use as the grand finale for IT'S ALL TRUE.

GEORGE SCHAEFER TO ORSON WELLES:
April 9, 1942

DEAR ORSON:

HAVE BEEN TRYING FOR THE PAST TWO DAYS REACH YOU ON PHONE BUT UNSUCCESSFUL TO GET THROUGH CONNECTION. IMPORTANT I TALK WITH YOU WITH REFERENCE TO RE-TAKES ON AMBERSONS (more...)

Robert Wise

By LAWRENCE FRENCH

Robert Wise sent this detailed report to Welles about the audience reaction at the first two previews of the film. In retrospect, it seems rather incredible that RKO executives would take only two previews as the final word on how AMBERSONS would be received by audiences nationwide. While the majority of the comments in Pomona were  unfavorable, the people who did like it thought it was a brilliant picture! Today, it seems incredibly foolish to have based the wholesale cutting of the film on such a limited response. Just imagine what might have happened if only the film had been previewed in a more upscale market, such as New York or San Francisco, where AMBERSONS opened to good box office returns, or if, like CITIZEN KANE, it hadn't been previewed at all!

ROBERT  WISE TO ORSON WELLES:
March 31, 1942

Dear Orson:

You asked for a detailed report of preview audience reactions and I have never tackled a more difficult chore. (more...)

By LAWRENCE FRENCH

Although Welles still wanted to finish the editing on AMBERSONS by having Robert Wise come to Rio, he also began sending a detailed list of changes he wanted made to the film, only two days after receiving this cable from Jack Moss assuring him that "every effort" was being made for Robert Wise to join Welles in Rio.

JACK MOSS TO ORSON WELLES:
March 25, 1942

Dear Orson:

Every effort being made to secure immediate passage for Bob. (more...)

George Schaeffer and Orson Welles

On March 19, only two day after the Pomona fiasco, RKO held another preview at the United Artists Theatre in Pasadena. This time the film was shown after the Warner Bros. James Cagney film (in Technicolor), CAPTAINS OF THE CLOUDS. For this showing the film was re-edited to a running time of approximately 117 minutes, restoring most of the big cut Welles had ordered, but with both porch scenes and the factory still eliminated. The film was much better received in Pasadena, and in fact 79 out of the 95 comment cards returned were not only positive, but quite glowing about the film. Only 16 cards were unfavorable, with 5 mixed. However it seems as if nothing could change the memory of the bad Pomona preview in Schaefer's mind, and he was determined to shorten the film and remove "the somber music" so it would play better with young audiences, as he pointedly tells Welles in this letter.

GEORGE SCHAEFER TO ORSON WELLES:
March 21, 1942       PERSONAL-CONFIDENTIAL

Dear Orson:

I did not want to cable you with (more...)

By LAWRENCE FRENCH

On March 15 — the ides of March — Welles received the 132 minute rough cut print of THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS in Rio. The next day, Welles had the first inkling that something might be terribly amiss with the film when he received a telegram from Robert Wise. As Wise had noted in his previous letter, (more...)

Orson Welles, Tim Holt

RKO executive Charles Koerner assumed Breen’s duties, supposedly on a temporary basis, but as can be seen, one of the first things Koerner did as the “temporary head of the studio” was to write a memo to RKO executives making sure that no commitments were made with Welles or Mercury without his explicit permission. (more...)

By LAWRENCE FRENCH

I was trapped down there (in Brazil), I couldn't leave, and all I kept getting were those terrible signals about this awful movie I made. My own chums were running frightened — not just RKO...  Even those people who truly had my interests at heart felt that I'd gone too far. I didn't believe I had and I still don't...  They got so spooked because of a bad preview, and there had been no preview of CITIZEN KANE. Think what would have happened to KANE if there had been one... On Pomona on Saturday night—you can imagine what would have happened!

— Orson Welles to Peter Bogdanovich, THIS IS ORSON WELLES (more...)

By KYP HARNESS

Finally released last month on DVD to little fanfare, having been unavailable for 20 years in its country of origin, Orson Welles’s The Magnificent Ambersons is surrounded by a mythology (more...)