By RAY KELLY
For much of Wellesnet’s history, two topics have dominated conversation here: The completion of The Other Side of the Wind and the desire to see a superb DVD (later Blu-ray) release of The Magnificent Ambersons.
This month, Welles fans finally got both.
The Criterion Collection today released its long-awaited domestic Blu-ray and DVD of Orson Welles’ sophomore release, a sad look at love lost and a proud family’s changing fortunes.
RKO Radio Pictures notoriously re-cut Welles’ downbeat film while he was working on a wartime project in South America in 1942. Characterized as a wastrel, he was fired by RKO, who eliminated more than 40 minutes from his movie and tacked an upbeat ending on The Magnificent Ambersons that betrayed the filmmaker’s original intent.
“They destroyed Ambersons, and the picture itself destroyed me,” Welles lamented four decades later.
Given its history, The Magnificent Ambersons deserved white-glove treatment, and it got it in terms of a quality presentation and enlightening extras.
First things first, the movie looks beautiful with deep blacks and rich detail, which is no surprise given the care Criterion has displayed with other Welles’ releases, like Chimes at Midnight and Othello.
The new 4K restoration utilized a 35mm nitrate fine-grain held by the Museum of Modern Art and made from an original camera negative. The monaural soundtrack was remastered from a 35mm print with a Duplex Variable Area optical track held by the British Film Institute.
Fans of the 1989 laser disc release will be happy to learn that Criterion has kept the informative Robert Carringer audio commentary track. In addition, a separate commentary is provided by noted Welles scholars James Naremore and Jonathan Rosenbaum.
The pairing of Rosenbaum and Naremore is a welcome addition. The engaging pair provide valuable insight throughout, whether discussing the unappealing nature of George Minafer, Bernard Hermann’s score or the drastic changes inflicted on Welles’ film by RKO.
Given the severe cuts made by RKO and the studio imposed ending, a reconstruction al la Roger Ryan’s effort, which was screened at the Locarno Festival in 2005, would have been ideal. At the very least, Criterion’s release should have had a featurette showing every surviving frame enlargements of the cut scenes.
The closest we have to that is a fascinating 28-minute short featuring Joseph McBride on the studio politics, the film’s re-editing and Welles’ undoing. McBride cites specific memos showing the underhanded efforts RKO executives took to undermine and smear Welles.
Yes, Criterion has assembled “The A-Team” of Welles scholars: Carringer, McBride, Naremore and Rosenbaum ― and tossed in an interview with popular Welles biographer Simon Callow to boot.
Other supplemental offerings, include:
- Two Mercury Theatre radio plays: Seventeen from 1938, an adaptation of another Booth Tarkington novel by Welles; and The Magnificent Ambersons from 1939 with Welles in the role of George Amberson
- Portion of Pampered Youth, the 1925 silent adaptation of The Magnificent Ambersons. The 70-minute full version is presumed lost and what is included here comes from the abridged two-reeler Two to One, released in Britain in 1931
- Audio interviews with Welles regarding Ambersons conducted by Peter Bogdanovich for their book This is Orson Welles, as well as audio from a 1978 AFI symposium
- The original trailer, which provides a fleeting glimpse of the lost ending
- Featurettes on Stanley Cortez’s cinematography and Bernard Hermann’s score led by scholars François Thomas and Christopher Husted, respectively
- Orson Welles entertaining appearance on The Dick Cavett Show from May 14, 1970, which surprisingly contains no reference to The Magnificent Ambersons
- A booklet in the Blu-ray with essays by Farran Smith Nehme, Molly Haskell, Luc Sante, Geoffrey O’Brien and Jonathan Lethem, as well as Welles’ autobiographical My Father Wore Black Spats, written for Vogue Paris in 1982
So, fans finally have a superb domestic Blu-ray edition of The Magnificent Ambersons to cherish, as well as a completed The Other Side of the Wind streaming on Netflix to enjoy.
What can Wellesians expect next from Criterion?
Hard to tell since Criterion plays its card close to the vest. Perhaps the release of the Warner Bros.-owned Ambersons means a deluxe Citizen Kane or Journey Into Fear offering is possible in the future.
And wouldn’t a Criterion editions of the out-of-print It’s All True documentary or The Other Side of the Wind be the icing on the cake!
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