TMA memos - 70th anniversary Wellesnet blog series

[ToddBaesen]

That David O. Selznick quote about previews is priceless... it explains exactly what was wrong with all the decisions Schaefer made regarding AMBERSONS after the Pomona preview.

Isn't it ironic that George Schaefer's big claim to fame is that he hired Orson Welles, who of course made CITIZEN KANE, without any direct input from Schaefer.

Even if Schaefer hadn't hired Welles, he probably would have been fired from RKO, although maybe a bit later than 1942, but obviously he was not made in the mold of the great movie moguls, like Zanuck, Cohn, Selznick, Mayer or even Herbert J. Yates.

I was just astonished to read the long and heart felt letter Schaefer wrote to Welles after the bad preview of Ambersons had happened and Schaefer was quite worried about his job, as well as the mounting costs of IT'S ALL TRUE. This excerpt from that letter shows just how foolish Schaefer was... blaming Welles for making a masterpiece like CITIZEN KANE, and for all the abuse Schaefer had to take from his friends in the industry for making it!

It's truly sad that Schaefer didn't stand by Welles on AMBERSONS and IT'S ALL TRUE, as he did (after Welles threatened to sue RKO) on CITIZEN KANE. If he did, his name would surely be up there with the greatest names in Hollywood... instead most people only know Schaefer for hiring Orson Welles and CITIZEN KANE.


GEORGE SCHAEFER TO ORSON WELLES (April 29, 1942): ...As stated in the opening part of this letter, we agreed to make pictures at a cost of about $500,000. CITIZEN KANE cost nearly $900,000. and because of all the controversy that arose in connection with it, it is doubtful that we will ever come out whole. Let's forget about the cost as to dollars. What it cost this organization, and me, personally, never can be measured in dollars. All of that, however, I accepted willingly so far as you are concerned. You made a production of which I was proud, but for which I was severely condemned by all my associates and my friends of long standing in the motion picture industry. The abuse that was heaped on myself and the company will never be forgotten. I was about as punch-drunk as a man ever was. I made my decision to stand by you and I saw it through. I have never asked anything in return, but in common decency, I should expect that I would at least have your loyalty and gratitude.To the extent that I have received it with respect to the Brazilian enterprise up to the present time, I would say it has merely been lip service.

[Glenn Anders]

Todd . . . Todd, much as I want to stay out of these speculations, because that's mainly what they are, let me add two from my own analysis, which could be fleshed out if I ever get around to a review of THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS:

1) If one compares closely in schema the first two major films Orson Welles projected, CITIZEN KANE and THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS, a remarkable parallel emerges. Despite the difference in subject matter and style, both films were intended to begin with an imaginative exposition -- "The Newsreel" in . . . KANE, and Welles' nostalgic but swift moving description of a lost golden Midwestern paradise for AMBERSONS. After those similar beginnings in shape, both films slow down, analyzing the characters and themes established in their first twenty to thirty minutes. Whereas, KANE's fizz is kept going by the journalistic search for "rosebud," . . . AMBERSONS" takes a much more conventional course. If I am correct, the real subject of THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS would have emerged as Fanny's unrequited love for Eugene, the hopelessness of which follows the course of the decline of the Amberson Family. The latter film required a perfect balance of classical elements to bring it off.
[Think of Bernard Herrmann's magical score, to which the AMBERSONS was to be cut: an optimistic major ascent, an ostinato, followed by a growing tragic falling away. Each element would require perfect placement, a task only an Orson Welles, on the spot, could have brought off.]

2) As symbolized by the failure of THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS, Orson Welles' star in Hollywood was probably foredoomed by four words (two names, if you will), John Houseman, Jack Moss. Houseman, with his excellent business sense and practical good taste, appealing to Welles' most crucial needs, might well have preserved the delicate balance to keep AMBERSONS on its brooding descent into emotional and economic degradation. But Welles had a terrible falling out with Houseman, as we know, and Welles rather irresponsibly set off for Brazil to do his bit for the War Effort, a "Good Neighbor" piece of propaganda, while contractually in the middle of making two films at once. He left in charge, Jack Moss, a man who appealed to his own worst (and most charming) self, a magician, a gambler, and a majordomo of delights. Houseman (if he allowed Welles to neglect his contractual obligations, at all) would have told his longtime partner to abandon his "little documentary," IT'S ALL TRUE, and get his tail back to Hollywood to save his pictures and his career. Jack Moss just let all the chips ride, collecting on the side bets. (See Jeff Wilson's excellent bio sketch of Moss, by all means.)

As for George Schaefer, he was a businessman put in charge of a bankrupt RKO by warring board members, one of whom was Nelson Rockefeller. They wanted nothing but a profitable balance sheet. Aside from the publicity stunt value, Schaefer's bosses, with perhaps the exception of Rockefeller, had little interest in Orson Welles, nor in cinematic masterpieces. There is no doubt Schaefer fell under Welles' charisma, but in the case of THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS, as month after month passed -- with no Orson Welles to add his imaginative touch -- I don't think George Schaefer deserves the dismissive condemnation Todd Baeson heaps upon him. THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS was a mess when Welles flew off to South America. It became a worse mess in the hands of those who finished it. THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS remains an intriguing mess today.

Glenn Anders

[Le Chiffre]

Todd, that April 29 memo (contained in Callow II) is strong stuff, and shows that Schaefer had become pretty fed up with Welles, and was no longer willing, or even able, to do much to help him out of the mess that both AMBERSONS and IT’S ALL TRUE had become. In fact, Schaefer almost sounds resigned to the fact that Welles has destroyed his career, and seems ready to rationalize returning the favor, or at least to hand him over to the wolves and let them do it. The fact that both projects went well over budget was surely a major part of that rationalization.
 

Houseman, with his excellent business sense and practical good taste, appealing to Welles' most crucial needs, might well have preserved the delicate balance to keep AMBERSONS on its brooding descent into emotional and economic degradation.

True, Glenn. When John Houseman came into Welles' life, Welles began his incredible streak of luck, culminating in WOTW and Kane. When Houseman left the scene, the luck began to run out. Also, recall this quote from Maurice Bernstien: "You're relations with Schaefer were better before you established the "New Order" (Moss in place of Houseman)

As for George Schaefer, he was a businessman put in charge of a bankrupt RKO by warring board members, one of whom was Nelson Rockefeller. They wanted nothing but a profitable balance sheet. Aside from the publicity stunt value, Schaefer's bosses, with perhaps the exception of Rockefeller, had little interest in Orson Welles, nor in cinematic masterpieces.

Yes, often overlooked is the fact that this story took place, not just in Brazil and Hollywood, but in the boardrooms of New York City as well. Here are some excerpts from a good book called RKO: THE BIGGEST LITTLE MAJOR OF THEM ALL.
 

The overwhelming critical praise heaped on CITIZEN KANE engendered little joy in the New York offices, where Floyd Odlum and fellow owners Nelson Rockefeller and Sarnoff were grappling with the problem of rapidly mounting losses for both 1939 and 1940. The root of the red ink appeared to be in Hollywood, on the doormat of George Schaefer’s executive suite…Exhibitors had been burned by critical successes, such as William Dieterle’s ALL THAT MONEY CAN BUY…and not even the success of KITTY FOYLE, the Disney product and Samuel Goldwyn’s prestige pictures could counter the image of a down-in-the-mouth studio.
 
It was the opinion of insiders watching the RKO situation early in 1941 that the stock control would shortly be “tossed into a single basket”, meaning Odlum and his Atlas Corporation putting an end to this detrimental period of divided rule. Joe Kennedy, on the friendliest terms with Odlum, Sarnoff, and the Rockefellers, had recently made one of his famous investigations of the floundering company, with an option to aquire a major slice of the stock.
 
In Hollywood, the beleaguered Schaefer responded to the press’s insistence that Kennedy was headed to RKO, by taking complete charge of the studio, and replacing production chief Joe Nolan with a surprise choice, Joseph Breen, lord high censor of the Hays office. Breen told the press he would stress entertainment, dropping names like La Cava, McCarey, and Ford. Orson Welles was definitely staying on too, and would make three or four pictures a year.
 
But by summer of 1941, one thing seemed clear in the muddled RKO situation: Schaefer would probably be felled by contractual difficulties. RKO’s Wall Street directors were unwilling to give Schaefer a long-term deal, and postponed the annual stockholder’s meeting in June, to give Odlum and Atlas, reportedly now in full voting control, the chance to buy up controlling interest. 
 
In August, Odlum tried to install Peter Rathvon as Breen’s replacement, but Schaefer defended his lair vigorously, denying that Breen would be replaced by Rathvon. However, after Pear Harbor was bombed, Breen was challenged again, first by his number two man, Sol Lesser, and then by Charles Koerner, RKO’s theatre head, who was favored by Odlum. When Breen went on vacation in March 1942, Keorner became temporary production chief, and when Breen came back from vacation, Keorner refused to relinquish the production reins, leading to dual authority for a short time, followed by Breen being sent back to the Hays office in May 1942. This left Orson Welles in a very vulnerable position.
 
Throughout the winter and early spring of 1942, a management and control battle had raged in New York, with neither Rockefeller nor Odlum interests giving an inch. But by June, it appeared more likely that Odlum’s Atlas would come out on top. Atlas had tried  to sell it’s $8 million investment in RKO, but was unsuccessful, so Floyd Odlum reluctantly decided to invest $4 million more in production and run the company, in order to protect Atlas’s huge investment. At the stockholder’s meeting on June 17th, all RKO directors were reelected, with the exception of George Schaefer, who had been given notice earlier, and who was replaced by Charles Keorner.
 
When Keorner visited the set of the latest Charlie McCarthy picture, the flippant dummy piped up: “Hello, Mr. Keorner. I’m here for six weeks. How long are you here for?”
 
Keorner’s belief in the box office pull of radio stars led to increased emphasis on B pictures adapted from radio series’. The smash business of these B pictures, combined with the failure of prestige pictures like ABE LINCOLN IN ILLINOIS, had proved that the multimillion radio audience would rather escape to Fibber McGee and Molly land.
 
Lest anyone take his slogan “Showmanship in Place of Genius” lightly, Koerner took swift action against the enemy – in this case, the cinema’s “eccentric” but “universal genius.” Using the pretext that the space was urgently needed for Sol Lesser, who had been signed to make two Tarzan pictures, on July 1 Koerner ordered the Orson Welles Mercury Productions unit to vacate it’s offices on the Pathe Lot…The Wellesian response from Mercury officers Jack Moss and Herbert Drake, “We are Leonardo da Vinci, evicted from his draughty garret,” brought a minimum of chuckles…Even though Mercury attorney Lloyd Wright stressed that the order came “at a time when CITIZEN KANE has been judged one of the outstanding pictures of 1941”, and emphasized the importance of the work Welles was doing  for the government in Brazil, Hollywood was unmoved.
 
Ultimately, Welles had failed to heed the line that guarded the Studio System from a perilous border, beyond which lay freedom of self-expression… The government had allowed the movie industry, because of it’s essential nature, to stay in business, and Hollywood had shown it’s gratitude by turning out huge support for the war effort and public morale, and otherwise policing itself strictly…Thus, George Schaefer’s boy wonder had fast deteriorated into the new regime’s “bad boy” who would have to be dumped.
 
The tip-off had come in a poetic Reporter headline the previous March 6. WELLES SO TIRELESS, CUTS AMBERSONS BY WIRELESS brought an exchange of knowing glances from those who knew the score. “Orson Annie” was overreaching himself, behaving like a super-genius. He had toted a print of Ambersons down to Rio and had actually thought that he could edit it over the telephone with cutter Robert Wise in Hollywood.
 
On April 16, the trade paper reported that the studio was “putting several un-Orson touches into retakes on Ambersons, while Welles works in Rio.” The “un-Orson touches” triggered a dispute, while the references to “work” brought laughter, since everyone knew that upon arriving in Rio, the flamboyant Welles had abandoned himself to the bacchanalian spirit of Carnival time.
 
“RKO breaks out in a cold sweat whenever Joe Cotton goes near a studio phone,” The Reporter informed Hollywood on April 21. “He calls Welles in Rio to tell him what goes on with Ambersons and Journey Into Fear. The latter picture had also been confiscated by the studio and was being edited without Welles’s supervision.
 
Meanwhile, the town buzzed with tales of Welles’s wild behaviour in Brazil…which it suggested would probably cause considerable embarrassment to his sponsors, the Rockefeller Group, in it’s attempt to establish better relations between the Americas.
 
After Jacare’s death, the repercussions were felt in both Washington and Hollywood. In it’s aftermath, Welles’s film company lost it’s hold on Brazilian sympathies. Early in June, the trade press reported that the Welles crew had shrunk from twenty eight to three…Members who had been recalled to Hollywood by order of Charles Koerner told how they had been afraid to venture into the streets of Rio after the death of Jacare.
 
Tragically, the footage of It’s ALL TRUE turned out to be an editing nightmare. Welles had attempted several scripts, and rashly tossed them aside.
 
In mid-August, Welles slipped into Hollywood and tried to salvage his incompleted film. The Office of Inter-American Affairs had pledged $300,000 to RKO against loss on completion. After investigating the facts in a closed budget session of the House Committee on Appropriations the following summer, Nelson Rockefeller and Francis Alstock, the new director of the Coordinating Office’s motion picture division, reneged.

[ToddBaesen]

Mike:

I hadn't seen that RKO book, so many thanks for posting that long excerpt.

Glenn:

I should like to point out to you that my post about George Schaefer takes him to task for telling Welles CITIZEN KANE had caused him so much trouble with his friends in the industry. Given the reception KANE received, I feel Schaefer was very short sighted in making such silly remarks, and that his reputation could have been really made in the cinema history books, if he only let Welles complete AMBERSONS, without the advice of the preview audiences.

Now, I know you had seen an early version of MR. ARKADIN in London, but I had no idea you had also seen the uncut AMBERSONS, presumably in Pasadena or Pomona... How else could you possibly call it a mess before Welles left for Rio?

Perhaps you can enlighten us... Do you think Welles original Boarding House ending was a "mess" and didn't work? Do you think that Mr. Schaefer was correct in having it removed and re-shot with the "mess" that we can now see in the film as it stands. I know you like KING'S ROW more than the mess that is AMBERSON's, but I'm curious... do you also think, as the Academy did in 1942, that "Wyler piece of crap" to quote Lillian Hellman, MRS. MINIVER, is a better film than AMBERSONS?

[Glenn Anders]

Toddy! Nice to see you back here.

I'm trying not to engage you in an argument. Our positions in this matter are well-known.

I, too, thank Mike for the material from RKO: THE BIGGEST LITTLE MAJOR OF THEM ALL, for it provides an additional ton of material supporting my view.

But to clarify: George Schaefer, as I say, was a businessman, a stopgap put in place at bankrupt RKO, not a cineaste. Even had he never hired Orson Welles, Schaefer was on his way out practically as he was coming in; he would NEVER have been a Mogul (unless he had the money of a Howard Hughes). As Mike's material tends to confirm, he hired Welles, probably under the influence of Nelson Rockefeller (and whoever his board member faction), to ginger up RKO's Radio image -- a publicity stunt, as I say, hopefully to make a version of "The War of the Worlds" or, failing that, maybe an entertaining picture about how that radio program was mounted, how it took America for a ride. You must remember, Toddy, since you were indeed not around at the time, Radio was a huge medium on the National scene back then, made more so by the approach and, shortly, the impact of World War II. The Floyd Odlum cohort on the RKO Board, again as Mike's addition tells us, would much rather, before and after, have had a more simple radio-based picture than CITIZEN KANE, and later, B-Films featuring the likes of Fibber McGee and Molly, Red Skelton, Fred Allen, or Jack Benny. Certainly not dark chronicles of American financial decline, twisted even more so by Welles in THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS. What Schaefer was saying in essence to Welles in that memo was this: I stood behind you on CITIZEN KANE, even though you nearly doubled the budget, caused us trouble with the Big Boys and Hearst, and lost us money at the box office. Now you are in South America [at the behest of one of my bosses, out of my hands], and you've left me two unfinished films taking up my factory lot and the valuable time of my personnel, with no end in sight. When I go, you go. Doesn't that mean anything to you?

THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS "was a mess when Welles flew off to South America," Todd, because . . . it was an UNFINISHED film, requiring the talented genius of Orson Welles to direct the delicate cutting of that poundingly tragic last half. Welles was in South America for six months, much of that time waiting on Robert Meltzer's cultural research team to complete a survey, soaking up Latin-American background, and expanding the scope of IT'S ALL TRUE far beyond anything even he had envisioned. Don't you think, Toddy, that he could have spared a month or six weeks to come back to save THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS?

As for the Academy Awards of . . . 1943 (no, I wasn't there either), you would undoubtedly note that all the films nominated were patriotic pieces, propaganda, or entertainment films designed to boost people's morale (Americans who were going into overtime war work, facing food and gas rationing, or worrying about their men at war). The one film radically different was THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS. You might reflect, Toddy, that it was quite a feat for Schaefer to help engineer an Academy Award nomination for the picture at all!

If you are asking me, Todd, as some kind of test, would I have preferred MRS. MINIVER? No, but I certainly would not have voted for THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS, as it stood. In terms of anglophile/yankee propaganda, I would have picked 49th PARALLEL, a film with the reach of IT'S ALL TRUE, and another emerging genius, Michael Powell (with Emeric Pressburger), at the helm. [Have you ever thought, Todd, had he got a move on with IT'S ALL TRUE, Welles might have had two films in contention?] For a patriotic film, I'd have voted for YANKEE DOODLE DANDY!

Here's my review of it, the first review I ever posted on the Internet:

http://www.epinions.com/review/mvie_mu- ... 5FF00D-bd4

But for the Best Film (nominated), I would have voted for THE TALK OF THE TOWN. Directed by George Stevens, starring Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, and Ronald Colman, the film combines romance, comedy, social justice, and drama in a heady mix. In its entertaining way, the picture looks forward to the McCarthy Era. In the voting, THE TALK OF THE TOWN won hardly anything at all, and so, in that way, THE TALK OF THE TOWN has parallels with an Orson Welles film.

[Just in terms of a gritty little masterpiece, which got little respect at the time, I might have preferred THIS GUN FOR HIRE to all of them. But, hey, I was only eleven years-old in 1942!]

Finally, I think that "the boarding house ending" is a wonderful IDEA for an ending, but I have no clue how it would have actually played in whatever mix was assembled for the Pomona sneak -- and I don't think you have either, Toddy. The professionals thought the picture dragged, the audience either left before "the boarding house" sequence or had a mixed reaction. Neither comments like, "It Stinks!" nor "It's wonderful" are very edifying. Clearly, THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS needed work, and the only person capable of putting the picture in shape was thousands of miles away, and showed no inclination to return to Hollywood to right the shape of what might have been his most deeply felt film. That man was Orson Welles, and he might just as well have been floating in the seas off Fortaleza, unaware of the approaching sharks.

[ToddBaesen]

Glenn:

So we essentially agree, with this rather BIG difference. You blame Welles for not staying in Hollywood and finishing the work on AMBERSONS there.

I think Welles was justified in going to Rio, mainly because I believe him when he says RKO promised to send Robert Wise to him with the film, and they would complete the final editing work on AMBERSONS in Rio.

There is little doubt, as the memos prove, that Robert Wise was supposed to go to Rio, so Welles clearly was not "making that up" as some people might assume. The second point is, that as we have seen, Welles did not have the contract that he had on CITIZEN KANE, due to the very bad legal advice and management he got from Jack Moss and Loyd Wright. If he did, there wouldn't have been any problems with Welles finishing AMBERSONS. RKO would have had to send Robert Wise to Rio, or they couldn't release the film. So while it may have been foolish of Welles to expect George Schaefer to stand by him on AMBERSONS, especially since Schaefer was about to be fired, Welles was still expecting it, mainly because he thought he also had the backing of Nelson Rockefeller and David Sarnoff, who did not resign from the RKO board until early June.

But I'll let Orson defend himself, as he did in this letter he wrote after Charles Higham's THE FILMS OF ORSON WELLES was published in 1970:

ORSON WELLES TO PETER BOGDANOVICH:
August 15, 1970

I don't know of any more fun than making a movie, and the most fun of all comes in the cutting room when the shooting is over. How can it be thought that I'd deny myself so much of that joy with AMBERSONS? I felt then, as I do now, that it could have been a far better film than KANE. How can anyone seriously believe that I would jeopardize something I loved so much for the dubious project of shooting a documentary on the carnival in Rio? Jesus, I didn't like carnivals anyway—I associated them with fancy dress, which bores me silly, and the touristic banalities of the New Orleans Mardi Gras. You know why I went? I went because it was put to me in the very strongest terms by Jock (John Hay Whitney) and Nelson (Rockefeller) that this would represent a sorely needed contribution to inter-American affairs. This sounds today quite unbelievably silly, but in the first year of our entering the war the defense of this hemisphere seemed crucially important. I was told that the value of this project would lie not in the film itself but in the fact of making it. It was put to me that my contribution as a kind of Ambassador extraordinary would be truly meaningful. Normally, I had doubts about this, but (President) Roosevelt himself helped to persuade me that I really had no choice.

Why else would I have agreed to make a film for no salary at all? Any appetite I may have felt for high-life could have been satisfied with a few flying weekends to New York. By preference I would have heard the chimes at midnight in Billingsley's Club Room and in Dickie Wells up in Harlem. But I was getting all the kicks I needed at the moviola. Dick Wilson's file will show you that I only agreed to the Brazilian junket on the firm guarantee that the moviolas and all the film (of THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS) would immediately follow me. What happened instead? The film never came. A takeover in RKO brought in new bosses committed, by the simple logic of their position, to enmity. I quickly lost the last vestiges of control over AMBERSONS, and friends at home collapsed in panic. Who can blame them? Even if I'd stayed I would have had to make compromises on the editing, but these would have been mine and not the fruit of confused and often semi-hysterical committees. If I had been there myself I would have found my own solutions and saved the picture in a form which would have carried the stamp of my own effort.

The point is that the tragedy of South America didn't end with the mangling of AMBERSONS by RKO. No, it cost me a hell of a lot more that the two years I spent making the picture. It cost me many, many other pictures which I never made; and many years in which I couldn't work at all.

[Glenn Anders]

Then we agree . . . HOORAY! As Orson Welles says himself: "Even if I'd stayed I would have had to make compromises on the editing, but these would have been mine and not the fruit of confused and often semi-hysterical committees. If I had been there myself I would have found my own solutions and saved the picture in a form which would have carried the stamp of my own effort."

Good to have that one settled, at last.

BTW: I was at The Ha-Ra Club on a recent Saturday; Jerry the Bartender was asking for you. He says that they haven't seen you since I stopped bringing you in for Gimlets. He says, they miss you. As you know, Jerry had to go away for a long rest after those sessions with you and Larry French. He looks great, has put on a little weight, and works a limited schedule on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

You should go in and visit him. If you need me to get you through the door without the authorities being called, remember to use to contact me, in a prior fashion, that wonderful device with the ring-a-ding, invented by a forebear of mine.

Cheers!

Glenn

[Le Chiffre]

George Schaefer...hired Welles, probably under the influence of Nelson Rockefeller (and whoever his board member faction), to ginger up RKO's Radio image -- a publicity stunt, as I say, hopefully to make a version of "The War of the Worlds" ...Certainly not dark chronicles of American financial decline,

Yes, remember those scenes in RKO231 where Schaefer presses Welles for a Martian film instead of CITIZEN KANE, and Welles says he wants to do something different first. Well, he did that something else first, and then he did something else second (and third, if you count JOURNEY INTO FEAR).

Welles was in South America for six months, much of that time waiting on Robert Meltzer's cultural research team to complete a survey, soaking up Latin-American background, and expanding the scope of IT'S ALL TRUE far beyond anything even he had envisioned. Don't you think, Toddy, that he could have spared a month or six weeks to come back to save THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS?

Especially when Schaefer even told him that he wanted everyone back by March. It seems that it was primarily Welles' decision to keep stalling the project out and expanding it. And he says he didn't even want to do the South American project in the first place! Something doesn't make sense here, but then, this is where the "Jangadieros" episode comes into play. Welles had become obsessed with it, and wanted to incorporate it into the "Carnival" episode.
Plus, the expensive Urca Casino finale that Welles envisioned. Maybe that's where all those chorus girls came into play.

Todd wrote:
...while it may have been foolish of Welles to expect George Schaefer to stand by him on AMBERSONS, especially since Schaefer was about to be fired, Welles was still expecting it, mainly because he thought he also had the backing of Nelson Rockefeller and David Sarnoff, who did not resign from the RKO board until early June.

If Rockefeller and his Chase Bank had prevailed over Odlum's Atlas Corporation in New York, the whole story probably would have turned out differently. 



I went because it was put to me in the very strongest terms by Jock (John Hay Whitney) and Nelson (Rockefeller) that this would represent a sorely needed contribution to inter-American affairs. This sounds today quite unbelievably silly, but in the first year of our entering the war the defense of this hemisphere seemed crucially important. I was told that the value of this project would lie not in the film itself but in the fact of making it. It was put to me that my contribution as a kind of Ambassador extraordinary would be truly meaningful. Normally, I had doubts about this, but (President) Roosevelt himself helped to persuade me that I really had no choice.

It's worth noting that, during the time that Ambersons and It's All True were collapsing, The U.S. was still losing the Battle in the Pacific. It had just lost the Battle of Bataan around the time of the Pomona and Pasadena previews, and then the entire Phillipines, and the Bataan death march had happened in April. The US had also begun the fierce battle for Guadalcanal, which would not be decided until the next year. The tide didn't start turning until June 1942, at the Battle of Midway, which was around the time Welles began filming in Forteleza. The outcome of the war was still very much in doubt.



I only agreed to the Brazilian junket on the firm guarantee that the moviolas and all the film (of THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS) would immediately follow me. What happened instead? The film never came.

Not correct. The film did arrive, along with alternate takes, etc. All Welles had to do was demand that Rockefeller pay RKO to preserve these materials and let Selznick donate them to MOMA, which could not have been that much of an expense. Unbelievable that no one thought to save ANY of it.

A takeover in RKO brought in new bosses committed, by the simple logic of their position, to enmity. I quickly lost the last vestiges of control over AMBERSONS, and friends at home collapsed in panic. Who can blame them? Even if I'd stayed I would have had to make compromises on the editing, but these would have been mine and not the fruit of confused and often semi-hysterical committees. If I had been there myself I would have found my own solutions and saved the picture in a form which would have carried the stamp of my own effort.

That’s why I think it’s impossible to analyze what happened to AMBERSONS without analyzing what happened with TRUE at the same time. It seems to have been a domino effect both ways. Someday I think it would be great to see a book focusing solely on the two projects, with as many memos dug out of archives and reprinted in full as possible. They tell the story better then anything else could, and each memo seen for the first time and added to the mix seems to add a new angle of understanding to the tragic debacle which, after WOTW and KANE, is really in many ways the central story of Welles’ life and career. Larry's blog series is a good start.


[ToddBaesen]

Mike:

I think you have made an important point, noting that AMBERSONS and IT'S ALL TRUE have to be considered together.
The fate of both those films are quite intertwined, in my opinion.

In fact, I was just looking at Jonathan Rosenbaum's comments about IT'S ALL TRUE, and he noted that
Robert Carringer somehow devoted a whole book to THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS, without once mentioning IT'S ALL TRUE!

I guess if a film didn't get released it had no importance to Mr. Carringer, except perhaps if it was the legendary
unrealized version of HAMLET that Welles had planned to make at RKO, right after he finished IT'S ALL TRUE.

Welles would have played Hamlet and John Barrymore would have played the ghost of Hamlet's father.
But not only was Welles fired from RKO, but John Barrymore died at the end of May, 1942 while Welles was still in Rio!

[Le Chiffre]

Ha, I thought it was going to be a life of Jesus, with Barrymore as King Herod! Of course, I would have settled for either, or anything other then the disintegration of the Mercury, which is basically what happened.

Yes, Carringer makes a couple of brief passing references to a "South American project", in his second essay at the back of his TMA book, but that's about all. Here is I think a good example of how Ambersons and True were so deeply intertwined. It's a memo from Richard Wilson to George Schaefer, trying desperately to discredit Lynn Shores (Schaefer's main company man on the Brazil trip) about all the negative reports he (Shores) was sending back:

The first phase of the Shores matter came to a head the night before Welles left for Forteleza (March 17, the night of the Pomona preview?). Welles had called him to the Copacabana for a meeting which was to follow a press conference Welles had. This press conference kept Welles there an extra hour before our production meeting started. He had barely started discussing the problems of Forteleza and mapping out second unit work to be done during Welles's absence, when Welles was called to the phone for an international phone call. He was gone for about a half an hour. Shores did not agree with this entire (Jangadieros) adventure and would only discuss it or take an active part in it when directly requested. After the contract was signed however, he said he was going home. I told him that we had not concluded the discussion, and I was sure that Orson would want him. He said he works too hard to stay up like this, that Welles had already spent as much time with him as he ever would, and that he was going home. I told him if he felt the matter was thoroughly discussed he should use his own judgment, but I felt he was making a mistake. He left.

When Welles returned he was very surprised and piqued that Shores had gone before they finished, and asked me to get him back. In about half an hour, I put a call into him at the hotel. He absolutely and profanely refused to come back on the grounds that he was tired and that we didn't need any more discussions. We could go ahead and fire him or send him back. Not wishing to precipitate matters, I let the things slip as Welles was discussing with Meltzer and myself the reaction about Ambersons he had just received by phone call. This discussion lasted for about two hours, in which he formulated in his mind the basic cuts he felt should be in the picture. About 3 AM he asked for Shores again, saying "Hasn't he come in yet?" "We will keep calling him until you get him as it's very important we settle the work to be covered while I'm gone. I then had to say that I had already spoken to Shores and Shores was very tired, had a headache and told me that he didn't think he could come. When Welles was insistent on his coming I told him that I didn't think he would come. Welles then talked to him on the phone and apparently Shores was very angry, and refused to come for Welles.

We saw him early that morning at the airport and from that time on Shores seems to have taken the attitude of opposition toward Welles and the staff that represented him. From then on, he was opposed to any actions or negotiations in which he did not have an active part as a director. He was also opposed to the Jangadieros from the beginning... His Operations Reports (and probably the accompanying letters) have put an unfair emphasis on Welles and his activities personally, and in no way have they taken into account the many other things he is done connected with the picture, or other aspects of the mission.

[ToddBaesen]

Here is Lynn Shores version of what Richard Wilson was complaining about in his letter to George Schaefer.

I find it quite amusing to read how Shores feels he was receiving all the blame from the crew, which he imagines they are really directing towards Welles, but merely taking out on him, as Welles's surrogate!

Shores also expresses to know what Welles’ was thinking, claiming the shooting of Carnival was a “big disappointment” to him, when Welles was telling George Schaefer exactly the opposite, and that Welles was going to toss the shooting of the picture into his lap. The man must have been delusional!

Apparently in the rest of the letter (according to Simon Callow), Richard Wilson goes on to say that Shores keeps saying the film is "nothing but a God Damn nigger picture," and that "nobody wants to look at a bunch of niggers."

How Welles could even stand working with such a racist idiot is beyond me, and it's no wonder they hated each other. I imagine they both wanted to throw each other into Rio harbor more than once!


LYNN SHORES TO WALTER DANIELS - March 9, 1942:

I have a lot of things on my mind which may explode before you receive this letter. We have not made a shot worth while this week, and if we had been shooting continually all week, the shot would still not have been worth while. I do not like to be pessimistic on this trip but the longer we are here the more involved we get and seem to be working toward no end…

Welles is definitely throwing the shooting of this picture onto my lap. Confidentially I believe there is nothing promising here.The shooting of the carnival was a big disappointment to all of us, and I know to him personally.

I am working under continuous pressure from both ends. Welles wants me all night for meaningless conferences, and the boys (on the crew) want me all day for shooting and general lending an ear to their beefs. Whatever they feel about Welles they are taking out on me.

…(I hope) the lights and equipment will keep the boys occupied to the extent of keeping them out of too much unoccupied mischief.

…I am doing everything humanly possible to preserve law, order, morale and progress. I hate to continually bombard you with pessimistic letters, but someone has got to be a little truthful about this jaunt... the details of the daily maneuvers down here would fill a book and be most amusing. Someday I may write that book.

[Le Chiffre]

Apparently to Shores, the filming of black Brazilians represented "working to no end."

...the boys (on the crew) want me all day for shooting and general lending an ear to their beefs. Whatever they feel about Welles they are taking out on me.

That makes an interesting contrast to this other excerpt from Wilson's memo to Schaefer:

"At all times he (Shores) has placed a greater emphasis on the poor morale situation then actually existed. I found, from personally investigating after each time he spoke of it, that it was never really as bad as he said. In most cases he was using a particular incident from an individual member of the group and attributing it to the whole company."

Here are two more observations gathered from Callow II:

1. Jack Moss and Freddie Fleck shot the new ending for Ambersons on May 19th, the same day that Jacare drowned.

2. There were at least 5 previews of Ambersons:
Pomona and Pasadena in March
Inglewood in early May, at 93 minutes and with the boardinghouse ending still in the film. A first preview at Long Beach, details unknown.
A second preview at Long Beach towards the end of May, with the new ending, the scene of George unwrapping Wilbur's picture still in the film, but the Eugene and Isabel garden scene gone. After this preview, Schaefer ordered the unwrapping scene eliminated and the garden scene reinstated. He then approved the film for release, one of his last acts as RKO chief.

[Nepenthe]

Even in its truncated form, The Magnificent Ambersons Is 'The Greatest Motion Picture Since They Brought In Sound'.

Glen, were you at the Pomona or the Pasadena screening?

[Glenn Anders]

Dear nepenthe: As I've answered this kind of question before -- No, I was just a kid, back in a little Ohio town. But you know, the people in that town went to movies almost religiously. The went on Sundays after church; some like my mother and I went on Wednesdays (partly for the American Educator Encyclopedia given away a volume at a time); and the kids went on Saturday. They were generally shocked, awed, and puzzled by CITIZEN KANE. THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS, on the other hand, to most of them, was just another movie with a weak, sentimental ending. The picture passed without much comment.

I wish I could agree with your assessment of THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS, but I can't.

Glenn

[Le Chiffre]

Part 5:
http://www.wellesnet.com/?p=1515

Part 6:
http://www.wellesnet.com/?p=1525

ORSON WELLES ON COTTEN'S LETTER (From Barbra Leamings book):

"I got a letter from Joe Cotten in which he said. You don't realize that you've made a sort of dark movie. It's more Chekhov then Tarkington. I got that in Rio. And of course I did it very clearly and intended it that way. You see, he was distressed for me. It was a very sweet letter, all about You know we're doing our best to protect you, but there was this terrible preview, and you don't understand you've made a movie that, in spite of itself, turns out to be very dark. Yes, exactly! That's just what I was making! He had become, with the best will in the world, an active collaborator with Wise, and the janitor of RKO, and whoever else was busy screwing it up. They used him. First they convinced him, undermining his confidence by the preview, convinced him of their point of view, and then used him with me...(Joe) was helping to protect me from this disaster, which the movie would have been had it been released in anything resembling my form. That was a heartbreaking thing because it was very hard for me to reply to that. I don't think I even answered it."