Student films recreating lost 'Ambersons' ending

[RayKelly]

Two attempts to recapture the lost ending of The Magnificent Ambersons. The first by Julian Santos from 2018 and the second from Macalester College students in 2011.

[CineCraft]

I've seen both of these and they do a wonderful job. The black and white takes a wonderful academic approach trying to follow the continuity, which makes for a great exercise in "what if," while the color one has such splendid acting.

I think this is a great exercise for students. If I were a production teacher, for a final assignment I would have my class attempt to recreate a scene from the film, using the script continuity as a guide. It's a great chance for students to learn how to work within the confines of a script, while also finding ways to be creative within those confines.

[tonyw]

Another precedent is the production unit of the H.P. Lovecraft Society. Dissatisfied with the many Hollywood versions, they have embarked on their own takes with varying degrees of success. However, as Chris Sharrett notes in his excellent 2015 Winter Cineaste article "The Haunter of the Dark:H. P. Lovecraft and Modern horror Cinema, 25, the best versions are "Out of Mind" (2008) and 2/3rds of "The Whisperer in Darkness" (2011). Thus encouragement should be the norm and I eagerly await the new versions that BOTH Roger and someone he has also encouraged (in his usual generous manner)are now working on.

[Le Chiffre]

Those are both nicely done. The second one in particular, captures some of the sardonic humor of the scene.

[tonyw]

Yes, and as Cinecraft notes, they offer so much stimulii, in terms of surpassing previous versions. I like the attempt to recreate the creaking of Fanny's rocking chair as well as the muted reproduction of the "Two Black Crows" number on the vitriola. Maybe the volume could be raised so that the sound pollution matches that in the final shot of Eugene's automobile dwarfed by the town's now industrial inferno.

[Roger Ryan]

Actually, the recording that is heard on the soundtrack is the radio version of Ambersons! Also, it's probably worth pointing out that the original boarding house scene did not use a recording of a "Two Black Crows" routine, but a re-recorded version of Nat M. Wills' 1908 routine "No News: Or, What Killed The Dog"...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gx73ln3Cn6Q

Wills' recording perfectly fits the time-frame of the final scene in the film whereas the "Two Black Crows" team, who didn't become popular until the mid-20s, would have been anachronistic. I suspect Welles referred to it as a "Two Black Crows" routine since that reference would have been easily understood by everyone circa 1942.

[Le Chiffre]

Nice find, Roger. I wonder if the Black Crowes ever did a cover of that Wills routine. Welles did a cover of it for Ambersons with, iirc, Norman Foster and Joseph Cotton in the two roles. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Given the theme of Ambersons, it's a bit ironic that the Two Black Crowes act basically ended in 1934 when one of them was killed in an automobile accident.

Welles later had Amos and Andy, perhaps the main radio rival of the Two Black Crowes, as guests on his radio production of STATE FAIR, which is unfortunately lost now.

[Roger Ryan]

Nice find, Roger. I wonder if the Black Crowes ever did a cover of that Wills routine. Welles did a cover of it for Ambersons with, iirc, Norman Foster and Joseph Cotton in the two roles. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Only wrong in that you misspelled Mr. Cotten's surname! It's possible the Black Crows did a version of the routine, but unlikely since their shtick, like Amos & Andy, had both men adopting (exploiting, if you wish) what could be called a Southern American black dialect. Wills' routine was written to be performed with a Midwestern white dialect for the homeowner and a Southern black dialect for his servant. For the Ambersons recording of the routine, Cotten performed the role of the servant (for a reference to how Cotten probably sounded in this role, check out how he voices the part of "Genesis" in the Mercury radio adaptation of Seventeen included on the Criterion Ambersons release) and Norman Foster performed the role of the homeowner. Welles requested, via telegram, that the routine be re-recorded with Ray Collins taking over the homeowner role, but I don't know if this was ever done since the entire boarding house scene was dropped from the continuity shortly after the request was made. Given that Welles expresses dissatisfaction with Foster's performance (via telegram) indicates the routine was probably recorded some time in February, 1942 after Welles had left for Rio (and he wasn't around to direct the recording personally).

[Le Chiffre]

Welles requested, via telegram, that the routine be re-recorded with Ray Collins taking over the homeowner role...Welles expresses dissatisfaction with Foster's performance (via telegram)

Yes, I seem to remember Welles saying something like Foster sounding too "legit", whatever that meant. In a strange way, Ray Collins might have been perfect, as the comedy routine is a kind of funhouse mirror version of what happens to his other character, since Uncle Jack inherits a rich man's estate, only to find that it's "about as mixed up as an estate can get", and worth nothing in the end.

BTW, I wonder if CITIZEN K's Ambersons restoration ever got finished. He was from Finland I think, and that was a few years ago.

Correction: that was actually 15 years ago. My how time flies.