Cotten quote re original ending of MA

[Colmena]

Specifically, Cotten's comparison of the original ending of Ambersons to Checkov refers to the extraordinary, low-key, sotto voce, life-goes-on, creaking rocking chairs ending of Uncle Vanya.

Was this an inspiration for Welles?

It is not as bleak as the Amberson ending, since it does not involve Fanny's poverty or the larger devastation of old age. They are still in their family estate, and have not become dispossessed.

The phrase "too Checkovian for its own good" which I attributed to Cotten is Carringer's paraphrase of Cotten.

[Steve Paradis]

Specifically, Cotten's comparison of the original ending of Ambersons to Checkov refers to the extraordinary, low-key, sotto voce, life-goes-on, creaking rocking chairs ending of Uncle Vanya.

Was this an inspiration for Welles?

It is not as bleak as the Amberson ending, since it does not involve Fanny's poverty or the larger devastation of old age. They are still in their family estate, and have not become dispossessed.

The phrase "too Checkovian for its own good" which I attributed to Cotten is Carringer's paraphrase of Cotten.

In the scene Eugene speaks of his reconciliation with George, and Lucy's joy, but the visuals are an old man and an old woman talking about a dead woman in a shabby boarding house. George and Lucy are the future, but we don't see them. Eugene was so certain that aren't any times but new times, that old times were dead times. Now it seems to be dawning on him that he's more a part of the dead times than the new ones. It's a great conceit, but was Cotten right, for 1942?

[Colmena]

Thanks for the comment.

Eugene's report concerning the reconciliation at the hospital now comes across, to a major degree, as his wishful thinking. There's nothing he wants more than to feel close to Isabel, hovering over them in the next world. In the novel, we witness the spiritual communion in the hospital, that sudden tacked-on happy ending, that RKO attempts to retrieve. But in Welles' ending, it's only Eugene's anecdote. Now's he's turning to Fanny for her approval-- and getting nothing back.

What we've lost!

[Wich2]

*sigh*

Poor Dr. Chekov...

Even within his own lifetime, folks were already missing the point. He meant humor in his pieces! Dark humor, yes; but humor.

He bemoaned this misread.

- Craig