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... he resulting of The Magnificent Ambersons has become a black legend. Welles was halfway into shooting the film when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Just after the bombing, the U. S. State Department Committee on Inter-American Affairs recruited Welles to make a film in Brazil (McBride 55).
The head of this committee was Nelson Rockefeller, who was then a major stockholder of RKO and a supporter of Welles. It was Rockefeller's idea to have Welles shoot a film in Brazil in order to improve relations between the U. S. and South America (McBride 55). The idea of a promotional film was pushed even further by fear of a German invasion on South America. Nazi influence was already growing rapidly in some parts.
As a result, Welles had to rush shooting on Ambersons and finish principal production of several other scheduled projects as well (McBride 55). Overloaded with so much work in so little time, Welles resorted to using second units on other sound stages in order to complete Ambersons on time. A committee consisting of Robert Wise, Welles's manager Jack Moss, and Joseph Cotten was given the job of preparing certain scenes. Harry J. Wild and Russell Meet were also hired as auxiliary cameramen (Brady 318).
After completing shooting for Ambersons, Welles prepared to leave for Brazil to shoot the film for the U. S. State Department. He first flew in to Miami, Florida where Wise prepared a rough cut of the film for Welles to record his narration, and to discuss plans for the final cut, after which Welles left for Brazil (Hanson).
The plan was for Wise to return to Hollywood to complete the editing, sound and music tracks, and then fly to Brazil with the final print. When Wises application to leave the country was denied due to wartime restrictions on travel, however, the print was shipped to Brazil, were Welles was to shape the final cut (Hanson). According to a March 6, 1942 HR news item, Welles remained in constant contact with Wise, telephoning and cabling the editor with detailed cutting instructions (Hanson). Welles teamed Wise with Jack Moss, the business manager of the Mercury Theater, with Wise acting as supervisor of post-production and Moss as surrogate producer (Brady 318). Re-edited footage was shipped regularly to Brazil where Welles would then comment on the changes via cable or telephone. The cutting continued until March 16, when Wise in a telegram notified Welles that studio head George Schaefer, anxious for an Easter release, requested a screening for himself and Charles Koerner, an executive who harbored contempt for Welles artistic ambitions and would soon replace Schaefer as head of the studio.
Wise informed Welles that Schaefer, concerned about the pictures two-hour plus length, had ordered a sneak preview to be shown at the Fox Theatre in Pomona, CA on March 17 (Hanson). Audience response cards from that preview indicate that the film received mixed reactions: A horrible distorted dream. The worst picture I ever saw. I could not understand it. Exceedingly good picture. This picture was a masterpiece. (Slide).
Focusing on the negative comments, Schaefer asked RKO's legal experts if RKO could possibly take Ambersons out of Welles's hands. In Welles's original contract, he was given carte blanche on his first film with RKO. Unfortunately, Ambersons was covered under a later, compromising contract that gave Welles complete control of the first preview cut and not the final cut. The final release cut had to be made under RKO's orders. As terrible as the final editing may have been, it was legally under RKO's jurisdiction (Film Comment). Another preview in Pasadena was quickly arranged with most of the cut film made before the Pomona preview restored.
The audience's reaction was an enormous improvement, with only one-fourth of the preview cards being negative compared to the Pomona preview cards of which three-fourths were negative (Slide). However Pasadena's audience was more sophisticated than Pomona's, and the fact was if the film could not play in Pomona, it stood little chance of recouping its budget. RKO felt that the film needed to be drastically reduced for any hope at the box office. Schaefer's hopes for an Easter premiere were gone, and the film would never be seen in its original, complete version.
The day after the Pasadena preview, Schaefer sent a typewritten letter to Welles describing the situation. Richard Wilson, a close associate to Welles, was with Welles when he received the letter and has told how he sank into a deep gloom after reading Schaefer's devastating news. Schaefer wrote, Never in all my experience in the industry have I taken so much punishment or suffer as I did at the Pomona preview. Schaefer also criticized the film as being too slow, heavy and topped off with somber music. (Higham 187). Attempts to work with Welles over telegrams and telephones were, as Wise recalls, "hopeless. I simply couldn't follow his instructions, they made no sense.
One telegram he sent me was 67 pages long. I couldn't follow it at all. " (Naremore 49). Charles Koerner ordered Moss to supervise the final cuts. All the important documentary footage on the city's development, which accounted for about two reels, was removed as well as the original ending (Magill).
When RKO finally had what they felt was a "releasable" form, they released it as the second half of a double bill with a Lupe Velez comedy, Mexican Spitfire Sees a Ghost (Film Comment). Not surprisingly Ambersons did not make any money. The final product is only a fragment of Welles's original film. Welles said it looked like it had been "edited with a lawn mower, " but according to Peter Bogdanovich and many others it is still a beautiful, lyrical film despite its current truncated form.
While much of the heart of the picture was removed, at least most of the film's set-up remains intact. There are moments in the film, though, in which the damage done is very obvious. This is seen in several vulgar, abrupt cuts, in a few awkward shots, in the sudden softening in George's attitude, and in the tacked-on ending that seems saccharine. Although The Magnificent Ambersons had a poor track record at the box office, it was still admired by many. A July 20, 1942 Time Magazine review called it a great motion picture, adult and demanding. Artistically it is a textbook of advanced cinema technique (Variety Film Reviews).
It was also nominated for several Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Art Direction, Best Black and White Cinematography and Best Supporting Actress (Agnes Moorehead) (ONeil). Moorehead won the New York Film Critics Award for her performance as Fanny Manager (ONeill). Agnes Moorehead gave a brilliant and thoughtful portrayal in the somber and murky Orson Welles picture The Magnificent Ambersons (Variety Film Reviews). There has been speculation that the film would be widely regarded as Welles's best work and possibly the greatest film ever made had an original cut been available.
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