The Magnificent Ambersons

Few novels have caused Hollywood more adaptation agitation than Booth Tarkington's Pulitzer Prize-winning The Magnificent Ambersons, which plots the late 19th century rise of America's industrial tycoons against the fall of the once proud, powerful and socially prominent Amberson family. No sooner had Orson Welles turned his back after putting his film adaptation in the can then RKO pictures head George Schaefer pried it open again, taking it upon himself to hack another 40 minutes off its already edited 130 minute running time, and--adding ultimate insult to injury--tacking on a happy ending which Schaefer himself commissioned from the studio's contract scribes. Neither Welles nor his career ever recovered from the experience. Now, in true 'damn the torpedoes' fashion, comes acclaimed Like Water For Chocolate director Alfonso Arau with his own purported true-to-the-original-script production, but one, I'm afraid, that has no shortage of problems of its own, production and otherwise. And foremost among the latter is his lead casting choice of Jonathan Rhys-Meyers. While it is said that one needn't sympathize, only empathize, with a story's protagonists, Meyer's hyper-acerbic turn as George Amberson Minafer makes either "-ize" an impossibility, with a scene chewing turn so grating that it sinks the entire effort before the first reel unspools. Combine this with the film's confusing use of flashbacks and flashforwards; curious--to put it nicely--support casting; leaden dialogue (compared to Welles' witty original); and often poor lighting; and I'm afraid you'll find scant magnificence to be had here. Not recommended. (S. C. Sickles) [Blu-ray/DVD Review—Jan. 1, 2019—Criterion, 88 min., not rated, DVD: 2 discs, $29.95; Blu-ray: $39.95—Making its latest appearance on DVD and debut on Blu-ray, 1942’s The Magnificent Ambersons features a fine transfer with an uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray release. Extras include two audio commentaries (one by scholar Robert L. Carringer; the other by scholar James Naremore and critic Jonathan Rosenbaum), radio plays of a 1939 version of Ambersons as well as a 1938 adaptation of Booth Tarkington’s Seventeen (116 min.), a 1970 archival episode of The Dick Cavett Show featuring Welles (37 min.), audio excerpts from vintage audio interviews with Welles conducted by filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich (36 min.), a 'Pampered Youth' two-reel from the 1925 silent adaptation (29 min.), interviews with historians Joseph McBride (29 min.) and Simon Callow (26 min.), the new critical video essays 'The Score' (19 min.) by Christopher Husted and 'The Cinematographers' (16 min.) by François Thomas, and a booklet featuring essays by authors and critics Molly Haskell, Luc Sante, Geoffrey O’Brien, Farran Smith Nehme, and Jonathan Lethem, as well as excerpts from an unfinished 1982 memoir by Welles. Bottom line: an excellent edition of Welles’s troubled film.]