Absolute perfection: "Those who were still living had forgotten all about it...and all about him." Fade to black. For a film that's missing at least 40 minutes, it STILL retains an incredible power.
im optimistic that one day the original cut will be found after all metropolis was restored and that was thought lost hell the passion of joan of arc's original cut was found in a mental hospital's closet i think one day we'll all see the original cut but for now the current one is still great
I agree.......this should have been the l scene, instead of that happy Hollywood ending they tacked on while Wells was on holiday, thinking the film was in the can..........i always turn the movie off at this point. My favorite film of Well's, I saw an interview with Vivian Leigh..a British one I believe, and in her opinion this is the finest movie ever made. So so many wonderful scenes..how wells captures the feeling of time for the streetcar....the feeling of the ball with the wind blowing, and genuine gas lighting on the chandeliers...........
That happy ending is horrible and so obviously added by someone else; everything is out of place. I watched it with a friend who'd never seen it before and he could tell it was tacked on immediately even though I hadn't told him about it. It doesn't even try for the look and tone of Welles' work, and it trashes Agnes Moorehead's great performance.
@@randywhite3947 Hello: You would have to hunt around a bit to find it. It was after Streetcar [1952] . In this interview she also talks about Streetcar, and learning the southern New Orleans dialect.
The book is available for free online. Look it up! The original ending is even more implausible than what the studio put out. Eugene thinks he sees Isabel's ghost hovering outside of the train window and the ghost implores him to "be kind" to George. He rushes to the hospital and sees how much George resembles Isabel in sickness. So he doesn't even need to force himself to "be kind" anymore and genuinely pities the boy and all his bitterness falls away. The studios are butchers, of course, but at least here, they aren't to blame for the ending. That was Tarkington's fault!
The current "massacred" version is still a great movie. I highly recommend seeing it. One of the greatest 90 minute films out there. The melodramatic ending is the only part that doesn't work for me.
Just think...if there had been piracy of films and people uploading screeneres onto the internet in 1942, we would have the full version of perhaps the second greatest film ever made -the film we all have been robbed of... My favourite scene in the film, BTW.
@NGS712 I'm so glad you got to see this. I find it gets even better with repeated viewings. Kane seems hollow at its core, with the medium (all the tricks and flourishes) being more important than the message. But in Ambersons, everything is there only to further the message. Its very economy adds to its quiet lyricism. Welles must have been very much in love with his subject to restrain himself so masterfully.
Plot Spoiler Alert. This is one of my favorite scenes from the whole film (but I have many!). I want to point out that this should not be the last scene in the film because it’s important to the story (and accurate to the novel) that George reconnects later with the Morgan family as a result of being hit by a car. I also want to mention that even though these location shots were not filmed in Indianapolis (the setting), they could have been! They’re visually accurate to the very neighborhoods and industrial regions that George would have walked through, traveling from downtown Indy to the near east side (“Amberson Edition” is based on Woodruff Place, a local neighborhood).
1. Welles' original ending was an unresolved downer: Eugene talks to Fanny about Isabel while Fanny listens to him, staying quiet about her unrequited feelings for him. So you would have: (A) Eugene loves Isabel, (B) Fanny loves Eugene and (C) Isabel loves Eugene but is always prevented from being with him during her lifetime by her son George and ultimately by her death. This conundrum was created by Isabel's initial rejection of Eugene due to her public embarrassment over his botched serenade, followed by her unhappy marriage to Wilbur Minafer resulting in the birth of George who she spoiled. 2. The un-Welles ending provided some resolution to the tragedy and offered a semblance of hope for the future: (A) Eugene indicates to Fanny that Isabel was present in spirit when he reconciled with a badly injured George in his hospital room; (B) Fanny is ecstatic just to be near Eugene, whether or not she will ever reveal to him her true feelings; and (C) Eugene's daughter Lucy will visit George, indicating that she plans to be there for him from henceforth. 3. I prefer the un-Welles ending since it offers an answer to George's prayer during the comeuppance scene shown here when he asks for forgiveness from both his mother and God, and wish that Welles could have filmed that ending in his own manner consistent with the rest of the film's excellent quality. 4. Since Welles supposedly received a copy of the director's cut when he was on assignment for the US State Dept. in Brazil, perhaps someday those lost forty minutes will be discovered ... maybe during Carnival?
But have you read the original novel? It also has a happy ending...if anything, the studio actually toned down the cheese and sentimentality in Tarkington's original story... If you find the ending to be implausible, that's Tarkington's fault, not RKO's...
@@agathaellajadwiszczok9840 I don't find the film's ending to be implausible, just suddenly jarring. Apparently, RKO did a preview of the film's original ending in L.A. while the war effort was heating up and the audience was not impressed with a subject that was so far removed from the surging patriotism of World War II. I actually like cheese and sentimentality which I guess makes me James Cagney's "you dirty rat." And I have not read the original novel, "wherefore I ahbor myself, and in dust and ashes I repent." (Job 42:6, KJV)
But the melodramatic ending is straight from the book! That ending was entirely Tarkington's idea. If anything, the studio toned down the melodramatic ending!!
@NGS712 Even the "mutilated" version is very much worth watching. It's magnificent in every detail. I can't think why Welles isn't known for this instead of for Kane.
Topwood: Well, it's been quite awhile since I've seen Kane in full so I can't really say about that at the moment. I've read people who've said that George somewhat reflect's Welles' background so it's very possible he saw this as a sort of autobiographical.
@NGS712 Good point about this being sort of autobiographical for Welles. Also, both this and Kane have to do with "great" men (great in their own eyes, that is) being laid low. I've seen both Kane and Ambersons fairly recently and do think the latter has so much more to offer. Kane is so exuberant. I love how you can just tell Welles had great fun with all the special shots and tricks. But Ambersons, ah, it's a masterpiece from a mature artist.
Topwood: I've actually seen the edited version by now and it is quite good, the ending is unfortunate but tolerable. I agree, despite the way it is I think Ambersons is at least just as fascinating. :)
Saying that Automobiles had "no business being invented" is like saying People have no business thinking... ...I expect all communists, nazis, and liberals agree.
