Chip Kaufmann’s Pick:
The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
While Citizen Kane always grabs the top slot as Orson Welles’ greatest cinematic achievement, I cast my vote for The Magnificent Ambersons. Welles’ follow-up to Kane is the antithesis of that film. While Kane loudly proclaims its brilliance from every frame, Ambersons is a much quieter film. This is probably due to the fact that the source material is an actual novel as opposed to an original, acerbic screenplay.
Another major difference is that this time around Welles is content to stay behind the camera as director and let others share the limelight. The signature chiaroscuro lighting is there along with the dazzling camerawork but now they are in the service of the narrative rather than the reason for it.
Booth Tarkington’s 1918 Pulitzer Prize winning novel concerns the rise and fall of a prosperous Midwestern family. Tied in with their decline is the development of the automobile and the disappearance of a simpler, more relaxed way of life. It’s one of the very few movies I can think of that by the end, makes you nostalgic for the beginning.
Joseph Cotten, Delores Costello, Anne Baxter, and Agnes Moorehead lead a repertory company of Welles performers from his Mercury Theater days in radio. The real star of the film however is Tim Holt who portrays the spoiled rich kid George Minafer. Holt, primarily an actor in B Westerns, is best known for being one of the prospectors in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.
The film was taken out of Welles’ hands after an unfavorable preview and cut from over 2 hours to only 88 minutes. It was fitted out with a happier ending which, ironically, is taken straight from the book. Despite the cuts and changes, The Magnificent Ambersons remains one of the greatest American films ever made. It is currently available in a newly released version for streaming as well as on DVD so that now everyone can have a chance to see it.
Michelle Keenan’s Pick:
Jane Eyre (1944)
Of the umpteen television and film versions of Jane Eyre one of my favorites is the 1944 version starring our Joan Fontaine and our resident birthday boy, Orson Welles. Fans of Charlotte Bronte’s Gothic romance will not be disappointed.
While it is very much a piece from Hollywood’s Golden Era, it is also one of the finest adaptations to be found. Directed by writer-director Robert Stevenson and adapted for film by Aldous Huxley and John Houseman, it’s got an automatic pedigree few films possess. Orson Welles turns in a tour de force performance as a charismatically brooding Mr. Rochester and Joan Fontaine is the picture of raw believability and loveliness as the titular Jane. Add in the talents of a young Margaret O’Brien, Agnes Moorehead, Elizabeth Taylor and Henry Daniell and you have a winner.
Stevenson’s adaptation is faithful to the Bronte classic but is also a wonderful example of filmmaking from the 1940s. The lighting and photography is wonderfully atmospheric. It is black and white photography in some of its best form. The photography evokes everything every young girl feels as she reads Ms. Bronte’s page turner for the first time.
For those unfamiliar with the source material, Jane Eyre is the tale of a lonely, young governess sent to work for the enigmatic and difficult Mr. Rochester. Jane’s gentle influence and utter honesty cracks Mr. Rochester’s hard façade and they fall in love. But before they are married, Rochester’s dark secret is revealed, threatening any chance of happiness together.
It’s a classic story that never goes out of style. Likewise this version of Jane Eyre is timeless. When film buffs are celebrating Welles’ bi-centennial, Jane Eyre will still be worth the watch.
