1942
Directed by Orson Welles
I am sitting at my desk in my pajamas with a hot chocolate at 7:45 am. I don't have to be out the door until around 9:55 so life is good right now. Last night, I watched this movie with my dad and sister and for once, I didn't bring a movie to a social event that made everyone cringe (here's looking at you Blazing Saddles).
This is officially my favorite Orson Welles movie of all time; I have seen around four of them and had been kind of bored by the whole experience. This film is...for lack of a better word, magnificent. This movie is mostly about George and his mom, Isabel Minafer. Isabel is in love with Eugene Morgan and George is in love with his daughter. George is a character that is exactly like the little boy in Captains Courageous (and for some reason in one scene he is wearing a wig; no explanation). Eventually, their pride is their downfall (insert typical message about the American dream from Orson Welles). Everyone bitches about the ending because it was tacked on by the studio and comes off at a bit cheesy. Still, the movie is worth it.
I loved this film because there are genuinely funny and touching parts. You could tell that Orson Welles was continuing to try out different techniques and it is fun to watch because of it. It is a real shame that Citizen Kane overshadows this movie so much; I think it is ten times more entertaining. It is also a shame that this movie is kind of hard to find; you will have to buy it off Amazon.
RATING: ****-
Interesting Facts:
RKO removed fifty minutes of the original ending and added a happy ending while Welles was out of the country.
RKO made a happy ending because this film was released shortly after Pearl Harbor and no one wanted to see a sad movie.
Welles suspected that the author of The Magnificent Ambersons had based the character of George on himself. Ouch.
All the credits were narrated by Orson Welles at the end. It was kind of weird.
Clip:
I totally agree with this. I much prefer this film to Citizen Kane (but I don't hate Citizen Kane as much as you do!). I also have a major crush on Joseph Cotton.
ReplyDeleteGood call with the boy from Captains Courageous. God that kid was annoying!
I don't think anyway hates it as much as I do haha. I just had high expectations...from a technical standpoint it was very impressive.
DeleteWell, I prefer Kane... though there is just no way I can dislike a movie with Joseph Cotten. The fact that I remember very little of it is not a good sign. Interesting anecdotes though. This happened a lot to Welles.
ReplyDeleteI agree. I love him.
DeleteI just watched this..it didn't really work for me. The George character...he was just evil, what he did to his mother...eurgh...makes me sick. I can see it was well made/acted but I hated the story. Most of my favourite films have characters with a distinct lack of morals but this guy really got under my skin and put me in a bad mood (so very well played Tim Holt)!
ReplyDeleteOne thing I don't understand...after they butchered poor old Orson's film when he was packed off to Brazil and then filmed this supposed happy ending...how is the ending happy? This kid basically ruins 2 people's lives and the only thing that happens to him is he gets 2 broken legs and then there's the weird tagged on scene at the end where Joseph Cotten is walking down the corridor with the aunt saying how George wanted his forgiveness and was like a different person now and all that an then it ends. Was that meant to be happy? I've even rewatched the last 15 minutes in case I missed something. I guess my capacity for forgiveness is way lower than Joseph Cottens' haha!
The thing I loved about this film is the trivia for sure...there's always so much drama with Orson Welles isn't there.
As a sidenote I watched Citizen Kane for the first time a few months ago...I had no idea how it would be as you never really know with these supposed masterpieces but I seriously loved it and thought it deserves it's acclaim. So I think it overshadows this film for good reason as it's just on another level in my opinion...
Yeah George could definitely be ranked on most annoying characters in movies...I think I could stand it because everyone hated him. I guess it's hard not to forgive someone who has two broken legs...
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