The Magnificent Ambersons

The Ambersons live a life of almost royal opulence

Orson Welles, 1942, bw (9.2*)
Welles' first film after Citizen Kane was his adaptation of the Booth Tarkington novel about the decline of an aristocratic midwestern American family, one who prized traditional values and their own social position above change, tolerance, and open-mindedness.

Joseph Cotten plays a family friend, a builder of early motor cars, often criticized by the Amberson patriarch as smoky, noisy nuisances, and something "that will never replace the horse". As a modernist, and someone from the wrong side of the tracks, he is never totally accepted as an equal to the Ambersons. Dolores Costello is an Amberson who admires Cotten and his ingenuity, and who falls in love with him, and of course has to defend him and progress in the family debates. Terrific Oscar-winning actress Anne Baxter plays his daughter, but doesn't have a lot of acting to do here (check her out in The Razor's Edge and All About Eve).

Agnes Moorehead shines as a slightly psychotic member of the Amberson clan, who keep to themselves enough that their huge Victorian mansion becomes more like a prison or asylum as they rarely mingle with the masses of their town. Tim Holt is an Ambersons' son and heir who seems to worry more about what people think than anything else.

The film is a little dark and moody, yet remains one of the enduring cinema portraits of turn-of-the-century American life and values, and a searing critique of those who perpetuate class differences to the point of prejudice. Cinematographer Stanley Cortez must be given some credit for the beautifully classic black-and-white look of the film.

Welles did not play a part in this film, preferring to remain behind the scenes. Author Tarkington was a family friend of Welles' growing up, so this is an author whose work and intent he knew personally. It's said that the studio butchered his final cut, yet it remains a classic American film, almost as revered as Citizen Kane, and certainly one of the finest adaptations from literature put on film. Nominated for four Oscars, including Cortez' cinematography, Moorehead's performance, best picture, and the terrific art direction, but it won none.

Anne Baxter and Joseph Cotten ride in his own invention

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Touch of Evil

Orson Welles, 1958, bw (8.3*)

Whether you love Welles or not, you have to admit that this is one unique and bizarre crime film. True to classic noir, this one also has its seminal scenes at night, in fact most of the action is in the dark, like the souls of many in this film. It's a dark and almost dreary film, but that's true of much of classic noir.

Charlton Heston is Mike Vargas, a Mexican narcotics officer, whose honeymoon to Janet Leigh is interrupted by a murder in a border town that happens after someone places a bomb in the trunk of a car on the Mexican side of the border that then drives back across, while on the same street. Vargas is soon dealing with the police chief on the U.S. side, a long-time corrupted Hank Quinlan, to whom his law is 'the law', played with cynical gusto by Orson Welles. Quinlan is all too ready to convict an innocent Mexican-American, but Vargas begins probing into his checkered past.

Meanwhile his wife Susie (Leigh) is not only out of danger at a seedy motel, but right in the middle; this part is inexplicably broken up by a sudden comic appearance by Dennis Weaver as the dumbfounded but pruriently interested hotel clerk, in one of the more bizarre performances in cinema history.

This examines racism along the Mexican border as well as police corruption, and does it in classic film noir dark palette and lighting, with hardly a character you'd want to know personally, even Heston's, for he wouldn't last long in the real world by diving into the fire. More than a clash of individual personalities and ethics, it becomes an inter-racial and cross-cultural statement on mutual cooperation and understanding.

Those interested in Welles should by all means see Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons. Touch of Evil is No. 125 on the IMDB 250, and is No. 30 on our compendium of all film polls - so it's obviously ranked much higher by critics than the public.

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Citizen Kane

Orson Welles, 1941, bw (9.0*)

AFI and Time Mag Top 100

What many consider the best American movie or even overall best film ever made has certainly withstood the test of time, though its merits may be overrated by today's standards.

Orson Welle's film achieved acclaim for some innovations that aren't that important, such as the first film to show ceilings, thus proving they either weren't sets, or that the sets were more complete. What's even better is the film's pace, the fact that Orson Welles was only 26 at the time, and that it attacked a living person's undue influence, newspaper baron William Randolph Hurst, at a time when he was still alive and powerful enough to try to quash the picture. Hurst is noted for creating the Spanish-American war to sell papers, also for paying Emelio Zapata to "fight a revolution" for the same reason, he even funded Zapata's uprising.

Overall, the film can be depressing and pessimistic, but that doesn't make it less true as some of the more evil, self-centered people alive have achieved great wealth and influence over "the masses" by controlling the media. One Oscar, for Welles' screenplay, which many critics consider Oscar's biggest oversight, as many think the film and Welles should have have won.

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