BEFORE: Just back from Maryland - two days on this road trip, without access to a DVD player, means I'm two movies behind in the count, and for the first time, I'm not planning to catch up. Losing a couple days here, and 5 days in July for Comic-Con will mean that I'll hit movie #1000 in mid-October rather than late September, and that will help me get rid of those last few horror films, and end my chain the way I want to. It's all part of the plan, and there's really no way to make a mistake, I just have to move a couple of things around.
I can still send Birthday SHOUT-out #40 to the late Joseph Cotten. I couldn't honor Orson Welles, director of this film, on his birthday because it coincided with George Clooney's. So let's get to the big man today. Linking from last night, Jimmy Stewart was in "Airport '77" with Joseph Cotten (last seen in "Tora! Tora! Tora!"), now wasn't that lucky?
THE PLOT: The spoiled young heir to the decaying Amberson fortune comes between his widowed mother and the man she has always loved.
AFTER: Thematically this links pretty well from "The Philadelphia Story", since it's about American high society and family affairs - though it's set a few years earlier, and doesn't paint such a rosy picture. And this picture's also got a fine reputation, nominated for 4 Oscars and generally considered a "classic", though I'm left wondering if that reputation might be unwarranted.
I'm a fan of "Citizen Kane", and at first it seems like there are similar themes in play here, with businessmen rising and falling due to their investments in the budding automobile industry. But Kane deserved his success, and George (Amberson) Minafer, is portrayed as a selfish brat. He doesn't even attempt to earn a living until late in the film - and then it seems like it's almost too late for his redemption.
A stronger theme here seems to be that of unrequited love - Joseph Cotten's Eugene Morgan tries to romance Isabel Amberson, but fails and has to watch her marry the much more stable (boring), Wilbur Minafer. Years later he returns (with a daughter, Lucy) to try again after Mr. Minafer dies. But George gets in the way, while trying himself to romance Lucy.
I'm sort of left with a feeling of "Is that all there is?" after watching this - a feeling that I missed something, or something was left out. I wondered if there was an implication that Eugene was really George's father, instead of Wilbur - or was I reading too much into things? A little research told me that Orson Welles lost control of the final edit of this film, and that 40 minutes were cut by the studio, and a happier ending was re-shot. One wonders what this film could have been if Welles had had final cut - it would be longer, sure, but would it also have been better?
Also starring Dolores Costello, Anne Baxter (last seen in "All About Eve"), Tim Holt (last seen in "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre"), and Agnes Moorehead.
RATING: 4 out of 10 headlights
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