The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)

The Magnificent Ambersons is the original film to be taken from a director and re-cut by the studio- something that every auteur fears and every cineasté protests. The thing is, it became apparent early on that we would never see Ambersons- the way Orson intended and frankly, everybody really liked the Magnificent Ambersons they saw anyway, though that would always be followed directly by 'It ain't no Citizen Kane though... '
I've gotten a lot more open to movies pre-colour (anything before the 60's) since I was younger but the idea of films in b&w was an anathema to me. They were so stale and boring! and obviously they're not as spectacular as present day fare but i was obviously watching the wrong movies. They couldn't depend on budgets the size of Papua New Guinea's gross national profit, so they had to depend writing!  Scripts so tight you could bounce a shiny penny on.
I'm trying to imply that Ambersons is well written but it's pretty visually striking consider the time too... It ain't no Citizen Kane though.
It's the story of a young man, who basically takes offense to the man who came close to marrying his mother. Which would be perfectly understandable, except this boy is a horrible curr and the old man is Joseph Cotton.
Think about Citizen Kane. Now think about Joseph Cotton. Yeah, he's pretty awesome isn't he. In this he's the epitome of charm and pleasantness, he's like a hangout George Clooney. How can you complete with that?
There's a particularly perfect taste of what's going come in this film at the start, when someone old crow assertains that this boy will be trouble because the parents don't really love each other and therefore, they'll focus their love on him and he'll become this spoilt monster. I love that sort of tenuous logic; it's such a strange thing to say!
As the film goes on, it reminds you that you can make a drama with light snappy dialogue. I bet Arron Sorkin bloody loves this film.
This film has all that quick-fire, cross talking stuff, they don't do anymore. At least, not on this standard and Welles had his Mercury rep company and he was on fire at this point.
So no- it's not as ambitious as Kane but it's a solid piece of work especially a sophomore effort. A great introduction to older movies for those who claim not to like them.

I watched The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) on BBC IPlayer.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Ishtar (1987)...