The Magnificent Ambersons A Reconstruction [Hardcover]

Orson Welles consideredThe Magnificent Ambersonsthe crucial turning point in his career. He said, TheydestroyedAmbersonsanditdestroyed me. In 1942, while Welles was away, RKO Studios drastically recut the completed film. None of that deleted footage is known to survive.

Now film scholar Robert Carringer has reconstructed Welles's own version ofAmbersons, using all available surviving evidence including rare studio documents and the recollections of Welles himself and other original participants in the film.

Carringer reaches startling conclusions about where the responsibility for the film's undoing ultimately lies. His spellbindingand no doubt controversialbook will be eagerly welcomed by film historians and enthusiasts.

Robert L. Carringeris Professor of English and Film at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and author ofThe Making of Citizen Kane(California, 1985).

An indispensable reference work. . . . Anyone with a serious interest in movies will want to have it. James Naremore, author ofActing in the Cinema