Robert L. Carringer
The Magnificent Ambersons
A Reconstruction
$55.00, £37.95 hardcover
9780520078574
Available Now
318 pages,
April 1993, Available worldwide
April 1993, Available worldwide
Orson Welles considered The Magnificent Ambersons the crucial turning point in his career. He said, "They destroyed Ambersons and it destroyed 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 of Ambersons, 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 spellbinding—and no doubt controversial—book will be eagerly welcomed by film historians and enthusiasts.
Now film scholar Robert Carringer has reconstructed Welles's own version of Ambersons, 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 spellbinding—and no doubt controversial—book will be eagerly welcomed by film historians and enthusiasts.
"Since there is no hope of ever restoring the film itself, Robert L. Carringer has come up with the best approximation. . . . Carringer has performed an important service."—Los Angeles Reader
"An indispensable reference work. . . . Anyone with a serious interest in movies will want to have it."—James Naremore, author of Acting in the Cinema
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