Robert Wise - Last Interview on Ambersons

[mteal]

Hate to beat the Ambersons drum senseless, but people keep coming up with this good stuff lately. This Mike Thomas blog entry, found at the Wellesnet Facebook page, could prove to be a significant document down the line:

http://mtatthemovies.blogspot.com/2009/ ... rsons.html

[Roger Ryan]

Wise demonstrates in this interview that his memory was pretty good even as certain events start to combine in his mind (considering these events happened within weeks of each other 60-some years earlier, that's no surprise). I can't say I disagree with his viewpoint, with the exception that I definitely think Welles captured the heart and soul of the novel on film, much more so than he did with the radio play.

The story of how Wise ended up overseeing the final takes on the Major's fireside reverie is a good one and demonstrates how difficult it can be to access who did what.

[mteal]

Yes, january 1942 sounds like it was a mad scramble to finish the film. It would be interesting to have a list of all the scenes that were shot during this time. The fact that the factory scene was shot right after the Pearl Harbor bombing was something I didn't know before.