A Few Things Needed For Ambersons

[ChristopherBanks]

Restoring as much of Hermann's work as possible is a very high priority.

I find this aspect of the project most exciting - I have been trying, unsuccessfully, to get a hold of a recording of this. I saw one in Borders once and I'm kicking myself for not grabbing it, it inevitably had vanished on my next visit.

[mteal]

I've special-ordered many obscure CDs from Borders, they have a pretty huge catalog. Might be worth a shot.

The BFI book on Ambersons makes the astute observation that Hermann's score was criticized by the studio for being "sombre", as if sombreness were, in and of itself, a negative trait. Do people that go to a concert hall to hear a symphony by Gustav Mahler complain that it's too sombre? Well, yeah, I'm sure some do. Most don't, because they are able to accept that kind of range, depth, and complexity of emotion. I guess things are different in movie theatres, although the mutilation of TMA was done after Hollywood had been pretty much coopted for the war effort, so that's a huge factor too. The whole story is very complicated, but it really is in many ways the central story in Orson Welles' career.

Jaime,
I think RKO got alot of use out of that Amberson staircase. That may have been how Welles persuaded them to let him build it in the first place. Capra's It's A Wonderful Life uses some house facades that I think may be from Ambersons too.

[Harvey Chartrand]

Whatever happened to those sets?
They should have been used in horror films. I recall a 1965 episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour that used Ambersons-like sets. The title was 'An Unlocked Window', with Dana Wynter, John Kerr and the female impersonator T.C. Jones.
Other films from the 1890s: Hello Dolly and The Matchmaker.

[Harvey Chartrand]

Come to think of it, I believe that Stanley Cortez was the director of photography on that Hitchcock episode with the Ambersons 'look'.

[mteal]

Thanks for the tip on the Hitchcock show, Harvey, I'll watch for it. I like Dana Wynter in CURSE OF THE DEMON, good creepy flick. Cortez was also DP for Laughton on the great NIGHT OF THE HUNTER. HELLO DOLLY? Hmm, interesting.

[Cole]

Just for your information (in case you haven't heard), Rick Schmidlin is apparently working on another movie restoration using still photographs. It's a horror movie from 1927 entitled "London after Midnight" starring Lon Chaney Sr. Turner Classic Movies hired him to do it, and it's expected to be out later this fall. Here's a blurb from an article in Hollywood Reporter dated July 19th:

"Schmidlin will re-create a facsimile of [London after Midnight] by using 200 original photograph stills of the film that were discovered along with the film's original continuity script in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' archives. Schmidlin will reshoot those black-and-white still photographs by employing motion control technology to create a replica of the film."

It would certainly be nice if TCM and Schmidlin got together to put out a polished restoration attempt with Ambersons. Just to be able to hear some of the lost Herrmann score incorporated into the film would be a treat. Unless and until then, I'm looking forward to the completion of the Marzol/Mteal restoration.

[ChristopherBanks]

It would be great, but Rick has said on a number of occasions that it wouldn't be worth doing as the stills format doesn't work well for the talkies. Perhaps it would be too scholarly a project for a wider audience - the mixed success of the "Lost Horizon" restoration won't exactly be adding to a groundswell of support either.

[Jeff Wilson]

That's interesting about London After Midnight, which is one of the holy grails of cinema, at least among horror buffs. I've seen the photo of Chaney in makeup for that film, with a mouthful of pointy teeth, and can only imagine what his performance must have been, judging from the macabre photo. I'll be eager to see how it turns out, although 200 stills doesn't seem like much to work with.

[jaime marzol]

..............

that's tremendous news about LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT. chaney was such a pioneer, his work on HE WHO GETS SLAPPED, and UNKNOWN are incredible. would be great to see a restored LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT.

ON AMBERSONS:
everyone has said it can't be done, can't be restored. schmidlin said it, the guy i spoke to years ago at voyager, have forgotten his name, he's responsible for the welles stuff they do, he said it can't be done. when i slashed it together years ago i was knocked out by the results.

since this is a self financed project, i pray that train of though continues to permeate the minds of those who can subsidise the project.

guys like schmidlin, and herman g. weinberg, that do restorations, are no stupid enough to embark on a restoration out of their own pocket, for no money, with no deal upfront. they need cash to work. mteal and me are stupid enough, and we are doing it.

harvey has thrown some good suggestions our way where to shop this thing when it's ready to show. i think with a bit of luck by the end of this year we will be there.

THE TOUCH OF EVIL BOOK
we talked about this for a while then it sort of dissappeared. this it what happened:

i corrected a lot of stuff that schmidlin didn't like the first time i sent it to him. after the corrections, before resubmiting it to schmidlin, and i was also sending a copy to myron meisel, and val de vargas, who i want to include in the writing credits, i sent it to a friend that teaches film at a university in germany, for him to trouble shoot it before i sent it to these prospectives. meisel, and de vargas were very receptive to the book when i spoke to them about 2 years ago.

below i posted what my friend wrote back. i suppose it will be 5 or 6 months before it's ready to send out again.

Sunday, June 30, 2002

Jaime:

I’ve looked through your manuscript several times, getting my thoughts together. Sorry it took so long, but I wanted to study it as fully as it deserved. Here are my opinions, for whatever they’re worth.

Positive:

1. The graphics are exceptional. You have illustrated all your points with very clear examples from the film, many of which were quite a revelation to me (who has seen Touch of Evil at least a dozen times!). I particularly like the shots that illustrate the use of shadows, and the use of characters’ bodies as “screens” on which shadows are projected. I also think that this hard work you’ve done will be the best argument in favor of getting the book published, and past any objections put up by Universal and/or the Welles estate.

2. You show a breadth of knowledge about the film, and about Welles’ other films. This allows you to analyze the film in an intelligent, thoughtful way; this is clear in virtually all of your comments. You are also able to discuss Welles’ technique due to this grounding in his other works. At the same time, you don’t fall into the trap of being didactic or esoteric-your comments are always interesting without being too “inside” for a general audience.

3. You’ve drawn on a lot of source material, in addition to the film itself. The quotes from the Welles memos are particularly good (I didn’t even know they existed!), as are the comments by other writers and critics. Of course, this just leads to more potential headaches when it comes to clearing this material for publication, but that’s your problem!

Less Positive:

1. There are numerous spelling and grammar mistakes in the pages I received. Of course, it’s possible that you just didn’t get a chance to run it through a spell-checker first, and that this has already been corrected. But there are some cases where you are using words that don’t exist (e.g., “analyzation” rather than the correct “analysis”), or the mis-spellings of names (e.g., it’s “Kristin” Thompson who writes/lives with David Bordwell, not “Christin”). You even write Heston’s name as “Charleton” instead of the correct “Charlton.” (By the way, according to the IMDB, Heston was paid 7.5% of the gross for Touch of Evil-I guess he lost money, eh?)

2. Although I agree with your analysis of the sexual elements of the film (e.g., Susan’s dangerous attraction to Mexicans), I would advise you to tone down your commentary on it. As written now, it comes across as a bit too smarmy and leering, and contrasts with the tone of the rest of the writing.

3. The most serious problem with what you sent me is its form. It is really difficult to follow, and I think that separating out the Welles memo quotes, citations from other authors, excerpts from the screenplay, and your own analysis is the problem in a nutshell. Now, maybe this is not the final form you have in mind for the book, but rather a “collage” you’ve assembled for a rough draft. I hope so, because the information is just too scattered the way it is now. I think you have to come up with an actual traditional narrative, using the citations as quoted material in the body of your own writing. The problem that this presents, however, is incorporating all of the graphics over what will be several pages of text. Obviously, you will have to wait until the final draft is done, and then place the graphics at the top or bottom of the page in which it is most appropriate to the text.

All in all, a very impressive. I think it will appeal to the film buff more than the general public, but you certainly must have assumed that yourself before taking this on. I still fear that rights clearances will be your undoing, making this a quixotic labor of love, but I sincerely hope you prove me wrong in this. If there is anything I can do to help, just let me know, and I hope that the small reservations I expressed above aren’t taken the wrong way.

Most of all, thanks for giving me to opportunity to see even this little bit! I hope I can see more in the near future.

All the best,

Brad

[jaime marzol]

...............

i was aware of the structure problem. at certain spots it confused me. but it's one of those things that some one has to point out before it hits home. once it was pointed out, immediately i knew the solution. now i just have to apply it, which means ripping everything apart, and reassembling it.

the elements that brad objected to are the same elements that schmidlin objected to. but i'm still not convinced that they don't belong. i'm like the lawyer in CAPE FEAR that has to decide whether to bury the evidence and bury the robert deniro character, or present the ugly evidence and let him walk.

another friend suggested seperating the objectionable elements from the elements that appeal to the cineasts, so the book has 2 paths, and the reader can pick which path he/she wants to follow.

who knows how it will end up, only time will tell.

[Store Hadji]

Hey Jaime, are you going to use any of the scenes from the disappointing A&E Ambersons? It seems you could turn them to black and white and maybe they wouldn't look too far out of whack. And what of the radio version, is there any missing narration or dialogue in there? And weren't the Amberson house sets so expensive that RKO reused them for another film, the original Cat People was it? Sounds like your making a lot of headway. Did you find the CD of the complete original Herrmann score from the film? I think it was with Joel McNeely and some Scotsmen, really, but the original score.

[jaime marzol]

we tried to use the audio from the new FOTA scene, paired with pictures and storyboards of the welles FOTE scene. the kids in the new version were like 10 years old, so i figured i could pitch down the sound to make them sound older, which would normally work, but in the new FOTA the clubroom was like a cathedral and had this awfull echo, so it didn't jive.

the radio ambersons has some usable stuff, but i have a problem there also. mteal reading the scenes is the only continuity the recreations have. the visuals are a patch work of pictures, screen captures, storyboards, chunks of other films. like a quilt pieced together from tiny pieces. having one voice over all this patchwork sort of brings it together. if i use radio ambersons sound bytes it might take way from the only thread we have holding it all together.

by the way, i've heard people whine about the radio ambersons. i think the radio ambersons is excellent. it's one of my favorite mercury shows. walter huston was great in it. it's interesting how much john huston sounded like walter huston, the nuances of their speech paterns. interesting because john didn't grow up around walter.

i didn't know about this cd with original score. i just assumed that it was herrmann's score. mteal is the historian, and music track expert on the project, i'll find out which we have.

[jaime marzol]

...............

where we are at now:
the major did the stable scene and it's on it's way in the mail.

now we will do the sleigh scene till the iris out. at that point we will go back to the begining and redo everthing so it's showable.

when we strated out i just did the scenes off the cuff as i went along, none of it was planned out because i was still learning the software, i was using the features that i knew how to use at the time, and we had less materials to work with than we have now.

it's surprising to me that the few who have seen the reconstruction as-is, saw possibilities in it. it just proves what a horriible hack job they did on the film.

[Store Hadji]

I saw the complete Ambersons soundtrack on CD a few years ago, containing music cut from the film. It exists and may be useful.

Was the Amberson mansion set used in the 1942 Cat People? If so, any shots to be lifted, say, for the last walk around the mansion?

Yes, much hope for Mom's Kitchen cut.

I once had the idea, after the first TV showing of Rocky Horror, that Ambersons could be shown every Friday at midnight in a theatre, and the film would be repeatedly stopped to allow the fans who clambered aboard the stage to recite and act the missing narration and scenes. This evolved from the idea of the audience just yelling the dialogue from their seats, as in Rocky. By extension, I can picture a Too Much Johnson, a proper stage show with cast and sets and everything, performing all of Welles' lost scenes, alternating with the existing footage from the RKO release. Call it TOO LITTLE AMBERSONS.

[jaime marzol]

............
store hadji, that a tremendous idea for a traveling troup of actors. like a repritory company. i'd be right there in line with cash in hand.