Missing footage in the Ambersons trailer

[ChristopherBanks]

I've just taken a look at the screen captures on the "Ambersons" page. That snippet from the original ending looks even scarier than I imagined. It's so dark, with Eugene's huge shadow (cruelly representing his status and stature in this new, dark world) looming over the wall behind Fanny who is sitting crumpled in a chair...

...and all we have left is that bloody hospital.

[Jeff Wilson]

It may look darker than it actually is because the quality of the trailer is pretty rough, much rougher than the film print they used. So don't go by that for a solid depiction of the scene. Still, it is appalling to see the trailer and catch that glimpse and know that it's all that's left.

[aggie]

er which Ambersons page are the screen captures of deleted scenes on? not the Lightfoot? it's good there are enough now for it to be confusing...

[Jeff Wilson]

The very last image on this page is the one:

Ambersons French DVD

[aggie]

Thanks! fantastically interesting. one of 48 surviving frames...

[jaime marzol]

there is also missing footage in the TOUCH OF EVIL trailer, and in THE TRIAL trailer, and probably other films too. i read they made the trailer before the movie was finished.

i think the people who made the trailers sometimes had no idea how to approach some films to sell them. many times i've seen a trailer after knowing the film for years and they don't jive.

[ChristopherBanks]

How does the Ambersons trailer sell the film?

[mteal]

Basically, the trailer tries to sell it as a soap opera. It plays up the scandal part of the film, as George tries to make people "take back what they're saying about his mother, that high-and-mighty Amberson girl who fell in love once too often". Ray Collins narrated the trailer and describes his character, Jack, as "the black sheep of the Amberson family", which I really don't think his character comes across as in the film. There is one interesting line, though, when Collins describes the Ambersons as having "all the privileges of royalty, but with none of it's responsibilities".

[Narshty]

There is TONS of deleted footage in the Ambersons trailer.

Apart from the shot of Joseph Cotten and Agnes Moorehead in the lost boarding-house finale I noticed:

- a medium close-up of Fanny looking bitterly at the ground during the boarding house scene

- a low angle shot of Eugene as he leaves the house

- a different shot of George looking down at the window, just like before he refuses Eugene entry into the house, except there's no ivy or anything there, and it appears to be at night

- a different shot of Isabel standing at the window, the same as the shot straight after Eugene falls on the bass viol, except she's smiling lovingly down below

- a long shot of Eugene and Isabel under the tree talking about the future

- a shot of George looking at his mother concerned as he leaves her bedroom, while she stares catatonically at the left side of the screen

Whether this is footage from the 131-minute cut, or simply outtakes and discarded scenes is unclear, but there's a hell of a lot more footage than just two seconds in there.

[Obssessed_with_Orson]

i can't comment on this item, because i have no idea what you guys are talking about.

i just don't know what the trailer is.

behind the scenes? pictures?

i've seen movies. i haven't studied them that close yet.

bye now!

[Jaime N. Christley]

The trailer they're referring to is on the French DVD of The Magnificent Ambersons.

Just out of curiosity, why do you go to the effort to create a post that says you don't have anything to say?

[Obssessed_with_Orson]

i have nothing to say because i have no idea what to say of a subject i know nothing about.

so, i post, ask, and learn

if you are referring to others, i made a mistakes, and had to say something rather than nothing.

bye now!

[jaime marzol]

..........

i haven't seen the french dvd so i have nothing to say also.

[mteal]

Natalie and Jaime,
Lol, you two. Jaime, the Amberson trailer should be on the first tape I sent you about a year and a half ago, right after the Houseman South Bank Show. I got it off Turner's latest VHS edition of Ambersons.

Narshty,
I wouldn't say there's "tons" of missing Ambersons footage, but there are a few fascinating snippets, including two critical ones from the boardinghouse scene. The first is a closeup of Fanny looking impatiently off to the left. This comes right after Eugene has gotten up to turn off the skipping comic record. I believe the closeup of Fanny in the trailer was accompanied by the line, "Think they'll get married, after all?", apparently referring to George and Lucy, but from the expression on her face, possibly meaning herself and Eugene as well.

The second bit shows Eugene walking in front of Fanny as his shadow passes across her. I believe this was accompanied by the climactic line, "You know, Fanny, I wouldn't tell this to anyone but you..."

I posted a description of the boardinghouse ending awhile ago, in one of the other threads, I forget which.

The bit of George leaving Isabel's bedroom comes right after he has thrown Eugene's letter into the fire and demanded to know what kind of response Isabel was going to make to such an insulting letter. It was accompanied by the George's line "If he ever set foot in this house again...I can't speak of it". Isabel looks straight ahead tearfully, not catatonically.

[jaime marzol]

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

mtea;:
have the tape, will check it out.


after the movie that the audience is supposed to have seen, that comic record is devestating. is this a real 2-black crows show? radio show? does any one have it?