Alec Baldwin, William Friedkin join hunt for lost 'Magnificent Ambersons' print

By RAY KELLY

Emmy Award winner Alec Baldwin is joining filmmaker Joshua Grossberg’s hunt for the lost, longer version of Orson Welles’ The Magnificent Ambersons as an executive producer.

In addition, Academy Award winning director William Friedkin (The French Connection, The Exorcist) will serve as an advisor on The Lost Print: The Making of Orson Welles’ The Magnificent Ambersons.

Baldwin will executive produce, along with Oscar nominated filmmaker Mark Mori and his Single Spark Pictures. The documentary will follow Grossberg’s 25-year odyssey to find the longer cut of Welles’ follow up to Citizen Kane. It will also delve into Welles ouster from RKO Pictures, a critical turning point in the maverick filmmaker’s career.

“As someone who loves classic cinema and is an admirer of Welles’ work, the story of the making of The Magnificent Ambersons is a compelling and tragic tale,” Baldwin said in a statement. “However, the fact that there’s still a chance to restore Orson’s original vision to the big screen is reason enough to make this documentary. I’m delighted to join Josh and the Lost Print team to celebrate one of Welles’ most personal films, and if all goes well, find the print.”

The focus of Grossberg’s quest is 24 reels of Ambersons footage, including a 131-minute edit, that was sent to Welles in Rio de Janeiro — only to disappear after RKO Pictures cut 43 minutes from the movie and tacked on a happy ending against the director’s wishes.

Grossberg, who is set to travel to Brazil to search for the reels in the fall, is thrilled to have Baldwin and Friedkin on board.

“Alec Baldwin’s deep appreciation of Hollywood’s golden age and the artists who worked within the studio system makes him the perfect partner to shine a spotlight on Welles’ cut of Ambersons, which for the lucky few who saw it, said it was better than Citizen Kane,” Grossberg said. “I’m thrilled to have Alec on board this important documentary, which also calls vital attention to the need of preserving our film heritage.”

He noted Friedkin’s deep appreciation of Kane and Ambersons and his attempt decades ago to see if any of the missing elements were still in California.

The negative with the deleted scenes was reportedly incinerated in December 1942 for its nitrate content.

More than two years after Welles left Brazil, RKO instructed the Rio film studio Cinedia, which Welles had used as a base in 1942, to junk the reels of The Magnificent Ambersons and Jouney Into Fear. Cinedia owner Adhemar Gonzaga, a cineaste and film collector, notified RKO he had complied with their wishes. However, Grossberg and others suspect he did not not destroy the footage.

During one of his trips to Brazil a quarter of a century ago, Grossberg met an archivist who worked at Cinedia in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He claimed to have seen a Welles print in a can, though he could not confirm it was The Magnificent Ambersons. He searched for it later, but it was gone — possibly trashed or taken by a private collector.

Grossberg has identified four private collectors, who bought films from the Cinedia warehouses.

The footage — if it still exists — may be in the hands of relatives of a now deceased collector, who are unaware of the significance of what is on those reels, he said

Turner Classic Movies is sponsoring Grossberg’s return expedition to Brazil this fall to follow up on the substantial evidence he has procured over the past 25 years regarding the lost print’s whereabouts. Production on the documentary will commence on that trip and continue with shoots in Los Angeles, Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan.