Can We Talk 2

The Magnificent Ambersons

         I finally saw this movie from 1942 by Orson Welles. It was black and white. He narrated a lot of it. Between scenes, the screen was totally black making it feel more like a play with scene changes. It starred Joseph Cotton, Agnes Morehead (as the second female), and Tim Holt.

         Holt was a B western actor, who had first appeared as a child actor in a silent film with his father, Jack Holt. He preferred westerns. Welles took a chance on him, and it paid off. He and Morehead were both nominated for Oscars (but lost). He was nothing like his western parts. He also appeared in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre with Humphrey Bogart and Walter Huston in 1948. Holt was the good looking young one, the good guy.He also played a major role with Henry Fonda in My Darling Clementine. Despite being successful in these films, he always returned to his B westerns. He never achieved major stardom, it seems, by choice.

         The Welles film was artsy, sophisticated, and dark. Nobody found happiness. It was set in America, but had that feel of an English play or story about manners, appearances. You might say Karma won in the end, but nobody felt good about it.