The search for Orson Welles’ lost masterpiece

In 1942, Orson Welles, the renowned Hollywood figure, was at the peak of his career. Following the release of his acclaimed masterpiece Citizen Kane in 1941, Welles had secured a groundbreaking deal with studio RKO that granted him unprecedented final cut creative control. However, despite his creative prowess, Citizen Kane did not achieve great commercial success.

For his next project, The Magnificent Ambersons, RKO intervened and significantly altered Welles’ original vision by trimming nearly an hour of footage and reshooting the ending. This interference led to the loss of Welles’ original cut, considered by many as one of the great lost films in cinema history.

In a new documentary titled The Lost Print: The Making of Orson Welles’ The Magnificent Ambersons, filmmaker Josh Grossberg embarks on a quest to uncover the missing footage from Welles’ masterpiece. The documentary, funded by Turner Classic Movies, follows Grossberg’s global search for the 43 minutes that were removed from the film.

Welles, who was in Brazil at the time of RKO’s interference, was unable to prevent the studio from altering his work. Despite RKO’s order to destroy Welles’ original print, there is no concrete evidence to confirm its destruction. The search for the missing print is likened to finding the holy grail of cinema, as it holds significant cultural and historical value.

Grossberg emphasizes the importance of preserving cinematic heritage and highlights the need to safeguard films from being lost to time. The documentary serves as a reminder of the challenges faced in preserving cultural artifacts in the digital age.

The outcome of Grossberg’s search for the missing print remains a mystery, with viewers eagerly anticipating the revelations in the documentary. The fate of Welles’ original vision for The Magnificent Ambersons and the legacy of his work are central themes explored in this compelling narrative.