Comeuppance

The Magnificent Ambersons

(1942)

Huh! This seems to be still unavailable in a Region 1 DVD, certainly one of the half-dozen best American features of which that's true. Notoriously taken away from Welles and grotesquely (to his mind) recut, but it's hard to imagine how much better it could be than it is, apart from the final sequence--the comeuppance sequence--which is far too abrupt and in its abruptness betrays a sentimentality that I suspect was far more digestible in Welles's cut.

Tim Holt, as the snotty George Amberson Minafer, gives the performance of his life--which is not high praise, coming from me, but Welles coaxed perfection from him. One of the first roles for Anne Baxter, not yet 20.