Orson Welles' ‘The Magnificent Ambersons': Update on the Search for Lost Footage ...

One of the great legends in movie history is the original, still unfound, cut of Orson Welles’ “The Magnificent Ambersons.” William Friedkin once called it the “holy grail of cinema.”

The story goes that during editing, RKO, with the help of filmmaker Robert Wise, re-edited the film from 131 minutes to 88 Minutes, adding a “happy ending” and destroying Welles’ original vision on the film.

“They destroyed Ambersons,” Welles would say in a BBC interview four decades later, “and the picture itself destroyed me; I didn’t get a job as a director for years afterwards.”

It all started after a test audience, filled with teenagers, hated the 131 minute cut. In panic, RKO took over editing and cut the movie down to 88 minutes.

More than two years after Welles left Brazil, RKO instructed Cinedia Studios in Rio de Janiero, which Welles used as a base in 1942, to junk the reels of The Magnificent Ambersons and Journey Into Fear left behind. Cinedia owner Adhemar Gonzaga, a cineaste and film collector, notified RKO he had followed their orders

Welles' original notes for how he wished the film to be cut have survived. The extra footage that was left on the cutting room floor has, supposedly, been destroyed. However, some don’t believe that it was, and the more I read about it, the more I’m convinced that it might still be out there, somewhere.

The story goes that Welles received a print of ‘Ambersons’ for him to edit in Brazil while shooting the ill-fated “It’s All True”.  According to RKO memos, two groupings of ‘Ambersons’ footage (14 reels and another 10), were shipped to Brazil so Welles could finish editing on the film.  

Here’s where it gets interesting. In the ‘90s, Grossberg met Michel do Esprito Santo, an archivist and film collector, who claimed to have seen a Welles cut of ‘Ambersons’ at Cinedia. The Brazillian archivist searched for it later, but it was gone — possibly trashed or sold to a private collector.

Thus began filmmaker Joshua Grossberg’s obsessive search for the lost cut. He went through archives, interviewed collectors and was led to various different areas. There have been hints and clues that Welles’ original cut does, in fact, exist. Many years ago, Grossberg and his team searched through the vast landscapes of Brazil, for almost two months, to find a copy of the lost cut of Welles’ film. Nothing materialized.

Last year, there was reporting that Grossberg had returned to Brazil. In fact, he’s also making a documentary about his expedition for the BBC. If a copy of the 131-minute cut of “The Magnificent Ambersons,” somehow, still exists, the print would likely be in that country.

We now have an update, from Grossberg himself, providing a carefully worded update to Wellesnet …

We know folks are eager to learn of the outcome of our investigation into the legendary lost print of Orson Welles’ The Magnificent Ambersons. Here’s the good news: The Lost Print team is still tracking down more leads while we conduct additional interviews and continue editing our long-awaited documentary. The bad news is we aren’t ready to disclose anything… yet.

Grossberg revealed the researchers have received “some tantalizing inquiries from Welles fans, who believe they have information on the fate of the print – and in one particularly wild case – even claimed to have seen it when they were a child!”

Filmmaker Brian Rose told The Guardian that “The few who saw Welles’ original version believed it was the greatest film they had ever seen.” The 88-minute cut of ‘Magnificent Ambersons’ is still a wonderful film, but every time I watch it there’s that nagging feeling of what could have been. The film does feel like an incomplete vision.

The truncated version of the film was included in Sight and Sound's 1972 list of the top 10 greatest films ever made, and again in the 1982 list. It placed 81st in the 2012 poll. It did not make the top 100 in 2022’s revamped edition.