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Ambersons is a one-man picture. Welles wrote, produced and directed it. Hollywood, which fears and hates the heavy-faced, heavily talented youngster, gave much of the credit for Kane to Cameraman Gregg Toland, who photographed it. Stanley Cortez photographed Ambersons, and it has all of Kane's rich technique. Hollywood is now confronted with the painful necessity of admitting that Outsider Orson Welles is its most important and exciting cinemaestro.
The Gate. Due back from Brazil next week, Orson Welles faced a magnificent mess. He had been away three months, shooting his last picture (It's All True) for RKO. In his absence President George Schaefer, his sponsor and champion, had resigned under fire. Enemy forces, led by studio Production Chief Charles Koerner, moved in and kicked Welles's Mercury Productions staff off the lot on the pretext of making room for a Tarzan picture production unit. RKO executives beamed. A spanking is an inspiriting thing. Last week they rubbed it in by premiering The Magnificent Ambersons at two local movie houses on a double bill with a Lupe Velez screechie.
From a studio where good pictures have been scarcer than United Nations victories, these goings-on were high low comedy. Kane has not even had its chance to earn its cost ($842,000), because it has yet to be booked by a major chain distributor. Hollywood knuckled under to old William Randolph Hearst's contention that the life of Citizen Kane has too obvious resemblances to the life of Citizen Hearst. Most movie-goers have never been given a chance to see Kane.
Whether many will get a chance to see The Magnificent Ambersons is questionable. RKO claims that it has more prestige than box-office value.
Welles's third picture (Journey Into Fear) has been seized by RKO forces for cutting without the assistance of members of his staff. Welles has threatened to sue if the picture is released without his approval. The fate of his fourth picture, which he has been making in cooperation with Nelson Rockefeller's Inter-American Affairs Committee, is undecided.
Orson Welles, apparently unfazed by RKO's coup, is already armed with an offer from another Hollywood studio, and he and his Mercury unit are planning to return to radio next fall. Cooed Welles, when his outraged publicity head informed him by telephone of Production Chief Koerner's ouster: "Don't get excited. We're just passing a rough Koerner on our way to immortality."