One of the great mysteries of American cinema: Why The Magnificent Ambersons?

One of the great mysteries of American cinema is why Orson Welles chose The Magnificent Ambersons, a very pedestrian best-selling novel of his day, as the source for his much-anticipated follow-up to Citizen Kane: though there are, at least as it appears from his screenplay, some opportunities for histrionic and cinematic tours de force - the emotional breakdown of Aunt Fanny, the Christmas ball, the sleigh ride and the car ride through the snow - the substance of the script is really pretty pedestrian - the daughter of the wealthiest man in a small Indiana town marries the wrong guy and, when they're both widowed, they are basically unable to find love with one another because of the jealousy and Oedipal rivalries that surround them; their children, seemingly destined to marry each other, are driven apart - and the movie ends in wistful sorrow. Not quite a great American tragedy, and, lacking in the strong central character whose evolution over time was driving force of Kane - and of course also lacking in the great mystery that forged the unusual plot structure of Kane. What Welles did find in this less promising material of Ambersons was the opportunity once again for some truly stunning scenes: the women gossiping in the beauty salon, facing the camera, in a composition as copmlex and odd as a Velasquez painting; the above-noted Christmas ball with its very long tracking shots; the plein air scenes in the snow, challenging to film and still beautiful today; the dark gothic interiors of the Empire-style midwest mansions, the emptiness of the train station late at night. Consistently, he shoots "up" at the characters - as he did in Kane - emphasizing their grandeur and power. Generally, directors are ill-advised to cast themselves, and their was no obvious role for Welles in this script, but you can feel his absence - none of the leads, even Joseph Cotton, is powerful enough to engage us fully. The closing credits are very cool, with Welles's voice-over crediting the major contributors to the film, actors and crew. I think there's a long history to this film, with many scenes cut of with $ running short - and perhaps W. had a much greater vision of its potential - maybe it could have been a tremendous operatic film about a death of a dyanstic family and a way of life (the arrival of the motor car in the Midwest is a big theme) - a fore-runner of Visconti's The Leopard, which did have a hugely powerful lead (Lancaster) and of course a much, much better source novel (Lampedusa).