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What to do with The Magnificent Ambersons, director Orson Welles’ follow-up to Citizen Kane? More than seven decades after the movie hit cinemas, it remains a flashpoint of discussion and debate among cinephiles. Some proclaim it as one of the Greatest Movies Ever Made, a worthy successor in style and substance to Citizen Kane. Others, including Welles himself, decry the studio interference that diluted the directorial vision, deeming the film a bastardized mishmash of tone and style.

But in a vacuum, unencumbered by the movie’s considerable baggage, how does The Magnificent Ambersons play today? The story of an American family at the turn of the 20th century living on the brink of Industrial Revolution, Welles’ film has no shortage of stunning imagery, innovation, or human drama. Even if the movie didn’t fulfill Welles’ original vision, the final product does deserve mention as an American classic: one that offers...

An animated video for Mark Knopfler’s all-star charity single “Going Home (Theme From Local Hero)” – which brought together a stunning lineup of over 60 guitar gods to raise funds for Teen Cancer America and the Teenage Cancer Trust – has been released. It features the final recording of Jeff Beck along with contributions by Bruce Springsteen, David Gilmour, Slash, Ronnie Wood, Joan Jett, Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend, and Sting.

The song came out a week ago, but it was difficult to discern who was playing what part throughout the ten-minute song.

Mark Knopfler has teamed up with a host of fellow guitar legends to record a version of his song “Going Home (Theme from Local Hero)” to raise funds for Teenage Cancer Trust and Teen Cancer America.

The Dire Straits frontman tapped Eric Clapton, Slash (Guns N’ Roses), David Gilmour (Pink Floyd), Brian May (Queen), Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath), Pete Townshend (The Who), Alex Lifeson (Rush), Bruce Springsteen, Ronnie Wood (The Rolling Stones), Joan Jett, and many more, forming what he has dubbed “Mark Knopfler’s Guitar Heroes.” Notably, the star-studded version opens with the final recorded guitar track by the late Jeff Beck.

Knopfler’s longtime collaborator Guy Fletcher handled the production of the track, which might be the greatest assemblage of guitar talent to co-exist on a single song. The Sgt. Pepper‘s-style artwork was created by Sir Peter Blake.

The full song can be heard below now, featuring...

Dire Straits’ Mark Knopfler has united with over 60 artists — including Bruce Springsteen, David Gilmour, Slash, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, Ronnie Wood, Jeff Beck, Pete Townshend, Sting, Brian May, Joan Jett, Nile Rodgers, and Brian May — to create a new version of his 1983 instrumental “Going Home: Theme of the Local Hero.”

The song arrives on March 15, though you can hear a brief sample right now. It’s the final recording Jeff Beck created before his death in January 2023. All proceeds from the release will benefit Teenage Cancer Trust and Teen Cancer America.

Nightcrawler's debut in Giant-Size X-Men #1 marked the beginning of his journey as a mutant superhero, solidifying his iconic status within Marvel Comics. The revelation of Nightcrawler's tragic backstory, including his adoption and the framing of his brother for murders, showcased his heroic nature and personal growth. The unveiling of Nightcrawler's true parentage and heritage, with Mystique as his mother and Azazel as his biological father, provided deep insight into his mutation and completed his mysterious backstory.

While not an official member of the original five X-Men, Nightcrawler might as well have been, as he’s one of the most iconic members of the mutant superhero strike-force in the history of Marvel Comics. That being said, Nightcrawler has also made significant strides to not just be seen as another X-Men member, but as a hero, leader, and inspirational figure in his own right.

From off-shoot X-Men teams to even taking...

Warning: spoilers ahead for X-Force #39While listing Hank McCoy's various crimes against mutantkind in X-Force #39, the Krakoan citizen Deadpool interrupts to remind the Quiet Council that the X-Men's Beast once allowed Sinister to use and abuse a vulnerable young mutant, Threnody.

Beast has been on a horrific path of villainy for months now, recently escalated into a Clone War against Wolverine. Yet the Quiet Council refuses to hold Hank accountable, instead deciding to use him as a separate weapon of war, operating without their "direct" approval.

Hank's teammates all clearly believe that Beast deserves to be brought to justice, and in X-Force #39 - from writer Benjamin Percy and artist Robert Gill - Deadpool tries to remind the Quiet Council about Hank's terrible failure of the vulnerable mutant Threnody. When the Council either doesn't remember Beast's sin or willingly ignores it, Deadpool hilariously proclaims, "#XSpoilers is going to be so mad.

Hank McCoy, aka the Beast, has had one of the most varied careers of any X-Men character, with one line weirdly showing that - at least within the Marvel Universe itself - the superhero genuinely can't get enough of him, and he knows it.

One of the original X-Men, Hank was originally simply gifted with superhuman reflexes, dexterity and strength, as well as a visible mutation that gave him large hands and feet. However, after experimenting on himself with a serum of his own invention, Hank became the blue and furry version of himself that has become the most iconic version of the character. Hank hasn’t been simply limited to being an X-Men character, and is so weirdly popular with other teams, it's clear that he's held in high regard by basically every major Marvel hero.

Related: Wolverine vs Beast Is Destroying Mutantkind's Future

In What If? Avengers Disassembled...

No stranger to the world of kaiju, storyboard artist Richard Bennett has utilized his artistic talents to help bring Godzilla vs. Kong, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and Kong: Skull Island to life on the big screen, and now he's teamed up with Clover Press to launch a Kickstarter campaign for Godzilla & Kong: The Cinematic Storyboard Art of Richard Bennett, a new hardcover coffee table book collecting his amazing storyboard art from all three of those colossal creature features (including deleted scenes)!

We had the pleasure of catching up with Bennett in a new Q&a feature to discuss his career as a storyboard artist and what readers can expect to find within the pages of Godzilla & Kong: The Cinematic Storyboard Art of Richard Bennett.

You can check out the Q&a and a preview from the book below, and to learn more about Godzilla & Kong: The Cinematic Storyboard Art of Richard Bennett,...

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Emily Blunt are teaming up to star in an upcoming adaptation of the comic book miniseries Ball and Chain. The movie will be based on the four-issue miniseries of the same name by Scott Lobdell, Ale Garza, and Richard Bennett that began back in 1999.

The comic book series Ball and Chain is best described as a "super-powered romantic comedy." The comics and upcoming movie will follow a struggling couple as they approach three years of a tumultuous marriage. The couple, Edgar and Mallory Bulson, have made the difficult decision to throw in the towel and get divorced.

At least, that was the plan anyway, until a mysterious meteor bathes the battling couple in extraterrestrial energies...energies that give them super-powers. Superpowers that only work when the couple is together. Will their newfound abilities be enough to make their marriage work?

The set-up sounds like a...

Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt will star in a live-action adaptation of Homage Comics, 4-part comic book title "Ball and Chain", created by Scott Lobdell, Ale Garza, and Richard Bennett, following a couple who receive limited superpowers that only work if they can learn to put their differences aside:

"...'Edgar' (Johnson) and 'Mallory Bulson' (Blunt) are a couple who have decided to throw in the towel. That was the plan anyway, until a mysterious meteor bathed the battling couple in extraterrestrial energies that gave them super-powers.

"But will their newfound abilities be enough to make their marriage work?.."

Click the images to enlarge...

Jungle Cruise co-stars Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt had such a good time on the set of that big-budget Disney movie that they're ready to get divorced... in a new project titled Ball and Chain that studios are already lining up to acquire. Deadline reports that Oscar-nominated writer Emily V. Gordon (The Big Sick) has adapted the four-part comic of the same name from writer Scott Lobdell and artists Ale Garza and Richard Bennett. Kevin Misher (Fighting With My Family) will produce alongside Johnson and his Seven Bucks partners Dany and Hiram Garcia, while Blunt …...

Hollywood’s most tragic ‘mangled masterpiece’ gets a new lease on life with this special edition of what could have been Orson Welles’ greatest film, had Rko not intentionally destroyed it to sully the stature of the unlucky Boy Genius. The movie can’t be reconstructed but its reputation can be restored — the story of the demise of a powerful industrial family would have been a dramatic powerhouse, perhaps more impressive than Citizen Kane.

The Magnificent Ambersons

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 952

1942 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 88 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date November 27, 2018 / 39.95

Starring: Joseph Cotten, Dolores Costello, Anne Baxter, Tim Holt, Agnes Moorehead, Ray Collins, Erskine Sanford, Richard Bennett.

Cinematography: Stanley Cortez

Film Editor: Robert Wise

Original Music: Bernard Herrmann

From the novel by Booth Tarkington

Screenplay, Production and Direction by Orson Welles

Orson Welles’ The Magnificent Ambersons is probably the most mourned ‘lost’ title in American film history.

Stars: Joseph Cotten, Tim Holt, Dolores Costello, Anne Baxter, Agnes Moorehead, Orson Welles | Written by Orson Welles, Booth Tarkington (novel) | Directed by Orson Welles

Aka the film that Orson Welles made after Citizen Kane, and which has become synonymous with studio interference. Perhaps an hour of footage was slashed and burned, hence the 90-minute version we are left with. Though, even without the full vision of Welles, it’s a cracking piece of cinema.

On the surface The Magnificent Ambersons is a simple story of youthful jealousy and impudence. It’s the early 20th century, and the western world is on the cusp of an automobile revolution. 20-year-old George (Tim Holt) doesn’t see it as such – he just sees an opportunistic businessman named Eugene (Joseph Cotton) trying to seduce his lonely mother, Isabel (Dolores Costello).

George has no great ambitions of his own. What use are ambitions when he...

Mark Knopfler announced a headlining North American tour for summer 2019. The Dire Straits frontman will kick off the 28-date trek on August 16th in Mashantucket, Connecticut and conclude September 22nd in Los Angeles, California.

Tickets for most shows will be available to pre-order on Monday, October 29th via Knopfler’s official site. The guitarist’s two dates at the Beacon Theatre in New York, New York (August 20th and 21st) go on sale Friday, November 2nd.

Throughout the jaunt, Knopfler will perform with an expanded 10-piece band: keyboardist Guy Fletcher,...

No matter what they do to Los Angeles, and lately they’ve done quite a lot with all the traffic, hyper-development, and electric scooters, they can’t get rid of the movie ghosts. The accumulated haunt of a century-old industry, those pop up in nooks and crannies, sometimes where you least expect them. There are a couple next door to Katy Perry’s coveted convent-house in Los Feliz, for instance. That’s where the Manson family killed the Labiancas a night after murdering Sharon Tate and friends, setting off Hollywood’s Helter Skelter panic. The address on the curb has been changed. But the ghosts are still there.

A mostly gentler sort stalk one of my favorite memory pockets, Santa Monica Canyon. Geographically, that’s a leafy trough that runs between the Pacific Palisades district of Los Angeles and the City of Santa Monica. It has identity issues. The postal addresses,...

Ronald Colman: Turner Classic Movies' Star of the Month in two major 1930s classics Updated: Turner Classic Movies' July 2017 Star of the Month is Ronald Colman, one of the finest performers of the studio era. On Thursday night, TCM presented five Colman star vehicles that should be popping up again in the not-too-distant future: A Tale of Two Cities, The Prisoner of Zenda, Kismet, Lucky Partners, and My Life with Caroline. The first two movies are among not only Colman's best, but also among Hollywood's best during its so-called Golden Age. Based on Charles Dickens' classic novel, Jack Conway's Academy Award-nominated A Tale of Two Cities (1936) is a rare Hollywood production indeed: it manages to effectively condense its sprawling source, it boasts first-rate production values, and it features a phenomenal central performance. Ah, it also shows its star without his trademark mustache – about as famous at the time as Clark Gable's. Perhaps...

Teresa Wright-Samuel Goldwyn association comes to a nasty end (See preceding post: "Teresa Wright in 'Shadow of a Doubt': Alfred Hitchcock Heroine in His Favorite Film.") Whether or not because she was aware that Enchantment wasn't going to be the hit she needed – or perhaps some other disagreement with Samuel Goldwyn or personal issue with husband Niven Busch – Teresa Wright, claiming illness, refused to go to New York City to promote the film. (Top image: Teresa Wright in a publicity shot for The Men.) Goldwyn had previously announced that Wright, whose contract still had another four and half years to run, was to star in a film version of J.D. Salinger's 1948 short story "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut." Instead, he unceremoniously – and quite publicly – fired her.[1] The Goldwyn organization issued a statement, explaining that besides refusing the assignment to travel to New York to help generate pre-opening publicity for Enchantment,...

Ronald Colman, Jane Wyatt, Lost Horizon Ronald Colman on TCM: Random Harvest, Kiki, A Tale Of Two Cities Schedule (Et) and synopses from the TCM website: 6:00 Am Lucky Partners (1940) Two strangers who share a sweepstakes ticket take it on the lam. Dir: Lewis Milestone. Cast: Ronald Colman, Ginger Rogers, Jack Carson. Bw-99 mins. 7:45 Am My Life With Caroline (1941) A man thinks his high-spirited wife is cheating on him. Dir: Lewis Milestone. Cast: Ronald Colman, Anna Lee, Charles Winninger. Bw-81 mins. 9:15 Am The White Sister (1923) Thinking her lover was killed in the war, a young woman becomes a nun. Dir: Henry King. Cast: Lillian Gish, Ronald Colman, Gail Kane. Bw-135 mins. 11:30 Am Kiki (1926) A Parisian dancer vies with a glamorous actress for a producer's heart. Dir: Clarence Brown. Cast: Norma Talmadge, Ronald Colman, Gertrude Astor. Bw-97 mins. 1:30 Pm Raffles (1930) A distinguished British gentleman hides his true...

Luise Rainer in Sidney Franklin’s The Good Earth (1937) (top); Richard Bennett, Joseph Cotten, Dolores Costello, Don Dillaway, Agnes Moorehead, Ray Collins in Orson Welles‘ The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) (upper middle); Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, Marilyn Monroe in Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot (1959) (lower middle); Joan Crawford, Conrad Veidt in George Cukor’s A Woman’s Face (1941) (bottom) The first TCM Classic Film Festival has just come to a close, but Turner Classic Movies has already given the go-ahead for a second edition slated for Spring 2011. TCM primetime host and film historian Robert Osborne announced the news on Sunday night, right before the North American premiere of the restored Metropolis, Fritz Lang’s classic 1927 science-fiction/political drama. [...]...