Agnes Moorehead

 In a 1973 interview with Dick Cavett, Agnes Moorehead recalled the arduous work involved before filming her climactic scene in "The Magnificent Ambersons" (1942) where she sinks against the unheated boiler. In rehearsal, Welles told Moorehead (who was still a novice to film acting) to "play it like a little girl," a characterization which went against what Moorehead had prepared. Then Welles told her to play "like an insane woman." Following that, Welles told her to play it "like she's absolutely inebriated." Then he said to play with "an absolutely vacuous mind." Moorehead was thinking to herself, "What in the world does he want?" She did the scene 11 times, each with a different characterization. For the twelfth time, Welles told Moorehead: "Now play it." After those rehearsals, her playing the scene had "a little bit of the hysteria, it had a little bit of the insanity, it had a little bit of the little girl...[H]e had mixed it all up in my mind so that the characterization that I played had a little bit of all of these; and it was terribly exciting." When people asked if she was exhausted, she protested that she found the work exhilarating, later stating that she couldn't sleep for a week afterwards.

Moorehead continued reflecting on Welles's directorial abilities: "He never directed obviously; he always directed in some strange oblique way where you thought, 'Well, that isn't right at all.' But if you put your career or the role in his hands he loved to mold you the way he wanted and it was always much better than you could do yourself. He was the most exciting director that you could possibly imagine."

The film had its first preview in Pomona, California, on March 17, 1942. It was shown to an audience largely composed of teenagers who had come to see the Paramount musical "The Fleet's In" (1942). The audience laughed at dramatic moments, particularly Moorehead's big scenes as the neurotic Fanny Minafer. Most of the comment cards were overwhelmingly negative, one counselling that "People like to laff [sic], not be bored to death." The positive ones were very strong, particularly one stating, "Too bad audience was so unappreciative." RKO President George Schaefer called it the worst preview he'd witnessed in 28 years in the business, and wrote to Welles: "Never in all my experience in the industry have I taken so much punishment or suffered as I did at the Pomona preview."

As a result, Moorehead's signature scene, in which she bemoaned the turn of the Ambersons fortunes and her inability to provide for George, and went a long way in securing her an Academy Award nomination, was actually cobbled together from original footage and hastily reshot scenes. The latter had no input from Welles.

Happy Birthday, Agnes Moorehead!