Three oldest and best friends...

This post is part of Nathaniel's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" series in which the participants must post a single image from a movie he or she deems as the "best shot" for any particular reason.

To celebrate the centennial of the great Orson Welles, three films of his were assigned (Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons, and The Lady from Shanghai). I picked his second film The Magnificent Ambersons about a wealthy family dealing with personal changes/drama in their lives during the turn of the century. In the heart of the film is a starcrossed romance of a man trying to woo again an old love and a woman who keeps appeasing her selfish son by not giving into her true feelings. My pick for my favorite shot features these these two...

This shot doesn't really have read Wellesesque (or would that be Wellesian?), but I love it because of Agnes Moorehead, who plays Fanny, shown here on the right as the jealous third wheel. Her jealousy just reads so clearly here on her face and posture. Not to mention how great it is to juxtapose her displeasure with the other two looking lovingly into each other's eyes completely and utterly oblivious to Fanny and her feelings. Fanny's misplaced belief that she should be with Eugene and not Isabel essentially drives the action of the film as she stokes the fire of suspicion and disapproval of Isabel's already selfish son by telling him there might be something inappropriate happening between his mother and her new gentleman caller (his father, Isabel's husband had recently died).

Wished I had more time to re-watch and do a closer analysis of this shot or another shot, for example one of the many indoor shots. Welles penchant and skill for interior shots is already plenty evident in this early work. But alas this was a "see once, write a quick post on it, and then go on vacation" type of deal.