The Magnificent Ambersons

 

The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)

NEUTRAL
Various
Movie Reviews89%
NR
1942, Drama, 1h 28m
RT Critics’ Score: 89% (UNBIASED)
RT Audience Score: 84%
Awards & Nominations: Nominated for 4 Oscars
4 wins & 4 nominations total

 

Critics Consensus

Assembled with bold visual craft and penetrating insight, The Magnificent Ambersons further establishes writer-director Orson Welles as a generational talent
 

Audience Consensus

The Magnificent Ambersons is like a time machine that takes you back to turn-of-the-century Indianapolis, but with less awkward small talk and more drama. Orson Welles’ direction and Albert S. D’Agostino’s set designs are so impressive that you can practically taste the emotional sense of America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Sure, some critics might say it’s not as good as Citizen Kane, but let’s be real, it’s still pretty magnificent.
 
Movie Trailer

Movie Info

Storyline

The young, handsome, but somewhat wild Eugene Morgan wants to marry Isabel Amberson, daughter of a rich upper-class family, but she instead marries dull and steady Wilbur Minafer. Their only child, George, grows up a spoiled brat. Years later, Eugene comes back, now a mature widower and a successful automobile maker. After Wilbur dies, Eugene again asks Isabel to marry him, and she is receptive. But George resents the attentions paid to his mother, and he and his whacko aunt Fanny manage to sabotage the romance. A series of disasters befall the Ambersons and George, and he gets his come-uppance in the end.

 
Production Company(ies)
Walter Shenson Films, Proscenium Films,
 
Distributor
RKO Radio Pictures, Criterion Collection
 
Release Type

 
Filming Location(s)
Ice & Cold Storage Company – 400 S. Central Avenue, Los Angeles, California, USA
 
MPAA / Certificate
Not Rated
 
Year of Release
1942
 

Technical Specs
  • Color:
    Color
    Black and White
  • Sound mix:
    Dolby
  • Aspect ratio:
    1.37 : 1
  • Runtime:
    1h 28m
  • Language(s):
    English
  • Country of origin:
    United States
  • Release date:
    Release Date (Theaters): Jul 10, 1942 Wide
    Release Date (Streaming): Sep 13, 2011

 
Genre(s)
Drama
 
Keyword(s)
starring Joseph Cotten, Tim Holt, Dolores Costello, Anne Baxter, Agnes Moorehead, Richard Bennett, directed by Orson Welles, written by Orson Welles, drama, box office performance, budget, reviewed by Kevin Maher, Pauline Kael, Kevin Thomas, Manny Farber, André Bazin, Nicholas Bell, MPAA rating, RKO Radio Pictures, Criterion Collection, Indianapolis, family, love, tragedy, spoiled heir, turn-of-the-century, automobile, generational talent, Citizen Kane, Albert S D’Agostino, set designs, heart-rending stories, comeuppance, tragedy, remembrance, doomed romance, forgiveness, closure
 

Box Office Details

Worldwide gross: NA
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): NA
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): NA
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): NA
 
US/Canada gross: NA
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): NA
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): NA
US/Canada opening weekend:
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): NA
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): NA
 
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): NA
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): NA
Production budget ranking: NA
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
ROI to date (est.): NA
ROI ranking: NA

 
Movie Cast & Crew

Cast & Crew

Joseph CottenEugeneTim HoltGeorgeDolores Costello
Joseph Cotten
Eugene
Tim Holt
George
Dolores Costello
Eugene
George
Isabel
Lucy
Fanny
Joseph Cotten – Eugene
Tim Holt – George
Dolores Costello – Isabel
Anne Baxter – Lucy
Agnes Moorehead – Fanny
Richard Bennett – Maj. Amberson
Orson Welles – Director, Producer, Writer

 

Orson WellesOrson WellesOrson Welles
Orson Welles
Orson Welles
Orson Welles
Director
Writer
Producer
Producer
Producer

Director(s)
Orson Welles
 
Writer(s)
Orson Welles
 
Producer(s)
Orson Welles

 
Movie Reviews & Awards
Film Festivals

 
Awards & Nominations
Nominated for 4 Oscars
4 wins & 4 nominations total
 
Academy Awards

 

Top Reviews
Kevin MaherPauline KaelKevin ThomasManny FarberVariety Staff
Kevin Maher
Pauline Kael
Kevin Thomas
Manny Farber
Variety Staff
Times
New Yorker
Los Angeles Times
The New Republic
Variety
THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS
 All Critics (45) | Top Critics (15) | Fresh (40) | Rotten (5)
 Film snobs like to say that this, the second feature from Orson Welles, is even better than Citizen Kane. That’s a stretch, but it’s certainly exquisitely beautiful film-making – there are frames in there to die for.
 
 December 13, 2019 | Rating: 5/5
 
 Kevin Maher
 Times (UK)
 TOP CRITIC
 Even in this truncated form it’s amazing and memorable.
 
 January 5, 2015
 
 Pauline Kael
 New Yorker
 TOP CRITIC
 Although reams have been written about the mutilation of Orson Welles’ second feature, what remains of it is nevertheless a major accomplishment.
 
 August 30, 2012 | Rating: 5/5
 
 Kevin Thomas
 Los Angeles Times
 TOP CRITIC
 While telling this story, haltingly and clumsily, the movie runs from burdensome through heavy and dull to bad. It stutters and stumbles as Welles submerges Tarkington’s story in a mess of radio and stage technique.
 
 August 30, 2012
 
 Manny Farber
 The New Republic
 TOP CRITIC
 Orson Welles devotes 9,000 feet of film to a spoiled brat who grows up as a spoiled, spiteful young man. This film hasn’t a single moment of contrast; it piles on and on a tale of woe, but without once striking at least a true chord of sentimentality.
 
 July 6, 2010
 
 Variety Staff
 Variety
 TOP CRITIC
 The emotional sense of America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries is so palpable you can taste it.
 
 April 6, 2007
 
 Jonathan Rosenbaum
 Chicago Reader
 TOP CRITIC
 After the neorealistic revolution of Citizen Kane’s cinematographic achievement, then, The Magnificent Ambersons becomes the consecration, in some sort of stripped-down and ultimately classical way, of a new mode of screen narration.
 
 December 8, 2021
 
 André Bazin
 L’Écran Français
 The Magnificent Ambersons is a deliciously photographed time capsule, with Albert S. D’Agostino’s impressive set designs belying the craftsmanship and detail which went into recreating turn-of-the-century Indianapolis.
 
 August 18, 2020 | Rating: 4/5
 
 Nicholas Bell
 IONCINEMA.com
 Welles has a knack for heart-rending stories rife with comeuppance, tragedy, remembrance, doomed romance, and, most superbly, the pleasures of forgiveness and closure.
 
 August 13, 2020 | Rating: 9/10
 
 Mike Massie
 Gone With The Twins
 True, there are wonderful authentic period touches, excellent dramatic photographic work and fine direction of a wonderful cast. Welles has employed so much subtlety, however… that the resultant effect is vague and even meaninglessly depressing.
 
 July 24, 2020
 
 Film Daily Staff
 The Film Daily
 Orson Welles continues to be incredible, super original, and an unsurpassable artist from the beginning to the end of the movie. [Full Review in Spanish]
 
 September 17, 2019
 
 Elena de la Torre
 Cine-Mundial
 In trying so feverishly to be realistic, Welles has drained the life pretty much out of the Indiana family of whom Tarkington once wrote so straight-forwardly that he won a Pulitzer prize for his efforts.
 
 August 9, 2019
 
 Jay Carmody
 Washington Star…

 
Movie Plot & More
Plot
The young, handsome, but somewhat wild Eugene Morgan wants to marry Isabel Amberson, daughter of a rich upper-class family, but she instead marries dull and steady Wilbur Minafer. Their only child, George, grows up a spoiled brat. Years later, Eugene comes back, now a mature widower and a successful automobile maker. After Wilbur dies, Eugene again asks Isabel to marry him, and she is receptive. But George resents the attentions paid to his mother, and he and his whacko aunt Fanny manage to sabotage the romance. A series of disasters befall the Ambersons and George, and he gets his come-uppance in the end.
 
Trivia

 
Goofs / Tidbits
The cast includes Joseph Cotten, Tim Holt, Dolores Costello, Anne Baxter, and Agnes Moorehead.
 
Movie Links Wikipedia and Rotten Tomatoes

Links
Wikipedia: Go to Wiki
Rotten Tomatoes: Go to RT

 
Where to Watch

Where to Watch

 
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Movies, Streaming