The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) 7.9
The spoiled young heir to the decaying Amberson fortune comes between his widowed mother and the man she has always loved. Director:Orson Welles |
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The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) 7.9
The spoiled young heir to the decaying Amberson fortune comes between his widowed mother and the man she has always loved. Director:Orson Welles |
|
| 0Share... |
| Complete credited cast: | |||
| Joseph Cotten | ... | ||
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Dolores Costello | ... | |
| Anne Baxter | ... | ||
| Tim Holt | ... | ||
| Agnes Moorehead | ... | ||
| Ray Collins | ... |
Jack
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Erskine Sanford | ... |
Roger Bronson
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Richard Bennett | ... | |
| Orson Welles | ... |
Narrator
(voice)
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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. Written by John Oswalt <jao@jao.com>
The fate of this almost magnificent film must rank as one of the greatest tragedies in the history of the cinema. viewing it in its present state is like looking at the Venus Di Milo, or at a beautiful Greek vase that has been shattered. One can only admire the fragments...and what gorgeous fragments they are: Major Ambersons heartbreaking meditation by the fireplace,the quarrel between Eugene Morgan and Georgie about the Automobile, Isabel's death, Agnes Moorehead's magnificent performance, the splendor of the Amberson mansion, and the ballroom scene. Perhaps someday, some powerful computer might be able to reconstruct the missing footage from stills and from Welles script...perhaps. Until that almost impossible moment, one can only envy the handful of men and women who were able to see it whole, and to understand what they were seeing.