Did You Know?

RKO chopped 50 minutes of the film and added a happy ending while Orson Welles was out of the country. The footage was subsequently destroyed; the only record of the removed scenes is the cutting continuity transcript.

On its original release, the film was shown as a second feature on a double bill with Mexican Spitfire Sees a Ghost.

The preview of the movie occurred a short time after Pearl Harbor. Because of this, most of the audience review cards stated that they didn't want to see a depressing movie, and that it should have more laughs and a happy ending. With Orson Welles out of the country, the production team had to make the cuts and changes without his input.

The earliest Morgan Automobile shown in the film is actually an 1892 Philion Road Carriage, one of the oldest existing American built cars and the only one produced. It can still be seen at the National Automobile Museum in Reno, Nevada.

Ironically, RKO's reshot ending for the film - a much more uplifting affair than the one that Welles had intended - is much closer to the ending in the novel.

The first major film to have nearly all its credits narrated rather than appear on screen.

From a budget of $1 million, the film lost over $600,000 - a huge amount of money for a small studio like RKO.

The set for the Ambersons mansion was one of the most elaborate and expensive sets ever built at the time. RKO would utilize the standing set for other films.

In the absence of Welles, RKO cut 50 minutes from the original film, which was destroyed, ostensibly to free up vault space at the studio. However, there was also conjecture that this was done to prevent Welles from attempting to make any changes to what was left of his film. The RKO-mandated re-editing had been left in the hands of two men: Robert Wise, and studio rep Jack Moss. A phone was put into Moss's office that fed directly to Welles's hotel room in Rio. According to future director Cy Endfield, who was working with Moss at the time, often when the phone rang, suspecting it was Welles with his latest batch of comments and suggestions for the re-edit, Moss would simply not answer the call. Similarly, when Moss received lengthy telegrams from Welles with more suggestions and thoughts, he would throw them away.

The consensus of opinion according to nearly everyone who saw the original conclusion - which included a tour of the decaying Amberson mansion - was that it was much more powerful than the tacked-on "happy" ending.

Composer Bernard Herrmann had his name removed from the credits in protest at the way RKO messed about with his work.

Twenty years later, Welles was still planning an epilogue starring the older Joseph Cotten, Anne Baxter, Agnes Moorehead and Tim Holt.

Robert Wise's first directing experience, although uncredited.

Robert Wise was one of the many vocal detractors of the critically derided 2002 Alfonso Arau mini-series remake.

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

The main poster for the Ambersons was designed by Norman Rockwell.

The re-cutting of this film caused a deep rift in Orson Welles' friendships with Robert Wise and Joseph Cotten. Cotten later wrote several letters of apology to Welles, and the two later reconciled. Welles and Wise, however, remained on acrimonious terms for some 42 years until Wise was invited to come to the stage by Gil Cates when the Directors Guild honored Welles with its Lifetime Achievement Award in 1984. The former rivals ended up shaking hands as the crowd rewarded them with a standing ovation.

Although Orson Welles had hoped to work again with the great cinematographer Gregg Toland, with whom he so generously shared a credit card on Citizen Kane, Toland under contract to Sam Goldwyn was not available. Welles, however, insisted that Toland's camera crew work on this film: Burt Shipman operated the camera; the assistant cameraman was Eddie Garvin, the gaffer Bill J. McClellan and the key grip Ralph Hoge.