The magnificent ambersons review Continue For the 2002 television version, watch The Magnificent Amberers (the 2002 film). 1942 film by Orson Helles, Robert Wise Magnificent AmbersonsTheatrical release poster with illustrations by Norman Rockwell 1Director Orson WellesProduced Orson WellesScreenplay Orson WellesBased on Magnificent Amberersby Booth TarkingtonStarring Joseph Cotten Dostren Dolores Costello Ann Baxter Tim Holt Agnes Moorhead Ray Collins Erskine Sanford Richard Bennett Comments Orson WellesMusic No Credit to FilmCinematographyStanley CortezEd ByRobert WiseProductioncompany RKO Radio PicturesMercury Productions Distributed RKO Radio PicturesRelease Date July 10 , 1942 (1942-07-10) Running time 88 minutes148 minutes (original)131 minutes (preview)Country Of the United StatesLanguageEnglishBudget $1.1 million:71-72Box office $1 million (US rent) The Magnificent Ambers (U.S. - American drama 1942, written, produced and directed by Orson Velez. Welles will adapt Booth Tarkington's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1918 novel, about the leaning fortunes of the wealthy Midwestern family and the social changes brought by the car era. The film stars Joseph Cotten, Dolores Costello, Ann Baxter, Tim Holt, Agnes Moorhead and Ray Collins, while Welles has a narration. Heles lost control of RKO's The Magnificent Amberers edit, and the final version released to viewers was significantly different from his rough cut of the film. More than an hour of footage was cut in the studio, which also shot and replaced a happier ending. While Veles's extensive notes on how he wanted the film to be shortened survived, the cut frames were destroyed. Composer Bernard Herrmann insisted that his merit be removed when, like the film itself, his score was heavily edited by the studio. Even in the released version, The Magnificent Amberers is often regarded as one of the greatest films of all time, a distinction he shares with Heles's first film, Citizen Kane. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and was added to the Library of Congress National Film Registry in 1991. Richard Bennett's plot, Joseph Cotten, Dolores Costello, Don Dillaway, Agnes Moorhead, and Ray CollinsJoseph Cotten, Ann Baxter, and Tim Holt, Costello, Agnes Moorhead, Ann Baxter, Joseph Cotter, Tim Holt, and Ray CollinsRichard Bennett, Agnes Moorhead, Tim Holt, and Ray Collins Play Media's Magnificent Amberson She rejects him after he publicly embarrasses her, instead of marrying Wilbur Minafer, a fearless man she doesn't love and spoils their child George. Citizens long to see George get his comeuppance. In the In the early 20th century, Major Amberson gives a big party at The Amberson Mansion for George, who is home from college for the holidays. Eugene, now a widower who has just returned to the city after twenty years, visits. George does not like Eugene, whom he considers a social climber, and ridicules Eugene's investment in the car. He instantly takes to Eugene's daughter Lucy. The next day, George and Lucy ride a sleigh. They pass Eugene, his aunt Fanny, Isabelle, and Brother Isabelle, Jack. Eugenie's boneless carriage got stuck in the snow, and George mocked them for getting a horse. Amberson's sleigh then flips over, and Eugene (his car is now mobile again) gives everyone a ride home. George is humiliated by this incident and outraged by Eugene's attention to Isabelle, as well as his mother's apparent attachment to Eugene. Wilbur Minafer loses a significant amount of money on bad investments, and soon after dies. George is largely indifferent to the death of his father. The night after the funeral, George teases Fanny, who is overtaken by Eugene. Time passes. Eugene becomes a very wealthy car manufacturer, and again courts Isabelle, who refuses to risk George's disapproval by telling him about her love. Lucy rejects George's marriage proposal, saying he has no ambition in life other than to be rich and keep things as they are and leaves town. The Ambersons invite a lonely Eugene to dinner, where George, accusing him of turning Lucy against him, criticizes the cars. The Ambersons are shocked by his rudeness, but Eugene says George may be right. That evening, George learns from Aunt Fanny that Eugene is a whim to Isabelle. Furious, he rudely confronts a neighbor for spreading gossip about his mother. The next day, George refuses to let Eugene to his mother. Jack tells Isabelle about George's terrible behavior, but she refuses to do anything that might upset her son. Eugene writes isabelle, asking her to make a choice between her son and his love. Isabelle chooses George. Lucy returns home to find out that George takes his mother to Europe on a long trip. George talks to Lucy in an attempt to find out if she loves him. She feigned indifference and they parted. Lucy is heartbroken, however, and faints. Months pass. Isabelle is seriously ill, but George will not allow her to return home, so that she did not resume her relationship with Eugene, softening only when she begins to die. George refuses to let Eugene into the house to visit Isabelle on her deathbed, despite the fact that she begged to see Eugene for the last time. After Isabelle's death, Major Amberson plunges into old age and dies. His property is worthless. Jack leaves town to find work in another city. George intends to live on Fanny's income while like training to be a lawyer but she reveals that she lost everything in a bad investment, leaving them only a few hundred dollars to until the end of the year. Eugene asks Lucy if she will make peace with George. Instead, Lucy tells her father the story of an American Indian leader who was pushed out by canoe into the sea when he became too disgusting, which Eugene understands as an analogy with George. Pennyless, George gives up his job as a clerk, and finds more high-paying jobs at the chemical plant, giving him enough money for himself and Fanny to live. George wanders around the city, stunned by the modern factories and slums that grew up around him. On his last night at Amberson's mansion before it is sold, George prays by his dead mother's bedside. The narrator says no one is around to see him get his comeuppance. George was seriously injured by a car. Lucy and Eugene go to his hospital and put up with him. In the hospital corridor, Eugene tells Fanny that Isabelle's spirit inspired Eugene to bring George back under shelter, meaning that he and Fanny were financially secure. Starring Joseph Cotten in Eugene Morgan Dolores Costello in Isabel Amberer's film Minafer Ann Baxter starring Lucy Morgan Tim Holt in George Amberson's film Minafer Agnes Moorhead starring Fanny Minafer, Wilbur's sister Ray Collins as Jack Umberson, Isabelle's brother. Jack is a congressman during the ball. Erskine Sanford as Roger Bronson Richard Bennett as Major Amberson, father of Jack and Isabelle. Don Dilway as Wilbur Minafer Orson Helles as the narrator of the story adaptation to the production of Welles first adapted The Magnificent Ambersons for an hour-long radio drama performed on October 29, 1939 by his Mercury Players at The Campbell Playhouse, with Orson Wales portraying George Minafer and providing storytelling. While Welles supplied the narrative to the film adaptation, Ray Collins was the only actor from the radio production to appear in the film. History production This section needs additional quotes to verify. Please help improve this article by adding quotes to reliable sources. Non-sources of materials can be challenged and removed. (December 2018) (Learn how and when to delete this template message) Orson Velez directed The Magnificent Ambersons Magnificent Amberers was in production October 28, 1941 -- January 22, 1942 at RKO's Gower Street Studio in Los Angeles. The set for the Amberson mansion was built like a real house, but it had walls that could be rolled back, raised or lowered so the camera appeared to pass through them in a continuous take. RKO later used many of the film's sets for its low-budget films, including a series of horror films produced by Val Lewton. The shooting took place in various locations around Los Angeles, including Big Beado, San Bernardino National Forest and East Los Angeles. Snow scenes filmed at the Union Ice Company ice house in downtown Los Angeles. Los Angeles. In 1973, in an interview with Dick Kavett Moorhead, she recalled a difficult job before filming her climax, where she drowned against an unheated boiler. At the rehearsal, Welles said Moorehead (who was still obedient to shoot acting) was playing him like a little girl, a feature that went against what Moorehead had prepared. Then Velez told her to play like a crazy woman. After that, Welles told her to play it as she was completely intoxicated. Then he said play with a completely empty mind. Moorhead thought to himself: What in the world does he want? She made the scene 11 times, each with a different characteristic. For the twelfth time, Welles told Moorhead: Now play. After these rehearsals, her playing scene was a bit of hysteria, she was a bit of madness, she was a bit of a little girl ... He mixed it all up in my head, so the characterization I was playing was a bit of them; and it was terribly interesting. Moorhead went on to reflect on Heles's directorial abilities: He never directed, obviously; it's always directed in some strange oblique way where you thought: Well, it's not the case at all. But if you put your career or role in his hands he loved to shape you the way he wanted and it was always much better than you could do yourself.