The Magnificent Ambersons
Composite Score: 85.93
Starring: Tim Holt, Joseph Cotten, Dolores Costello, Ann Baxter, Agnes Moorehead, Ray Collins, Erskine Sanford, Richard Bennett, and Orson Welles
Director: Orson Welles
Writer: Orson Welles
Genres: Drama, Romance
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Box Office: $1.00 million worldwide
Why should you Watch This Film?
The Magnificent Ambersons is Orson Welles’s film adaptation of Booth Tarkington’s novel of the same name about a declining American aristocratic family in the Midwest. The film focuses on George Amberson Minafer, the final heir of the Amberson and Minafer families who has been spoiled by his mother and has no aspirations to anything beyond his inheritance. It stars Tim Holt as George, joined by Dolores Costello as his mother Isabel, Don Dillaway as his father Wilbur, Agnes Moorehead as Wilbur’s spinster sister Fanny, Ray Collins as Isabel’s brother Jack, Joseph Cotten as Isabel’s childhood sweetheart Eugene Morgan, and Anne Baxter as his daughter Lucy. As it examines the contrast between old money and new money in the turn-of-the-century United States, it also offers commentary on the impact of “progress” – specifically that of the automobile – on the old way of life. It received Oscar nominations for Best Black and White Art Direction, Best Black and White Cinematography, Best Supporting Actress (Moorehead), and Best Picture, and continues to be a subject of discussion among cinephiles for the infamous involvement of studios in its editing process against Welles’s wishes.
Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?
Welles is not a filmmaker that I’d necessarily describe as optimistic, and that pessimistic realism comes through quite potently in The Magnificent Ambersons. First, he gives us quite possibly the least likable protagonist ever put to screen – to the point that I feel like Welles didn’t even want to root for the character. Then he shows us that, much as we hate George, he does make some great points about the nature of progress and invention simply for the sake of invention, all before leaving us with a story full of unrequited or unfulfilled loves and dashed dreams. It’s not a film that’ll leave you with warm fuzzies at the end (at least not in terms of its story). It can get a bit heavy-handed at points, and I don’t know that all audiences will love where Welles takes us on his journey.
So wait, why should you Watch This Film?
Quite simply, you should watch this film because Orson Welles was, is, and always will be him when it comes to cinema. Everything about the way that he puts The Magnificent Ambersons together screams the merits of Welles’s unique directorial style that blends the soapiness and narrative structure of radio dramas with the visually striking capabilities of movie magic – lights, sound, angles, composition, saturation, all of it. He’s cast a solid crew of actors to populate the story that he’s telling on the screen, and he brings out the best in all of them, each in their own way. Agnes Moorehead is certainly the standout as the tragic Aunt Fanny, pining away for a man who never loved her while taking care of an ungrateful nephew and sister-in-law, but all of the performances, while not necessarily on her level, bring something to the table that make these characters worth knowing and their story worth telling. It’s that ability to get his actors to make their characters into real characters, whether sympathetic, loathsome, relatable, pitiable, empathetic, misunderstood, or otherwise, that works so well with the rest of his filmmaking.
Orson Welles took what should be a depressing, bleak look at the outlook of America in a post-industrial world and made it into a gripping film that looks wonderful even as it beats you over the head with the inevitability of its conclusion, earning The Magnificent Ambersons a place among the greats. The bleak outlook that the film leaves you with might mean it doesn’t immediately shoot to the top of everyone’s must-watch lists, but Welle’s talent as a filmmaker should be enough to keep it lurking there in case of a rainy day. Currently, this film can be streamed for free with ads on Tubi if you’d like to check it out.
