The Magnificent Ambersons

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  • Theatrical Trailer

Movie Info & Cast

Director:

Orson Welles, Fred Fleck, Robert Wise

Writer:

Booth Tarkington, Joseph Cotten, Jack Moss

Release Date:

Jul 10, 1942

Runtime:

1hr 28m

Synopsis

The spoiled young heir to the decaying Amberson fortune comes between his widowed mother and the man she has always loved.

Cast

  • Joseph Cotten
  • Dolores Costello
  • Anne Baxter
  • Tim Holt
  • Agnes Moorehead
  • Ray Collins
  • Erskine Sanford
  • Richard Bennett
  • Orson Welles
  • Edwin August

Letterboxd User Reviews

3.9
66.2K
44.7K
16.3K
RATINGS 142 FANS
3.9
  • Apr 6, 2014

    "I wrote the script and directed it. My name is Orson Welles. This is a Mercury Production." --the most heartbreaking line in the film.

    1.2K Likes
    Michael Strenski
    Michael Strenski
    Aug 24, 2013

    *SOME SPOILERS. ALSO, IF YOU AREN'T INTERESTED IN ORSON WELLES, YOU WILL FIND THIS BORING. EVEN IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN ORSON WELLES, YOU MAY FIND THIS BORING* "Something had happened. A thing which years ago had been the eagerest hope of many, many good citizens of the…

    792 Likes
    Rick Burin
    Rick Burin
    Oct 13, 2015

    93/100 "Rosebud" in motion. Within its artificial snowflakes are the rampaging feelings of jealousy and the crumbling foundations of success, and in that sense, it's the film that is inseparably Orson Welles. The Magnificent Ambersons is flawed in a truly fascinating…

    439 Likes
    SilentDawn
    SilentDawn
  •
    Jun 5, 2020

    agnes moorehead scream-sobbing because she only has 28 dollars to her name is a little too relatable if you ask me

    412 Likes
    eely 👻
    eely 👻
    Jan 31, 2023

    One of Welles most impressive marriages between dramatic force and his essaystic preferences. Even if narrative cohesion gets certainly weaker in the back half (and I do hope everyone, but Jo Cotten, who was involved in the butchering is still burning in hell today), at the…

    325 Likes
    Filipe Furtado
    Filipe Furtado
    Jan 28, 2019

    *Was a 93, now a 100* "George Amberson-Minafer walked home through the strange streets of what seemed to be a strange city. For the town was growing... changing... it was heaving up in the middle, incredibly; it was spreading incredibly. And as it heaved and spread, it…

    315 Likes
    SilentDawn
    SilentDawn
  •
    Jul 11, 2020

    Now that I'm an elderly man, I connected with this movie like never before. That said, still not crazy about the last scene where Georgie Amberson abruptly dies on his way back to his home planet.

    256 Likes
    Will Sloan
    Will Sloan
    Jan 11, 2026

    MAGNICENT AMBERSONS REDUX. I've always withheld judgement on Welles' MA. It was taken away from him, recut, he was Brazil, it was a lost masterpiece, blah, blah, blah. I've now seen the 133min "reconstructed" version and changed my mind. Welles didn't step away from the…

    236 Likes
    Paul Schrader
    Paul Schrader
    Aug 31, 2018

    I find there to be a mild bemusement when thinking of Orson Welles expecting mass audiences to empathize with George Amberson Minafer

    237 Likes
    Neil Bahadur
    Neil Bahadur

Queue Community Reviews

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Top Reviews
  • Bea
    Bea liked
    The Magnificent Ambersons

    4/5 ⭐️ If you haven’t followed Orson Welles’ work, you’ll probably find this movie boring. But if you’re familiar with his films, you’ll realize it’s a hidden gem that hardly anyone talks about. This was Welles’ second film (after Citizen Kane) as director, screenwriter, and narrator, although he…

    2M

Atom Users Reviews

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Metacritic

93
metacritic
Based on 17 Critics
8.4

USER SCORE (11)

Universal acclaim based on 11 Reviews
100

For the most part, this is a very close adaptation of Booth Tarkington's underrated novel about the relentless decline of a wealthy midwestern family through the rise of industrialization, though Welles makes the story even more powerful through his extraordinary mise en scene and some of the finest acting to be found in American movies.

Metacritic review by Jonathan Rosenbaum
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Chicago Reader
88

The bold cinematic techniques Welles employed in Citizen Kane are put to even more sophisticated use here.

Josh Larsen
LarsenOnFilm

Frequently Asked Questions

How long is The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)?
The movie is 1hr 28min long.
What's The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) about?
The spoiled young heir to the decaying Amberson fortune comes between his widowed mother and the man she has always loved.
Who's the cast of The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)?
  • Joseph Cotten as Eugene Morgan
  • Dolores Costello as Isabel Amberson Minafer
  • Anne Baxter as Lucy Morgan
  • Tim Holt as George Minafer
  • Agnes Moorehead as Fanny Minafer
  • Ray Collins as Jack Amberson
  • Erskine Sanford as Roger Bronson
  • Richard Bennett as Major Amberson
  • Orson Welles as Narrator
  • Edwin August as Citizen
Who's the director behind The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)?
Orson Welles, Fred Fleck and Robert Wise directed The Magnificent Ambersons (1942).