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.

Jonathan Rosenbaum

Chicago Reader

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