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The Magnificent Ambersons
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1942 film by Orson Welles
OverviewAI-generated
The Magnificent Ambersons is a 1942 American drama film directed, produced, and written by Orson Welles. The production was handled by RKO Pictures and Mercury Theatre, with Stanley Cortez, Russell Metty, and Welles serving as directors of photography. The cast includes Joseph Cotten, Dolores Costello, Anne Baxter, and Tim Holt. Bernard Herrmann composed the score, while Robert Wise edited the film.
The black-and-white movie has a runtime of 88 minutes and was released in the United States in 1942. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. The film holds a rating of 7.6 on IMDb from 28,729 votes and a 7.3 average from 474 votes on TMDb. It is based on the novel of the same name and features themes including small town life, marriage proposals, and jealousy.
Synthesized by Vinony from 39 facts across 4 sources: Wikidata, TMDb, IMDb, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Film · TMDB
7.3The spoiled young heir to the decaying Amberson fortune comes between his widowed mother and the man she has always loved.
Cast
- 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
Themes
- small town
- marriage proposal
- jealousy
- love of one's life
- marriage crisis
- only child
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Key facts
- Directed by
- Orson Welles
- Screenplay by
- Orson Welles
- Based on
- The Magnificent Ambersons , 1918 novel, by Booth Tarkington
- Produced by
- Orson Welles
- Starring
- Joseph Cotten Dolores Costello Anne Baxter Tim Holt Agnes Moorehead Ray Collins Erskine Sanford Richard Bennett
- Cinematography
- Stanley Cortez
- Edited by
- Robert Wise
- Music by
- No credit in film
- Production companies
- RKO Radio Pictures , Mercury Productions
- Distributed by
- RKO Radio Pictures
- Release date
- July 10, 1942 ( 1942-07-10 )
- Running time
- 88 minutes, 131 minutes (original cut)
- Country
- United States
- Language
- English
- Budget
- $1.1 million
- Box office
- $1 million (US rentals) , 210,966 admissions (France, 1946)
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- film
- Part of
- National Film Registry
- Genre
- drama film
- Country of origin
- United States
- Original language
- English language
- Based on
- The Magnificent Ambersons
- Director
- Orson Welles
- Screenwriter
- Orson Welles
- Cast member
- Dorothy Vaughan
- Composer
- Bernard Herrmann
- Producer
- Orson Welles
- Production company
- Mercury Theatre
- Cinematographer
- Orson Welles
- Duration
- 88
- FilmAffinity ID
- 352696
- Distribution format
- video on demand
- Official website
- ambersons.com
- Image
- Ambersons-lobby-card-6.jpg
Show 13 more facts
- Commons category
- The Magnificent Ambersons (film)
- publication date
- 1942-07-07
- film editor
- Robert Wise
- title
- The Magnificent Ambersons
- color
- black-and-white
- distributed by
- Netflix
- production designer
- Albert S. D'Agostino
- after a work by
- Booth Tarkington
- costume designer
- Edward Stevenson
- assessment
- Bechdel test
- review score
- 89%
- capital cost
- 1100000
- aspect ratio (W:H)
- Academy ratio
Sources (11)
via Wikidata · CC0
~23 min read
Encyclopedic overview
The Magnificent Ambersons is a 1942 American period drama written, produced, and directed by Orson Welles. Welles adapted Booth Tarkington's Pulitzer Prize–winning 1918 novel about the declining fortunes of a wealthy Midwestern family and the social changes brought by the automobile age. The film stars Joseph Cotten, Dolores Costello, Anne Baxter, Tim Holt, Agnes Moorehead and Ray Collins, with Welles providing the narration.
Welles lost control of the editing of The Magnificent Ambersons to RKO, and the final version released to audiences differed significantly from his rough cut of the film. More than an hour of footage was cut by the studio, which also shot and substituted a happier ending. Although Welles's extensive notes for how he wished the film to be cut have survived, the excised footage was destroyed. Composer Bernard Herrmann insisted his credit be removed when, like the film itself, his score was heavily edited by the studio.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “The Magnificent Ambersons” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.