Francais | English | Espanõl

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Magnificent Ambersons
Image:Magnificent ambersons movieposter.jpg original film poster
Directed by	Orson Welles
Produced by	Orson Welles
Written by	Booth Tarkington (novel) Orson Welles
Starring	Joseph Cotten Dolores Costello Anne Baxter Tim Holt
Distributed by	RKO Radio Pictures Inc.
Release date(s)	July 10, 1942 (U.S. release)
Running time	88 min / 148 min (original cut) / 131 min (preview)
Language	English
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

The Magnificent Ambersons is a 1942 film based on the novel of the same name by Booth Tarkington. It was Orson Welles' second film. As he did for Citizen Kane, Welles acted as both writer and director. He did not star in this picture, but did provide voice-over narration.

The movie was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Agnes Moorehead), Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White (Stanley Cortez), and Best Picture. The film has also been deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. In 1972 and 1982, the film was included in Sight and Sound's list of the top ten films ever made.

Contents 1 Cast 2 Trivia 3 Remake 4 See also 5 External links

[edit] Cast

Actor	Role
Joseph Cotten	Eugene Morgan
Dolores Costello	Isabel Amberson Minafer
Anne Baxter	Lucy Morgan
Tim Holt	George Amberson Minafer
Agnes Moorehead	Fanny Minafer
Ray Collins	Jack Amberson
Erskine Sanford	Bronson
Richard Bennett	Major Amberson
Donald Dillaway	Wilbur Minafer

[edit] Trivia

The original rough cut of the film, which Welles felt required further editing, was about 135 minutes in length. After receiving a mixed response from a preview audience, several minutes were removed from the film by Robert Wise. The film was previewed again, and when the responses did not improve, RKO deleted over 40 additional minutes and re-shot the ending to the film (the re-shot ending is closer to the novel than Welles' original sequence). Welles was working in Brazil on another project for RKO at the time, which complicated his attempts to save the film from being edited (which ultimately failed). Details of Welles' battles involving the editing of "Ambersons" are included in the 1993 documentary "It's All True." The negatives for the excised portions of Ambersons were later destroyed in order to free up vault space, and while a print of the rough cut was sent to Welles in Brazil, it has yet to be found and is generally considered to be lost, as are the prints from the previews.

The editing of the movie was placed in the hands of film editor Robert Wise, who maintained that the original wasn't much better. Wise went on to direct films like The Sound of Music.

The Magnificent Ambersons is most likely the first film in movie history in which nearly all the credits are spoken by an offscreen voice, and not shown printed onscreen. The only credits we actually see on the screen are the RKO logo, then "A Mercury Production by Orson Welles", and then the title, "The Magnificent Ambersons". These are shown at the very beginning of the picture. At the end, we suddenly hear Orson Welles's voice announcing all the main credits. Each actor in the film is shown as he announces their name. As he announces each technical credit, a machine is shown performing that function - e.g., when Welles says announces the name of the film editor, we see an editing machine, and when he says "Sound recording by", we see a sound recording console working.

[edit] Remake

The Magnificent Ambersons was remade for television in 2002, starring Madeleine Stowe, Bruce Greenwood, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Gretchen Mol, Dina Merrill, Jennifer Tilly and James Cromwell. It was directed by Alfonso Arau, and received very negative reviews.

[edit] See also

• List of films recut by studio

[edit] External links

Image:Commons-logo.svg

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: The Magnificent Ambersons (1942 film)

• The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) at the Internet Movie Database
• The Magnificent Ambersons (2002) at the Internet Movie Database

Image:Drama-film-stub-icon.png

This 1940s drama film-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

Orson Welles
Citizen Kane (1941) • The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) • The Stranger (1946) • The Lady from Shanghai (1947) • Macbeth (1948) • Othello (1952) • Mr. Arkadin (1955) • Touch of Evil (1958) • The Trial (1962) • Chimes at Midnight (1965) • The Immortal Story (1968) • F for Fake (1974)es:The Magnificent Ambersons it:L'orgoglio degli Amberson fi:Mahtavat Ambersonit