--- title: "The Magnificent Ambersons" year: 1942 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-magnificent-ambersons" fi1m_score: 89 critics_score: 86 critics_reviews: 14 published: "2026-09-20T00:43:47.709435+00:00" updated: "2026-09-20T00:43:48.263612+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) Directed by Orson Welles · 1h 28m · MPA NR · Drama, Romance **Fi1m score: 89** · Critics 86 from 14 reviews *In a sentence:* Old money, a new motor car, and one spoilt young man certain he can shout the century back > Orson Welles’s second film was taken from him and cut by a third, and what is left is still one of the finest American films we know. The ball is a marvel, Agnes Moorehead is unbearable to watch in the best sense, and the last reel is somebody else’s. ## Synopsis The Ambersons are the richest family for miles and their mansion the largest house anyone has seen. Isabel Amberson Minafer (Dolores Costello) turns down her suitor Eugene Morgan (Joseph Cotten) after he embarrasses her with a drunken serenade, and marries a duller man instead. Their only son, George Minafer (Tim Holt), grows up spoilt, and the town waits for his comeuppance. Twenty years on, Eugene returns a widower with a grown daughter, Lucy Morgan (Anne Baxter), and a factory that builds motor cars. At the ball the Ambersons throw for George’s homecoming, George wants Lucy and takes against her father, while his aunt Fanny Minafer (Agnes Moorehead) and uncle Jack (Ray Collins) watch Isabel and Eugene find each other again. ## Review Orson Welles narrates the opening of *The Magnificent Ambersons* himself, over a run of hats, streetcars and men changing their coats for dinner, and the voice tells you at once what sort of film this is: fond, amused, and already in mourning for what it is showing you. He made it the year after [*Citizen Kane*](https://film.one/film/citizen-kane), from Booth Tarkington’s novel, and RKO took it away from him, cut around forty minutes and shot a new ending. What survives runs 88 minutes. We think it is among the best American films ever made, and we say so with the damage in full view. The story is a small one. Isabel Amberson Minafer (Dolores Costello) turns down Eugene Morgan (Joseph Cotten) after he embarrasses her with a serenade, and marries a duller man. Their son George (Tim Holt) is raised to believe the town exists for him, and the town waits, with some pleasure, for his comeuppance. Twenty years later Eugene comes back a widower with a daughter, Lucy Morgan (Anne Baxter), and a factory that makes motor cars. George wants Lucy and cannot stand her father. Isabel, we suspect from her first look at Eugene, has never stopped wanting him. The ball is where the film declares itself. Stanley Cortez takes his camera up the staircase and through the rooms of Albert S. D’Agostino’s mansion in movements that go on far longer than anyone in 1942 expected a camera to move, picking up conversations, leaving them, finding them again a floor higher. Edward Stevenson dresses the women in white and pale silk so that Tim Holt’s black evening coat cuts through the frame like a complaint. The house is so large that people stand at either end of a room and are both in focus, and Welles uses that to let two conversations happen at once. It is showing off, and it is also exactly how a party feels when you are young and certain of yourself. Agnes Moorehead plays Fanny Minafer, George’s aunt, a spinster who has spent twenty years in love with Eugene and has no way of saying so. Her great scene is in the kitchen, at night, feeding George strawberry shortcake and fishing for news of who Eugene danced with. Cortez holds the two of them in one shot for what feels like minutes; George eats, Fanny hovers, and every question she asks is about something else. We watched it with a lump in the throat we had not planned on. Nothing happens except that a woman gives herself away to a boy who does not notice, and Moorehead does it with her hands and the pitch of her voice. Holt is braver than he is often given credit for. George is a prig, and Holt refuses to make him charming, which is why the film’s argument about privilege lands. Ray Collins, as Uncle Jack, is the only Amberson who can see what is coming and is too comfortable to do anything about it. Richard Bennett’s Major, the old man who built the fortune, has a scene by the fire near the end that we will not describe, except to say Bennett barely speaks and we thought about it for days. Bernard Herrmann’s music is best in the snow, where a sleigh, a stalled car and a sung chorus turn a country outing into something like a hymn for a way of life that is finishing. Then the seams show. The middle stretch skips through years in a few minutes, characters drop out of the story without a scene to explain why, and the final reel is plainly not Welles’s. Robert Wise’s cutting in the first hour is patient and confident; after that it starts to hurry, and the ending arrives with a brightness the rest of the film has spent 80 minutes earning the right to refuse. Costello, too, is a little faint next to everyone else, though we can see why Welles wanted a woman who seems already half gone. Most critics rank it just behind *Kane*, and we would put it just ahead. *Kane* is a film about a man; this is a film about a house, and about the people who mistook the house for themselves. Watch it at night, in one sitting, and forgive the last ten minutes. They were not his fault. *Fi1m score 89, published 20 September 2026.* ### Reviews we read (14) - **The Times**, Kevin Maher (★★★★★): The review calls it exquisite film-making with frames to die for and deft handling of the story about a rich snob's comeuppance, highlighted by top performances especially from Agnes Moorehead. It is an outright classic, though not quite on the level of Citizen Kane, despite the studio cuts. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/film/article/the-magnificent-ambersons-1942-review-exquisite-film-making-lpgp2xnkd) - **Los Angeles Times**, Justin Chang (90/100, inferred): The film remains one of the great ravaged masterpieces of American cinema. It singles out the visual language of deep-focus tracking shots and rich expressionist shadows, along with the ensemble acting, for particular praise. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-critics-choice-20181129-story.html) - **RogerEbert.com**, Jim Emerson (90/100, inferred): The film is a memory-movie masterpiece that goes deeper into its characters than Citizen Kane. It singles out Agnes Moorehead's towering performance as Aunt Fanny for particular praise. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/scanners/the-magnificent-ambersons-whats-past-is-prologue) - **Slant Magazine**, Chuck Bowen (90/100, inferred): The critic calls the film a tragic masterpiece and a classic whose limitations from studio interference enhance its themes of decline and artistic struggle. He singles out the deep-focus compositions, flowing tracking shots, and Agnes Moorehead's subtle, heartbreaking performance for particular praise. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/the-magnificent-ambersons/) - **The Independent**, David Thomson (90/100, inferred): The critic argues that the surviving 88-minute version remains arguably the most moving American film ever made, a heartbreakingly beautiful work about loss, manners, and the downfall of privilege despite studio mutilation. He singles out the extended takes, moving camera work, decor, and performances, especially Agnes Moorehead's, for particular praise. [Read](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/film-greatness-lies-in-what-is-lost-1288784.html) - **The Telegraph** (90/100, inferred): The piece argues Ambersons is Welles's true masterpiece, a thoughtful epic about American wealth, social change and the advent of the motor car, with a spiritually dark tone and brilliant execution marred only by studio interference that cut 40 minutes and altered the ending. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/citizen-kane-overrated-orson-welles-classic-isnt/) - **Time Out**, GA (90/100, inferred): Despite being hacked about by RKO, the film remains a masterpiece for its magical re-creation of a gentler pre-industrial age and the Ambersons' mansion life. Welles offers an ambivalent view of social change under the new industrial age, with strong community elements alongside snobbery, delivered through immaculate period detail and virtuoso long-take acting. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-magnificent-ambersons) - **The AV Club**, Ignatiy Vishnevetsky (85/100, inferred): The critic describes the film as still masterly and the benchmark for stories of family decline, noting its wit, emotional sincerity, and innovative use of nostalgia and memory. He highlights Welles's bold experimentation with long takes and darkness, as well as strong performances, particularly by Joseph Cotten and Agnes Moorehead. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/75-years-later-orson-welles-troubled-follow-up-to-cit-1798259320) - **The Guardian** (80/100, inferred): The critic sees the film as a powerful exploration of class struggle and the transition from gentry to industrial bourgeoisie in early 20th-century America, with strong socialist undertones and innovative visual storytelling. Despite studio butchering and a tacked-on ending, it remains a fascinating and funereal work that foreshadows later Welles films. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/jul/10/the-magnificent-ambersons-at-80-orson-welles) - **The New Yorker**, Pauline Kael (80/100, inferred): The film has greater depth than Citizen Kane and features great sequences of intense family squabbles. It singles out Agnes Moorehead's uncannily powerful performance as the hysterical-spinster aunt for particular praise. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/magnificent-ambersons) - **Empire**, Kim Newman (70/100, inferred): The critic finds that the released version still contains enough vintage Welles magic to endure as an unfinished American classic of change, longing and loss, with its grace, cinematography and performances marking a superior achievement even when mutilated. He singles out the glittering ball, snow party outing and encounters with love and death in the mansion as dazzling highlights. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/magnificent-ambersons-review/) - **Film Comment**, Michael Koresky (70/100, inferred): The critic explores the film's use of the word 'queer' as a lens for its themes of resistance to change, social othering, and comeuppance. Welles's butchered masterpiece is praised for its spectacular realization and pitiless portrayal of privilege and decline despite studio interference. [Read](https://www.filmcomment.com/queer-now-then-1942/) - **The Playlist**, The Playlist Staff (A-): The critic finds the surviving version of this RKO-mutilated follow-up to Citizen Kane still great despite heavy cuts and a compromised ending. They single out the early Christmas ball sequence as an astonishing piece of filmmaking and praise its accomplished, dark, and ensemble-driven take on American privilege. [Read](https://theplaylist.net/essential-films-orson-welles-retrospective-directorial-career-20150506/) - **Collider**, Colin Wessman (85/100, inferred): The critic argues that even the heavily edited 88-minute version remains a great film on par with Citizen Kane, full of visual wonders and personal resonance despite studio meddling. They single out the charming first half, the ball sequence, and the novelistic attention to detail for particular praise. [Read](https://collider.com/magnificent-ambersons-on-par-citizen-kane/) ## Details - **Director:** Orson Welles - **Director:** Orson Welles - **Screenplay:** Orson Welles - **Novel:** Booth Tarkington - **Cinematography:** Stanley Cortez - **Editor:** Robert Wise - **Music:** Bernard Herrmann - **Production design:** Albert S. D'Agostino - **Costume design:** Edward Stevenson - **Producer:** Orson Welles - **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; Erskine Sanford as Roger Bronson; Richard Bennett as Major Amberson - **Runtime:** 1h 28m - **Certificate (MPA):** NR - **Release (the US):** 10 July 1942 - **Genres:** Drama, Romance - **Budget:** $1 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylPT4SV8WDE ## Where to watch in the US - Amazon Prime Video: rent $3.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $9.99, hd *Checked 2026-09-20.* Also available in: AR, BR, CA, CL, CO, EC, ES, FR, IT, MX, PA, PE, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Academy Awards 1943: Best Art Direction, Black and White (nominated); Best Cinematography, Black-and-White (nominated); Best Picture (nominated); Best Supporting Actress (nominated) ## If you liked this - *The Leopard* (1963): Visconti’s Sicilian aristocrats waltz while the world changes; the ball outlasts the empire. - *The Age of Innocence* (1993), Fi1m 86: Scorsese on New York old money, where a glance across a drawing room ends a life. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-age-of-innocence.md) - *Fanny and Alexander* (1982), Fi1m 92: Bergman’s family mansion at Christmas, seen through a child who does not yet know it ends. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/fanny-and-alexander.md) - *Meet Me in St. Louis* (1944): The same American decade, with the lights on and the dread sung away. - *Touch of Evil* (1958): Welles let loose again, this time in a border town, with the same long, prowling camera. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/the-magnificent-ambersons