Magnificent Ambersons

Pros: great story told by a great director
Cons: the studio hacked it up

Back in 1942, while the second world war was beginning in Europe, a big man came to a little mountain community to make a big movie. We will never see the director’s cut of The Magnificent Ambersons because the director ...

Pros: A beautifully crafted film that is rich in cinematic techniques.
Cons: More than 50 minutes of original footage was removed.

Throughout the Orson Welles genre, his stories and characters have been closely associated with determinism. A determinist is in theory a person that acts from the will, as the well occurrences in nature, it can also be interpenetrated as a social or...

Pros: This is (no pun intended) a magnificent production, nearly flawless in the first hour or so, awe-inspiring in its scope.
Cons: The last forty minutes of the work were destroyed by RKO. As it stands, it may be the best thing Welles did, so the tragedy of this is beyond remorse.

By Max Scheinin.

Times are a-changin' -- we're now venturing into a new millenium (or, as the purists like to remind us, will be next year), and so it's a perfectly legitimate time to look back at The Magnificent Ambersons, arguably Orson...

Pros: cinematography, cast, direction
Cons: studio edits, somber, melodramatic

"The Magnificent Ambersons" was Orson Welles' third film for RKO, following "Citizen Kane" and "Journey Into Fear". "Citizen Kane" had given wunderkind Welles four Oscar nominations, for Best Picture, Best...

Pros: direction by Welles
Cons: cuts made by RKO

A masterpiece from Orson Welles adapted from the Booth Tarkington novel, “The Magnificent Ambersons” (1942) is one of the greatest pictures ever made. This follow-up to “Citizen Kane” was taken out of Welles’ hands and cut from 132 minutes down to 88....