"My name is Orson Welles"

December 23, 2014 3:47 PM

Just finished watching "The Magnificent Ambersons," and missed a crucial plot point. What specifically drove the surviving clan into poverty? There was no reference to the grandfather having made bad investments; it just sounded like they couldn't find the deed to the house. I could go read the book, but it's not the same plot. Who got the mansion?
posted by mmiddle to Media & Arts (5 answers total)

Best answer: The deleted scenes (per Wikipedia) answer some of those questions:

6. The second porch scene, also a long take, lasting three minutes. Fanny and Major Amberson discussed his financial problems. The two decided to invest in a headlight company. It is this investment that later ruins them.
...
14. After Fanny and George move out of the Amberson mansion, George wanders through town and gets his comeuppance. Cinematographer Stanley Cortez filmed a long tracking shot revealing the empty and decaying mansion.

posted by Etrigan at 4:31 PM on December 23, 2014 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Okay, thanks - really poor editing, then, for the Netflix version at least.
posted by mmiddle at 4:36 PM on December 23, 2014

Okay, thanks - really poor editing, then, for the Netflix version at least.

That version is EVERY version, Welles was pretty pissed about it. As is every film historian and film lover.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 4:54 PM on December 23, 2014 [7 favorites]

Tarkington's book also suggests that Major Amberson wasted much of the fortune he made after the war just keeping up appearances and was too weak to tell anyone about their financial straits.
posted by hadlexishere at 5:26 AM on December 24, 2014 [2 favorites]

I think hadlexishere's answer is also strongly implied in Welles' film--there's no single reason the family lost its fortune--just an unwillingness to embrace change and progress with the times, while refusing to alter their standard of living.
posted by crush-onastick at 12:23 PM on December 24, 2014