The Magnificent Ambersons

The spoiled young heir to the decaying Amberson fortune comes between his widowed mother and the man she has always loved.

• Director: Fred Fleck
• Genre:Drama
• Runtime:88 minutes

Cast

Joseph Cotten : Eugene
Dolores Costello: Isabel
Anne Baxter : Lucy
Tim Holt : George
Agnes Moorehead : Fanny

The film, set in the early 1900s, tells the story of the Ambersons, an upper-class Indianapolis family, focusing on Major Amberson’s grandson, George. At the beginning of the film, George is home on break from college, and his mother and grandfather (Richard Bennett) hold a reception in his honor. Among the guests are the widowed Eugene Morgan, a prosperous automobile manufacturer who has just returned to town after a twenty-year absence, and his daughter, Lucy (Anne Baxter). George instantly takes to the beautiful and charming Lucy, but seems to scorn and dislike Eugene almost instinctively.

In a flashback, the history between George’s mother, Isabel, and Eugene is revealed. Twenty years ago, Major Amberson’s daughter Isabel (Dolores Costello), is unintentionally humiliated in public by her high-spirited beau – Eugene Morgan (Joseph Cotten) – who, with a group of other men, serenades her after having had a few drinks. Eugene drunkenly falls and breaks his bass viol. In accordance with the decorum of the era and the mores of “high society,” Isabel breaks off their relationship and decides to marry the bland Wilbur Minafer (Donald Dillaway) instead. They have one child, George Amberson Minafer (Tim Holt), whom she spoils. As George grows up, he bullies and dominates children and adults alike, and many in the town long for the day when the superior, arrogant, immature mama’s boy will get his “comeuppance.”

The film returns to the early 1900s, and traces the courtship of George and Lucy, as well his college days. George is called home from college with the news that his father, Wilbur Minafer, has died. After George graduates from college, he continues to court Lucy, but also continues in his dislike of Eugene, especially after learning from his uncle Jack Amberson (Ray Collins) and aunt Fanny (Agnes Moorehead) that Eugene and Isabel had once been an item. He is especially enraged by his aunt’s implication that not only did Isabel always love Eugene, even during her life with George’s father, Wilbur, but that people in town are gossiping about this juicy tidbit. Eugene’s automobile plant continues to prosper, and soon he builds a mansion to challenge the magnificence of the Ambersons’. In addition to being worried about his mother’s reputation (though this concern may be a bit of a red herring), George is repeatedly rejected in his proposals of marriage to Lucy, which intensifies his dislike for Eugene, whose ideals—including that a young man should engage in productive work—George thinks are influencing her decision. George, in contrast, after graduating from college, steadfastly insists that “being” is better than “doing” for a gentleman of his social stature, and refuses to do anything more than live a life of leisure in his grandfather’s mansion—and with his grandfather’s money. Read more