Film Details

Some critics consider Orson Welles’ second film superior to his debut, Citizen Kane (see 11/9 at 7:00). Which is saying a lot because Kane is a great film and Ambersons was mutilated by the studio. (More than an hour of footage was cut, and Welles’ original ending was re-shot and changed; all of it is lost forever.) But what remains is sublime: a lyrical and poignant chronicle of the decline of a wealthy Indianapolis family at the beginning of the 20th century, during the advent of the automobile. From Booth Tarkington’s novel. With Tim Holt, Joseph Cotten, Anne Baxter, and Agnes Moorehead; music by Bernard Herrmann. 88 min.