The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) - full transcript

The young, handsome, but somewhat wild Eugene Morgan wants to marry Isabel Amberson, daughter of a rich upper-class family, but she instead marries dull and steady Wilbur Minafer. Their only child, George, grows up a spoiled brat. Years later, Eugene comes back, now a mature widower and a successful automobile maker. After Wilbur dies, Eugene again asks Isabel to marry him, and she is receptive. But George resents the attentions paid to his mother, and he and his whacko aunt Fanny manage to sabotage the romance. A series of disasters befall the Ambersons and George, and he gets his come-uppance in the end.

The magnificence of the

Ambersons began in 1873.

Their splendor lasted

throughout all the years...

that saw their midland town

spread and darken into a city.

In that town, in those days...

all the women who wore silk or velvet knew

all the other women who wore silk or velvet.

And everybody knew everybody

else family horse and carriage.

The only public conveyance was the streetcar.

A lady could whistle to it

from an upstairs window...

and the car would halt

at once and wait for her.

While she shut the window...

put on her hat and coat,

went downstairs, found an umbrella...

told the girl what to have for dinner

and came forth from the house.

Too slow for us nowadays...

because the faster we're

carried, the less time we have to spare.

During the earlier years of this period...

while bangs and bustles were

having their way with women...

there were seen men

of all ages to whom a hat...

meant only that rigid tall silk thing

known to impudent as a stovepipe.

But the long contagion

of the derby had arrived.

One season, the crown of this hat would

be a bucket, next it would be a spoon.

Every house still kept its boot-Jack.

But high-top boots gave way

to shoes and congress gaiters.

And these were played through fashions that

shaped them now with toes like box ends and...

now with toes like

the prows of racing shells.

Trousers with a crease

were considered plebeian.

The crease proved that the

garment had lain upon a shelf...

and hence, was ready-made.

With evening dress, a

gentleman wore a tan overcoat.

So short that his black coattails hung

visible 5 inches below the overcoat.

But after a season or two he lengthened

his overcoat to it touched his heels.

And he passed out of his tight

trousers into trousers like great bags.

In those days, they had time for everything.

Time for sleigh rides and balls

and assemblies and cotillions.

And open house on New Year's,

and all day picnics in the woods.

And even the prettiest of

all vanished customs, the serenade.

Of a summer night, young men would bring

an orchestra under a pretty girl's window.

And flute, harp, fiddle,

cello, coronet, bass viol...

would presently release their

melodies to the dulcet stars.

Against so homespun a background

the magnificence of the Ambersons...

was as conspicuous as

a brass band at a funeral.

- There it is.

- The Amberson mansion.

- The pride of the town.

- Well, well.

Sixty thousand

dollars for the woodwork alone.

- Hot and cold running water?

- Upstairs and down.

Stationary washstands in

every last bedroom in the place.

- Is Miss Amberson at home?

- No sir, Mr. Morgan.

- Miss Amberson is not home.

- Well, thanks Sam.

No sir, Miss Amberson ain't

home to you Mr. Morgan.

Thanks.

- I guess she's still mad at him.

- Who?

- Isabel.

- Major Amberson's daughter.

Eugene Morgan's her best beau.

Took a bit too much to drink

the other night right out here.

And stepped clean through the

bass fiddle serenading her.

Well, well.

I haven't seen her

since she got back from abroad.

Isabel?

Well sir, I don't know as

I know just how to put it.

But she's kind of a

delightful looking young lady.

Wilbur? Wilbur Minafer?

- I never thought he get her.

- Well, what do you know?

Well, Wilbur may not be any Apollo as it

were but he's a steady young businessman.

Wilbur Minafer.

Looks like Isabel is pretty

sensible for such a showy girl.

To think of her taking him.

Yes, just because a man

any woman would like a

thousand times better was

little wild one night at a serenade.

What she minds was his making a

clown of himself in her own front yard.

Made her think he didn't care much about her.

She's probably mistaken but it's too

late for her to think anything else now.

The wedding will be a

big Amberson style thing.

Raw oysters floating in scooped out

blocks of ice and a band from out of town.

And then Wilbur will take Isabel on that

carefullest little wedding trip he can manage.

And she'll be a good wife to him.

But they'll have the worst spoiled

lot of children this town will ever see.

- How on earth you figure that out Mrs. Foster?

- She couldn't love Wilbur, could she?

Well, it'll all go to her children.

And she'll ruin them.

The prophetess proved to

be mistaken in a single detail merely.

Wilbur and Isabel did not have

children, they had only one.

Only one but I'd like to know if he isn't

spoiled enough for a whole carload.

Again, she found none to challenge her.

George Amberson Minafer, the major's

one grandchild was a princely terror.

Hey. Why...

Golly, I guess you think you own this town.

There were people, grown people they

were who expressed themselves longingly.

They did hope to live to see the day, they

said when that boy would get his comeuppance.

- His what?

- His comeuppance.

Something is bound to take him

down someday, I only want to be there.

Yeah, look at that girly-curly.

Yeah, look at that girly-curly.

Say bub, where you

steal your mother's old sash?

Your sister stole it for me. She stole it

off our old clothesline and gave it to me.

You go get your hair cut.

Yeah, and I haven't got any sister.

Yeah. I know you haven't at home.

I mean the one that's in jail.

I dare you to get out of that pony cart.

I dare you outside that gate.

- Dare you halfway here, I dare you.

- Here I come...

- Father, mother...

- Boy, boy...

Why don't you pick on someone

your own size, you big bully?

And you, quit it.

Hey boy.

Mother.

- Boy, boy.

- Mother.

That be enough of that.

You stop that, you.

I guess you don't know who I am.

Yes I do, and you're a

disgrace to your mother.

You shut up about my mother.

She ought to be ashamed

as a bad boy like you...

You pull down your vest, you Billy goat, you.

Pull down your vest and

wipe off your chin and go to...

What?

This was heard not only by myself but by

my wife and the lady who lives next door.

He's an old liar.

Georgie, you mustn't say liar.

Dear, did you say what he says you did?

Well, Grandpa wouldn't wipe a

shoe on that old storyteller.

Do you must...

I mean, none of us Ambersons

wouldn't have anything to do with him.

- That's not what we're talking about.

- I guess if he wanted seeing of us,

he have to go around to the side door.

- No, you shouldn't say...

- Please, Father.

From his letter, he doesn't seem

a very tactful person but...

- He's just riffraff.

- Oh, you mustn't say so.

And you must promise me never

to use those bad words again.

I promise not to.

Unless I get mad at somebody.

Wait till they send him away to school.

Then he'll get it.

They'll knock the stuffing out of him.

But George returned with the same stuffing.

Got any sense? See here, does

your mother know you're out?

Turn down your pants, you would be dude.

When Mr. George Amberson Minafer came home

for the holidays in his sophomore year...

nothing about him encouraged any hope

that he had received his comeuppance.

Cards were out for a ball in his honor.

And this pageant of the tenantry was the

last of the great long remembered dances...

that everybody talked about.

Hello, there.

Suppose that's where They will put

the major when his time comes.

Now, don't you look at me like that major.

- Georgie, you look fine.

- Sam.

There was a time though,

in your fourth month that you...

were so puny nobody thought you'd live.

- Where's Fanny?

- Remember very well indeed.

Isabel.

- Eugene.

- Your boy Isabel?

- George, this is Mr. Morgan.

- Remember you very well indeed.

George, you never saw me before in your life.

But from now on, you're

going to see a lot of me, I hope.

- I hope so too Eugene.

- Where's Wilbur?

You'll find him in the game

room with some of the others.

- He never was much for parties, remember?

- Yes, I remember.

- I'll come back for a dance.

- Please do.

- Eugene Morgan, Major Amberson.

- Well, well, well.

Remember you very well indeed.

Remember you very well indeed.

- Miss Morgan.

- Jack.

- Gene.

- Remember you very well indeed.

You don't remember her either Georgie.

But, of course you will.

Miss Morgan is from out of town.

You might take her up to the dancing, I

think you pretty well done your duty here.

Be delighted.

What did you say your name was?

- Morgan.

- Oh?

- Well, I'm certainly glad you're back.

- It's nice to be back too Jack.

- It's been a long time.

- Who's that?

Oh, I didn't catch his name

when my mother presented him to me.

- You mean the queer-looking duck?

- The who?

- The queer-looking duck.

- Oh, I wouldn't say that.

The one with him is my Uncle Jack, honorable

Jack Amberson, I thought everybody knew him.

He looks as though everybody

ought to, seems to run in your family.

I suppose must everybody does know him.

On this part of the country especially,

Uncle Jack is pretty well-known.

- He's a congressman.

- Oh really?

Oh yes, the family always

likes to have someone in Congress.

A sort of good thing in one way.

- Hello Lucy.

- Hello.

- Hello Lucy.

- Hello Argyle.

- Hello Lucy.

- Hello.

How all these ducks get to know you so quick?

Oh, I've been here a week.

Seems to me you've

been pretty busy, most of these...

- Hello Lucy.

- Hello.

Most of these ducks, I don't know

what my mother invited them for anyway.

Don't you like them?

Oh, used to be president of a club that we

had here and some of them belonged to it.

But I don't care much for

that sort of thing anymore.

I really don't see why

my mother invited them.

Maybe she didn't want to

offend their fathers and mothers.

I hardly think that my mother need worry

about offending anybody in this old town.

Must be wonderful Mr.

Amberson, Mr. Minafer I mean.

- What must be wonderful?

- To be so important as that.

- Oh, that isn't important.

- Good evening.

Good evening.

Anybody that really is

anybody ought to be able to do...

about as they like in

their own town, I should think.

- Hello.

- Well...

- How's that for a bit of freshness?

- What was?

That queer looking duck

waving his hand at me like that.

- He meant me.

- Oh, he did?

Everybody seems to mean you.

- See here, are you engaged to anybody?

- No.

- Certainly seem to know a good many people.

- Papa does.

He used to live here in

this town before I was born.

- Where you live now?

- We lived all over.

What you keep moving around so for?

- Is he a promoter?

- No, he's an inventor.

Oh? What's he invented?

- Georgie.

- Grandfather.

Just lately he's been working on

a new kind of horseless carriage.

Horseless carriage? Automobile? Well, well.

- Don't you approve of them Mr. Minafer?

- Oh yes, they're all right.

- You know, I'm just beginning to understand.

- Understand what?

What?

What it means to be a

real Amberson in this town.

Papa told me something about it before we

came but I see he didn't say half enough.

Did your father say he knew

the family before he left here?

I don't think he meant to boast

of it, he spoke of it quite calmly.

Most girls are usually pretty fresh, they

ought go to a man's college for about a year.

They get taught a few things about freshness.

Look here, who sent you those

flowers you keep making such a fuss over?

- Lucy.

- He did.

- Who's he?

- The queer looking duck.

I come for that dance.

Oh him, I suppose he's some old widower.

- Some old widower.

- Yes, he is a widower.

I ought to told you before, he's my father.

Oh, that's a horse

on me, if I'd known he was your...

This is our dance.

Better guess I won't insist on it.

- George dear, are you enjoying the party?

- Yes Mother, very much.

Will you please excuse us? Miss Morgan.

- Eggnog anybody?

- Not for me sir.

I see you kept your promise Gene.

Isabel, I remember the

last drink Gene ever had.

The fact is, I believe if he

hadn't broken that bass fiddle...

Isabel never would've taken Wilbur.

- What do you think, Wilbur?

- I shouldn't be surprised.

If your notion is right, I'm

glad Gene broke the fiddle.

- What do you say about it Isabel?

- By jingo, she's blushing.

Who wouldn't blush?

The important thing is that Wilbur did

get her and not only got her but kept her.

There's another important

thing, that is for me.

In fact, it's the only thing that makes me

forgive that bass viol for getting in my way.

- Well, what's that?

- Lucy.

- You having a good time?

- I don't suppose you ever gave up smoking.

- No sir.

- Well, I got some Havanas.

Your ears burn, young lady?

Would you care for

some refreshment Miss Morgan?

Yes, thanks.

- What did you say your name was?

- Morgan.

- Funny name.

- Everybody else name always is.

I didn't mean it was really funny...

that's just one of the

crowd's bits of horsing at college.

I knew your last name was

Morgan, I meant your first name.

Lucy.

Well...

- Lucy a funny name too?

- No.

- Lucy is very much all right.

- Thanks.

Here they are, here they are Henry.

- Are they?

- Thanks for what?

Thanks about letting my name be Lucy.

Goodbye, I got this dance with her.

- With whom?

- With Isabel, of course.

Eighteen years have passed, but have they?

Tell me, you danced with

poor old Fanny too this evening?

- Twice.

- Wilbur?

My gosh, old times...

- certainly are starting over again.

- Old times?

Not a bit, there aren't any old times. When

times are gone, they're old, they're dead.

There aren't any times but new times.

- What are you studying in school?

- I beg your pardon.

- What are you studying in school?

- College.

- College.

- Oh, lots of useless guff.

- Why don't you study some useful guff?

- What you mean useful?

Something you use later in

your business or profession.

I don't intend to go

any business or profession.

- No?

- No.

- Why not?

- Oh, just look at them.

It's a fine career for a man, isn't it?

Lawyers, bankers, politicians.

What they ever get

out of life I'd like to know.

What they know about

real things? What did they ever get?

- What do you want to be?

- A yachtsman.

- What good are they? They always break down.

- They do not always break down.

Oh, of course, they do.

Horseless carriages, automobiles.

People aren't going

to spend their lives lying on their...

backs in the road

letting grease drip in their faces.

No, I think your father

better forget about them.

Papa would be so grateful

if he could have your advice.

I don't know that I done

anything to be insulted for.

You know, I don't mind

you being such a lofty person at all.

I think it's ever so

interesting, but Papa is a great man.

Is he? Well, let us

hope so. I hope so, I'm sure.

- How lovely your mother is.

- I think she is.

She's the gracefullest woman.

She dances like a girl of 16.

Most girls of 16 are

pretty bad dancers, anyhow...

I wouldn't dance with

one of them unless I had to.

The snow is fine for sleighing, I'll be

by for you in a cutter 10 minutes after 2.

- Tomorrow?

- Thank you, Isabel.

- I can't possibly go.

- Bravo, bravisimo.

- Papa?

- Lucy?

I'll get your things.

If you don't, I'm going to

sit in a cutter in your front gate.

If you try to go out with anybody else,

he has to whip me before he gets to you.

Hey you two, I

think you ought to take this...

in case you break

down in that horseless carriage.

- Uncle Jack.

- Good night, Isabel.

- Come here.

- Fanny, where are you going?

- Oh, just out to look.

- Think you'll be warm enough Lucy?

- Well?

- Oh, nothing.

You hold this.

Who is this fellow Morgan?

Why, he's a man with a

pretty daughter Georgie.

He certainly seems to

feel awfully at home here.

The way was dancing

with Mother and Aunt Fanny.

Well, I'm afraid your Aunt Fanny's heart

was stirred by ancient recollections Georgie.

- You mean she used to be silly about him?

- Oh, she wasn't considered, singular.

He was, he was popular.

Oh, you take this same passioned interest

in the parents of every girl you dance with?

Oh dry up, I only wanted to know.

Lucy, about that sleigh ride...

I want to look at that darn

automobile carriage of yours Gene.

- Fanny, you'll catch cold.

- Going to ride that thing tomorrow...

I want to see if it's safe.

- Good night Isabel.

- Good night Eugene.

- You be ready at 10 minutes after 2.

- No, I won't.

Yes, you will, ten minutes after 2.

- Yes, I will.

- Oh, Eugene.

- Show us how it works.

- If it dos work.

- Come on, Lucy.

- I'm coming Papa.

- I hope you're going to be warm.

- Got a blanket for you here Eugene.

- Good night.

- Good night.

Good night.

- Goodbye.

- Goodbye.

- Papa?

- What?

Papa, do you think George is

terribly arrogant and domineering?

Lucy, all he's still only a boy.

Plenty of fine stuff in him.

Can't help but be, he's

he's Isabel Amberson's son.

You liked her pretty well once I guess Papa.

Yes, do still.

- I know that isn't all that's worrying you.

- Well, several things.

I've been a little

bothered about your father too.

- Why?

- It seems to me he looks so badly.

He isn't any different than the way

he's looked all his life, that I can see.

He's been worrying about

some investments he made last year.

- I think the worry is affected his health.

- What investments?

See here, he isn't going into

Morgan's automobile concern, is he?

Oh no, the automobile

concern is all Eugene's.

No, your father's rolling mills...

- Hello dear, have you had trouble sleeping?

- Look here Father.

About this man Morgan,

and his old sewing machine.

Doesn't he want to get

Grandfather to put some money into it?

- Isn't that what he's up to?

- You little silly.

What on Earth are you talking about?

Eugene Morgan is perfectly able to

finance his own inventions these days.

I'll bet he borrows money from Uncle Jack.

- Georgie, why do you say such a thing?

- Just strikes me as that sort of a man.

- Isn't he, Father?

- Was a fairly wild young fella 20 years ago.

He was like you in one thing

Georgie, he spent too much money.

Only he didn't have any mother to

get money out of a grandfather for him.

But I believe he's

done fairly well of late years...

and I doubt if he needs anybody else

money to back his horseless carriage.

- What's he brought the old thing for then?

- I'm sure I don't know, you might ask him.

I'll be in to say good night dear.

- Aunt Fanny?

- What in the world is the matter with you?

I suppose you don't know

my father doesn't want to go on that...

- horseless carriage trip tomorrow.

- What do you mean?

You're his only

sister and yet you don't know.

Well, he never wants to

go anywhere that I've ever heard of.

What is the matter with you?

He doesn't want to go because

he doesn't like this men Morgan.

Oh, good gracious.

Eugene Morgan isn't in your father's

thoughts at all, one way or the other.

- Good night.

- Why should he be?

- Good night.

- Good night.

Hey, you two at it again?

What makes you and everybody

so excited over this man Morgan?

- This man Morgan.

- Excited?

- Excited?

- Oh, shut up.

Can't...

can't people be glad

to see an old friend without...

silly children like you

having to make a to-do about it?

I've just been suggesting to your mother

that she might give a little dinner for them.

- For who?

- For whom Georgie.

For whom Georgie.

For Mr. Morgan and his daughter.

Oh look here,

don't do that, mother mustn't do that.

- Mother mustn't do that.

- It wouldn't look well.

Wouldn't look?

See here Georgie Minafer, I suggest...

that you just march

straight on into your room.

Sometimes you say things that

show you have a pretty mean little mind.

- What upset you this much?

- Shut up.

I know what you mean.

You're trying to insinuate

that I get your mother to invite...

- Eugene Morgan here on my account.

- I'm going to move to a hotel.

Because he's a widower.

- What?

- What?

I'm trying to insinuate you're setting your

cap for him and getting mother to help you?

Is that what you mean?

You attend to your own affairs.

I will be shot, I will. I

certainly will be shot.

Do you think you'll get it to start?

- What's wrong with it Gene?

- I wish I knew.

Jack push, not in front, there. You see.

Jack, push, come on Jack, push.

Come on, push.

- Come on, push. Come on Jack.

- Get a horse, get a horse.

Get a horse.

Look out, Lucy.

- What's happened to them?

- Oh, Georgie.

Don't get excited Isabel. Lucy.

- Are you all right?

- Georgie.

They're all right Isabel, the

snow bank is a feather bed.

- Georgie...

- Lucy dear.

I'm fine Papa.

- Nothing the matter with them.

- Oh, Georgie.

They're all right Isabel.

- Are you sure you're not hurt Lucy dear?

- Georgie...

- Don't make a fuss Mother.

- George, that terrible fall.

Please Mother please, I'm all right.

Are you sure Georgie?

Sometimes one doesn't realize the shock.

- Oh Isabel.

- We just got to be sure dear.

- All right Mother, what's the matter?

- Let me brush you off dear.

You look pretty spry Lucy.

- All that snow becomes you.

- That's right, it does.

- That darned horse.

- Pendennis will be home long before we will.

All we got to depend on is

Eugene Morgan's broken down chafing dish.

- She'll go.

- Come on Fanny.

All aboard.

- You have, have to sit on my lap Lucy.

- All right.

Stamp the snow,

you mustn't ride with wet feet.

They're not wet.

For goodness' sake, get in, you're standing

in the snow yourself, get in Mother.

You're the same Isabel I used to know,

you're a divinely ridiculous woman.

George, you'll push when

we get started, won't you?

George?

Divinely and ridiculous, just

counterbalance each other, don't they?

Plus one and minus one equal nothing.

So you mean I'm nothing in particular?

No, that doesn't seem to

be precisely what I meant.

- We're going.

- Must be an accident.

- Come on Georgie, push.

- I'm pushing.

Push harder.

- Oh God.

- Hooray.

- Come on Georgie, push.

- What do you think I'm doing?

Your father wanted to prove that his horseless

carriage would run even in the snow.

It really glad too,

you know. It's so interesting.

He says he's going to have wheels all

made of rubber and blown up with air.

I should think they explode.

But Eugene seems very confident.

Oh, it seems so like old

times to hear him talk.

Here we go.

♪ As I walked along the Bois de

Boulogne with an independent air. ♪

♪ You can hear the girls declare, he must

be a millionaire, he must be a millionaire ♪

George, you tried to swing underneath me

and break the fall when we went over.

I knew you were doing that, was nice of you.

Wasn't much of a fall to speak of.

How about that kiss?

♪ You can sigh and wish to die

and see them wink the other eye. ♪

♪ At the man who broke

the bank at Monte Carlo. ♪

♪ As I walked along the Bois de

Boulogne with an independent air. ♪

♪ You can hear the girls declare,

he must be a millionaire. ♪

Wilbur Minafer, quiet man.

Town will hardly know he's gone.

- Where did Isabel go to?

- She was tired.

Never was becoming to her to look pale.

- Look out.

- Oh boy, strawberry shortcake.

It's first this season, hope it's big enough.

You must known I'm coming home.

- What you say?

- Nothing.

- Sweet enough?

- Fine.

I suppose your mother is been

pretty gay at the commencement.

- Going a lot?

- How could she in mourning?

All she could do is sit around, look on.

- So Lucy could either, for that matter.

- How did Lucy get home?

On the train with the rest of us.

Quit balling your food.

You drive out to their house

with her before you came here?

No, she went home with her father.

Oh, I see.

Don't eat so fast George.

So...

Eugene came to the station to meet you?

Meet us? How could he?

I don't know what you mean.

- Want some more milk?

- No, thanks.

I haven't seen him while

your mother is been away.

Naturally, he's beneath himself.

Did you see him?

Naturally, since he made

the trip home with us.

He did? He was with you all the time?

Only...

on the train, in the last three days before

we left, uncle Jack got him to come along.

- You're going to get fat.

- I can't help that.

You're such a wonderful housekeeper.

You certainly know how

to make things taste good.

I don't think you'll stay single long if

some of these bachelors or widowers...

- around town for just one...

- It's a little odd.

What's odd?

Your mother's not mentioning

that Mr. Morgan is been with you.

Didn't think of it, I suppose.

- But I'll tell you something in confidence.

- What?

Well, struck me that Mr. Morgan was looking

pretty absent minded most of the time.

And he certainly is

dressing better than he used to.

Oh, he isn't dressing

better, he's dressing up.

Fanny, you ought to be

a little encouraging when a...

prized bachelor begins

to show by his haberdashery...

what he wants you to think about him.

Jack tells me the factory

is been doing quite well.

Quite well?

- Honestly, Aunt Fanny...

- Why listen, you...

I shouldn't be a bit surprised

to have him request...

and interview and declare

that his intentions are honorable.

And ask my permission to pay his

addresses to you, what I'd better tell him?

Oh, Aunt Fanny?

- Oh Fanny, we were only teasing.

- Oh, let me alone.

- We didn't mean anything.

- Let go of me, please.

- Please, please let me alone.

- We didn't know you got so sensitive with all this.

It's getting so you can't joke

with her about anything anymore.

It all began when we found out father's estate

was all washed up, he didn't leave anything.

I thought she feel better when

we turned over his insurance to her.

Gave it to her

absolutely without any strings to it.

But now...

Yeah.

Think maybe we've been teasing

her about the wrong things.

Fanny hasn't got much in her life.

You know George, just being an aunt isn't...

really the great career

it may sometimes seem to be.

Really don't know of

anything much Fanny has got.

Except her feeling about Eugene.

They're now turning out

a car and a quarter a day.

- Isn't that marvelous?

- Yeah.

- What's marvelous?

- Turning out a car and a quarter a day.

Oh, this noise.

Mother. Mother?

All this noise and smell

seems to be good for you.

You ought to come here

every time you get the blues.

Oh, she never gets the blues George.

I never knew a person of

a more even disposition...

- No, it's this place.

- I wish I could be more like her..

Wouldn't anybody be delighted to see an old

friend take an idea out of the air like that?

An idea most people laughed at him for.

And turn it into such a splendid

humming thing as this factory.

Remember this?

Our first machine.

- The original Morgan Invincible.

- I remember.

How quaint.

Of course, I'm happy.

- So very, very happy.

- Just look at the Morgans now Mrs. Minafer.

It's beautiful, just beautiful.

Did you ever see anything so lovely?

- As what?

- As your mother.

She's a darling.

And Papa looks as if he were going

to either explode or utter loud sobs.

It's just glorious.

It makes us all happy Eugene.

Give him your hand Fanny.

There.

If brother Jack were here...

Eugene would've his three oldest and

best friends congratulating him all at once.

We know what brother

Jack thinks about it though.

I used to write verse about 20 years ago.

- Remember that?

- I remember that too.

I'm almost thinking I could do it again.

To thank you for making a factory

visit into such a kind celebration.

Isabel, dear.

- Yes, Eugene?

- Don't you think you should tell George?

- About us?

- Yes.

- It's still time.

- I think he should hear it from you.

He will dearest, soon.

Soon.

I'll still take a horse any day.

- Oh, don't.

- Why?

- You want trot his legs off?

- No, but...

No, but what?

I know when you make him walk...

it's so you can give all your

attention to proposing to me again.

- George, do let Pendennis trot again.

- I won't.

Get up Pendennis, go on, trot, commence.

But Lucy, if you are the

prettiest thing in this world...

when you going to say we're really engaged?

Not for years, so there's the answer.

Lucy? Dear, what's the matter?

Look as if you're going to cry.

You always do that whenever

I get to talk about marrying me.

- I know it.

- Well, why do you?

One reason is because I have a

feeling it's never going to be.

- You haven't any reason or...

- It's just a feeling.

I don't know, everything is so unsettled.

You aren't the

queerest girl, what's unsettled?

Well, for one thing George, you

haven't decided on anything to do yet.

Or at least if you have,

you never spoken of it.

Lucy, haven't you

perfectly well understood...

that I don't intend to go into

a business or adopt a profession?

- Then what are you going to do George?

- Why, I expect to lead an honorable life.

I expect to contribute my share to charities

and to take part in, well, in movements.

- What kind?

- Whatever appeals to me.

I should like to revert to the questions I

was asking you, if you don't mind.

No George, I think we...

- Your father is a businessman.

- He's a mechanical genius.

It's your father's idea. That I ought to go into business

and you oughtn't to be engaged to me until I do?

Isn't it you father's idea that I ought...

to go into business and you

oughtn't to be engaged to me until I do?

No, I never once spoken to him about it.

But you know that's the

way he does feel about it.

Yes.

Do you think that I'd be much of a man...

if I let another man

dictate to me my own way of life?

George, who's dictating your way of life?

I don't believe in the whole world scrubbing

dishes, selling potatoes, trying law cases.

No, I daresay I don't care any more for

your father's ideals than he does for mine.

- George.

- Giddy up, Pendennis.

Well, seems to be recovered.

Looks in the highest good spirits.

- I beg your pardon?

- Your grandson.

Last night he was

seen inclined to melancholy.

What about?

Not getting remorseful about all

the money he spent in college, is he?

- I wonder what he thinks I'm made of.

- Gold.

He's right about that part of you Father.

- What part?

- Your heart.

I suppose that may account for how

heavy it feels nowadays, sometimes.

This town seems to be rolling right over

that old heart you mentioned just now yet.

Rolling over it and burying it under.

- I miss my best girl.

- We all do.

Lucy is on a visit Father, she's

spending a week with a school friend.

She'll be back Monday.

George, how does it happen

you didn't tell us before?

He never said a word to

us about Lucy's going away.

Probably afraid to,

Didn't know whether might break

down and cry if he tried to speak of it.

Isn't that so Georgie?

- Or didn't Lucy tell you she was going?

- She told me.

At any rate Georgie didn't approve.

I suppose you two aren't speaking again?

Gene, what's this I hear about

someone else opening up a horseless...

carriage shop somewhere up in the suburbs?

Ah, I suppose they'll

drive you out of business...

or the two of you will get together and

drive all the rest of us off of the street.

Well, we'll even things up

by making the streets bigger.

Automobiles will carry our streets

clear out to the county line.

Well, I hope you're wrong,

because if people go to moving that...

far, real estate values here

in the old residence part of town...

will be stretched pretty thin.

So your devilish machines are going

to ruin all your old friends, eh Gene?

You really think they're going to

change the face of the land?

They're already doing it,

major and it can't be stopped.

- Automobiles...

- Automobiles are a useless nuisance.

- What did you say George?

- I said automobiles are a useless nuisance.

Never amount to anything but nuisance,

they're no business to be invented.

Of course, you forget Mr. Morgan makes them,

also did his share in inventing them.

You were so thoughtless he

might think you rather offensive.

I'm not sure George is

wrong about automobiles.

With all their speed forward they

may be a step backward in civilization.

May be that they won't add to the beauty

of the world or the life of men's souls.

I'm not sure, but automobiles have come.

And almost all outward things are going

to be different because of what they bring.

They're going to alter war and

they're going to alter peace.

I think men's minds are going to be changed

in subtle ways because of automobiles.

And it may be that George is right.

May be that in...

10 or 20 years from now, if we can

see the inward change in men by that time...

I shouldn't be able to defend the gasoline

engine but would've to agree with George.

That automobiles had

no business to be invented.

Major, if you'll excuse me.

Fanny.

- Oh, Eugene.

- Isabel.

Got to run down to

the shop and speak to the foreman.

I'll see you to the door.

- Don't bother sir, I know the way.

- I'll come too.

- Georgie dear, what did you mean?

- Just what I said.

- He was hurt.

- Don't see why he should be.

Didn't say anything about him.

Seem to me to be hurt,

he seemed perfectly cheerful.

- What made you think he was hurt?

- I know him.

- By Jove Georgie, you are a puzzle.

- In what way, may I ask?

Well, it's a new style,

courting a pretty girl, I must say...

for a young fellow to

go deliberately out of his way to...

try to make an enemy of her

father by attacking his business.

By Jove, it's a new way of winning a woman.

George, you struck the right treatment

to adopt, you're doing the right thing.

Oh, what do you want?

Your father would thank you

if he could see what you're doing.

Quit the mysterious detective

business, you make me dizzy.

You don't care to hear that

I approve of what you're doing?

But the guy said what in

the world is wrong with you?

Oh, you're always picking on me, always.

Ever since you were a little boy.

- Oh, my gosh.

- You wouldn't treat anybody in...

the world like this except old Fanny.

Old Fanny, you say, nobody

but old Fanny, so I'll kick her.

Nobody will resent

if I'll kick her all I want to.

Then your right, I've none in the world

since my brother died, nobody, nothing.

Oh, my gosh.

I never, never in the

world, would've told you about it...

or even made the faintest reference to it...

if I hadn't seen that somebody else had told

you or you found out for yourself in some way.

- Somebody else had told me what?

- How people are talking about your mother.

What did you say?

Of course, I understood what you were

doing when you started being rude to Eugene.

You give Lucy up in a minute if it came

- to a question of your mother's reputation.

- Look here...

- Because you said...

- look here, just what do you mean?

I only wanted to say that I'm

sorry for you George, that's all.

But it's only old Fanny, so whatever she

says, pick on her for it, hammer her...

- hammer her, it's only poor old lonely Fanny.

- Jack said...

But Jack said if there was

any gossip, was about you.

He said people might be laughing about the

way you ran after Morgan, but that was all.

Oh yes, it's always Fanny.

Ridiculous old Fanny, always.

- Always.

- Listen.

You said Mother let him

come here on your account.

He did.

Anyhow he liked to dance with me, he

danced with me as much as he did with her.

You told me mother never saw him

except when she was chaperoning you.

Well, you don't suppose that

stops people from talking, do you?

They just thought I didn't count.

It's only Fanny Minafer, I suppose they say.

Besides, everybody knew

he's been engaged to her.

- What's that?

- Everybody knows it.

Everybody in this town knows that Isabel never

really cared for any other man in her life.

I believe I'm going crazy, you mean you

lied when you told me there wasn't talk?

Never would amount

to anything if Wilbur lived.

- You mean Morgan might've married you?

- No.

Because I don't know that I've accepted him.

Are you trying to tell me that...

because he comes here and they see

her with him, driving and all that...

they think that they were right in saying

that she, she was in love with him before?

Before my father died?

Why George, don't you

know that's what they say?

- You must know that everybody in town...

- Who told you?

- What?

- Who told you there was talk?

What is this talk? Where

does it come from? Who does it?

I suppose much

everybody I know, it's pretty general.

Who said so?

- How did you get hold of it? You answer me.

- Hardly fair for me to give names.

One of your best friends is that mother

of Charlie Johnson's across the way.

Has she ever mentioned this to you?

- She may have.

- You and she have been talking about it.

- Do you deny it? Do you deny it?

- She's a very kind discreet woman George.

But she may have intimated, George.

What you going to do George?

Mr. Amberson. I mean Mr. Minafer.

- Won't you come in please?

- Thank you.

- How nice to see you Mr. Minafer.

- Mrs. Johnson...

Mrs. Johnson, I've come

to ask you a few questions.

Certainly Mr. Minafer,

anything I can do for you.

I don't mean to waste any time Mrs. Johnson.

You, you were talking about a

scandal that involved my mother's name.

Mr. Minafer?

My aunt told me you

repeated the scandal to her.

I don't think your aunt could've said that.

We may have discussed some few matters

that have been a topic of comment about town.

Yes, I think you may have.

Other people may be less considerate.

Other people, that's what I want to know

about, these other people, how many? How many?

- What?

- How many other people talk about it?

Really, this isn't a courtroom and

I'm not a defendant in a libel suit.

You may be.

I want to know just who

dared to say these things...

if I have to force my

way into every house in town.

- I mean to know just who told you these...

- You mean to know.

Well, you'll know something pretty quick.

You'll know that you're out in the street.

Please do leave my house.

Now you have done it.

What have I done that

wasn't honorable in anyway?

You think these riffraff can go around

town bandying my mother's good name?

They can now. Georgie,

gossip is never fatal till it's denied.

- If you think I let my mother's good name...

- Good name?

Look, nobody has a good name and a bad mouth.

Nobody has a

good name and a silly mouth either.

Didn't you understand

me when I told you people are...

- saying my mother means to marry this man?

- Yes, yes, I understood you.

My god, you speak of it so calmly.

- Why shouldn't they marry if they want to?

- Why shouldn't they?

- It's their own affair. Yes, why shouldn't they?

- Why shouldn't they?

Oh, that you can sit there and speak of it.

- Your own sister.

- For heaven's sake, don't be so theatrical.

Come back here.

Needn't mind Mary, I'll

see who is and what they want.

- Probably it's only a peddler.

- Thank you Mr. George.

Good afternoon George, your mother

expects to go driving with me, I believe.

If you'll be so kind as to

send her word I'm here.

No.

- I beg your pardon, I said...

- I heard you.

You say you had an engagement

with my mother and I said no.

What's the matter?

Mother will have no interest in

knowing that you came here today.

- Or any other day.

- I'm afraid I don't understand you.

I doubt if I can make it

much plainer, but I'll try.

You're not wanted in this house,

Mr. Morgan, now or at any other time.

Perhaps you'll understand this.

- Isabel.

- Yes?

I just come from Eugene.

- Yes?

- I want to talk to you.

Well, I can just guess what that was about.

- Telling her what you did to Eugene.

- You go back to your room.

- You're not going in there.

- You go back to your room.

George, George no, you don't Georgie Minafer.

You keep away from there.

- You let go.

- I won't, come back, let them alone.

- Of all the ridiculous...

- Hush up. Hush up.

Go on to the top of the stairs, go on.

It's indecent.

Like squabbling outside the

door of an operating room.

The idea of you going in there now.

Jack is telling Isabel the whole thing.

Now you stay here and let him tell her.

- He's got some consideration for her.

- I suppose you think I haven't.

- You, considerate of anybody?

- I'm considerate of her good name.

Look here, seems to me you're

taking a pretty different tack.

I thought you already knew everything I did.

I was so suffering so I

wanted to let out a little.

Oh, I was a fool.

Eugene never would've looked at

me even if he had never seen Isabel.

And they haven't done

any harm, she made Wilbur happy.

She was a true wife

to him, as long as he lived.

Here I go, not doing

myself a bit of good by it...

and just ruining them.

You told me how all the riffraff in

town were busy with her name.

And the minute I lifted my

hand to protect her, you attack me...

Your uncle is leaving.

- I'll be back Isabel.

- George, let her alone.

She's down there by herself, don't go down.

Let her alone.

Dearest one.

Yesterday, I thought the time had

come when I could ask you to marry me.

And you were dear enough to tell

me, sometime it might come to that.

But now we're faced, not with slander and...

not with our own fear

of it because we haven't any...

but someone else fear of it, your son's.

Oh, dearest woman in the world, I know

what your son is to you and it frightens me.

Let me explain a little.

I don't think he'll change.

At 21 or 22, so many things appear

solid and permanent and terrible...

which 40 sees in nothing

but disappearing miasma.

Forty can't tell 20 about this.

Twenty can find out only by getting to be 40.

And so we come to this dear...

Will you live your life

your way or George's way?

Dear, it breaks my heart for you.

But what you have to oppose now...

is the history of your own

selfless and perfect motherhood.

Are you strong enough

Isabel? Can you make a fight?

I promise you that if you

will take heart for it...

you will find so quickly

that it's all amounted to nothing.

You shall have happiness and only happiness.

I'm saying too much for wisdom, I fear.

But, oh my dear, won't you be strong?

Such a little short strength it would need.

Don't strike my life down twice dear.

This time, I'm not deserved it.

Come in.

Did you read it, dear?

Yes, I did.

All of it?

Yes.

What do you think Georgie?

- What do you mean?

- You can see how fair he means to be.

Fair?

Fair? When he says he and you

don't care what people say?

What people say?

- That Eugene loves me?

- He's always loved you.

That's true Georgie.

But you're my mother.

You're an Amberson, you just...

Yes dear?

I don't know Mother.

I'll write Eugene.

He'll understand.

He'll wait.

Be better this way.

We'll go away for a while, you and I.

Hello.

Lucy, you...

- Haven't you?

- Haven't I what?

Nothing.

- May I walk with you a little ways?

- Yes, indeed.

- I want to talk to you, Lucy.

- Hope it's about something nice.

Papa is been so glum today,

he's scarcely spoken to me.

- Well, it's...

- Is it a funny story?

May seem like one to you.

Just to begin with.

When you went away, you didn't let

me know, not a word, not even a line.

Why, no. I just trotted off for some visits.

- At least you might have done something.

- Why no George.

Don't you remember? We had a quarrel.

We didn't speak to each other all

the way home from a long, long drive.

And since we couldn't play

together like good children...

of course, it was plain

that we oughtn't to play at all.

Play?

What I mean is, we come to the point

where it was time to quit playing.

Well, what we were playing.

- At being lovers you mean, don't you?

- Something like that, it was absurd.

- Didn't have to be absurd.

- No, it couldn't help but be.

The way I am and the way

you are, would never be anything else.

This time, I'm going away.

That's what I wanted to tell you Lucy.

I'm going away tomorrow night, indefinitely.

I hope you've ever so nice a time George.

I don't expect to have

a particularly nice time.

Well, then if I were you, I don't think I go.

This our last walk together Lucy.

Evidently, if you're

going away tomorrow night.

This is the last time

I'll see you, ever. Ever in my life.

Mother and I are starting on a

trip around the world tomorrow.

- We made no plans at all for coming back.

- My, that does sound like a long trip.

You plan to be

traveling all the time or will you...

stay in one place

for the greatest part of it?

- I think it would be lovely to...

- Lucy.

I can't stand this.

I'm just about ready to go in that drugstore

there and ask the clerk to give me...

something to keep me from dying on my spikes.

- It's quite a shock Lucy.

- What is?

To find out just how deeply you care, to

see how much difference this makes to you.

- George?

- Can't stand this any longer, I can't, Lucy.

Goodbye Lucy.

It's goodbye.

I think it's goodbye for good Lucy.

Goodbye George, I do

hope you have a most splendid trip.

Give my love to your mother.

May I please have a few drops of aromatic

spirits of ammonia and a glass of water?

For gosh sake miss.

It's mighty nice of you Lucy.

You and Eugene to have me over to

your new house my first day back.

You'll probably find the

old town rather dull after Paris.

I found Isabel as well as usual.

Only I'm afraid as usual isn't...

particularly well.

Struck me Isabel ought to be in a wheelchair.

What do you mean by that?

Oh, she's cheerful enough, at

least she manages to seem so.

She's pretty short of breath.

Father is been that way

for years of course but...

never nearly so much as Isabel is now.

I told her I thought she ought

to make Georgie let her come home.

Let her? Does she want to?

She doesn't urge it.

George seems to like the life there

in his grand, gloomy and peculiar way.

She'll never change about

being proud of him and all that.

It's quite swell.

She doesn't want to come.

She like to be with Father,

of course and I think she's...

Well, she intimated one day that she

was afraid it might even happen...

she wouldn't get to see him again.

Think she was really thinking

of her own state of health.

I see.

And you say he won't let her come home?

Well, don't think he uses force.

He's very gentle with her, doubt if

the subject is mentioned between them, yet...

knowing my interesting nephew as you do...

wouldn't you think that

was about the way to put it?

Knowing him as I do, yes.

Changed.

So changed.

You mean...

You mean the town?

You mean the old

place is changed, don't you dear?

Yes.

It will change to a happier place,

old dear, now that you're back in it.

You're going to get well again.

- Mr. George will be right down Mr. Morgan.

- Thank you.

- I come to see your mother George.

- I'm sorry Mr. Morgan.

Not this time

George, I'm going up to see her.

The doctor said that

she had to be kept quiet.

I'll be quiet.

I don't think you should right now.

The doctor says...

Fanny is right Gene.

Why don't you come back later?

All right.

She wants to see you.

Darling...

- Did you get something to eat?

- Yes Mother.

- All you needed?

- Yes Mother.

Are you sure you didn't

catch cold coming home?

I'm all right Mother.

That's sweet.

Sweet.

- What is Mother darling?

- My hand against your cheek.

I can feel it.

I wonder...

if Eugene and Lucy know that we come home.

I'm sure they do.

Has he asked about me?

Yes, he was here.

Has he gone?

Yes Mother.

I'd like to have seen him.

Just once.

She must rest now.

George, she loved you.

She loved you.

And now Major Amberson was engaged

in the profoundest thinking of his life.

He realized that everything which had worried

him or delighted him during this lifetime...

all his buying and building

and trading and banking...

that it was all trifling and waste

beside what concerned him now.

For the major knew now that he had to

plan how to enter an unknown country...

where he was not even sure of

being recognized as an Amberson.

Father.

- Father.

- Eh?

The house was in Isabel's name, wasn't it?

Yes.

Can you remember when

you gave her the deed Father?

No. No, I can't just remember.

It doesn't matter.

The whole estate is about as

mixed up as an estate can get.

- You ought to have that deed George.

- No, don't bother.

It must be in the sun.

There wasn't anything here...

but the sun in the first place.

The sun.

Earth came out of the sun...

and we came out of the earth.

So whatever we are...

Well, odd way for us to be saying goodbye.

One wouldn't have thought it even

a few years ago, but here we are.

Two gentlemen of elegant

appearance in a state of beatitude.

Ah, you can't ever tell

what will happen at all, can you?

Once I stood where you're standing

to say goodbye to a pretty girl.

Only it was in the old station before

this was built, we called it the depot.

We knew we wouldn't see each

other again for almost a year.

And I thought I couldn't

live through it, she stood there crying.

Don't even know where

she lives now or she is living.

She ever thinks of me,

she probably imagines I'm still...

dancing in the

ballroom of the Amberson mansion.

She probably thinks of the mansion as still

beautiful, still the finest house in town.

Ah, life and money both behave like

loose quicksilver in a nest of cracks.

When they're gone, you can't tell where.

Or what the devil you did with them.

But I believe I'll say now

while there isn't time left for...

either of us to get any more embarrassed I...

believe I'll say I always been fond of you

Georgie, I can't say I always liked you.

But we all spoiled you

terribly when you were a boy.

But you had a pretty heavy

jolt, you taken it pretty quietly.

As the train come

into the station, you'll forgive me...

for saying there have been

times I thought you ought to be hanged.

And just for lat words,

there may be somebody else...

in this town that always

thought about you like that.

Fond of you I mean, no matter how

much you seem you ought to be hanged.

- You might try...

- Last train.

I must run.

I'll send back the money as fast they pay

me, so goodbye and God bless you Georgie.

You ever hear the Indian name

for that little grove of beech trees?

No.

You never did either. Well?

The name was Loma-Nashah.

- It means, they couldn't help it.

- Doesn't sound like it.

Indian names don't.

Was a bad Indian chief lived there.

The worst Indian that ever

lived, his name was...

It was Vendonah.

- Means, rides down everything.

- What?

Name was Vendonah, same

thing as rides down everything.

I see.

Go on.

Vendonah was unspeakable.

He was so proud he wore iron shoes and

walked over people's faces with them.

So at last, the tribe decided...

that it wasn't a good enough excuse for

him that he was young and inexperienced.

He have to go.

So they took him down to the river and put

him in a canoe and pushed him out from shore.

And the current carried

him on down to the ocean.

And he never got back.

They didn't want him back, of course.

They hated Vendonah.

But they weren't able to discover...

any other warrior they

wanted to make chief in his place.

They couldn't help feeling that way.

I see.

So that's why they named the

place They couldn't help it.

Must've been.

So you're going to stay in your garden.

You think it's better just to keep walking

about among your flowerbeds, till get old?

Like a pensive garden lady

in a Victorian engraving, eh?

I suppose I'm like that

tribe that lived here Papa.

I had too much unpleasant

excitement, I don't want anymore.

In fact, I don't want anything but you.

You don't?

What was the name of that grove?

- They couldn't help...

- The Indian name, I mean.

Oh. Mola-Haha.

Mola-Haha.

- That wasn't the name you said.

- Oh, I forgotten.

I see you have. Perhaps

you remember the chief's name better?

I don't.

I hope someday you can forget it.

Please try and understand...

it's not doing either of us

any good going on arguing this way.

- That place you picked out...

- But this boarding house is practical.

- And we could be together.

- How? On $8 a week?

I'm only going to be getting

$8 a week at the law office.

You'd be paying more of

the expenses than I would.

- I be paying? I be paying?

- Certainly you would.

- We be using more of your money than mine.

- My money?

My...

I got 28 dollars, that's all.

- Twenty-eight dollars?

- That's all.

I know I told Jack I didn't put

everything in the headlight company but...

I did.

Every cent.

And it's gone.

- Why did you wait till now to tell me?

- I couldn't tell till I had to.

It wouldn't do any good.

- My gosh.

- Oh, I know what you're going to do.

You're...

- you're going to leave me in the lurch.

- I'm only asking you to be reasonable.

To try and understand that it's impossible

for either of us to go on this way.

- Will you get up?

- I can't.

- I'm too weak.

- Oh, none of this makes any sense.

Will you get up?

I know your mother want me to watch over you.

And try and make

something like a home for you.

And I tried, I tried to make

things as nice for you as I could.

I know that.

I walked my heels down

looking for a place for us to live.

I, I walked and walked over this town.

I didn't ride one block on a streetcar.

I wouldn't use 5 cents

no matter how tired I was.

For the gosh sakes, will you get up? Don't

sit there with your back against the boiler.

- Get up, aunt Fanny.

- It's not hot, it's cold.

The plumbers disconnected it.

I wouldn't mind if they hadn't.

I wouldn't mind if it burned.

I wouldn't mind if it burned me George.

Oh, Aunt Fanny, for gosh

sakes, get up, now stop it.

Stop it. Listen to me. Do

you hear me? Stop it. Stop it.

Listen to me now. There, that's better.

Now let's see where we stand.

See if we can afford this

place you picked out.

I, I'm sure the boarding

house is practical, George.

- I'm sure it's practical.

- I know it must be practical Aunt Fanny.

It is a comfort to be

among, among nice people.

It's all right. I was thinking

of the money aunt Fanny.

There's one great economy.

They don't allow tipping.

- They, they have signs that prohibit it.

- That's good.

But the rent's $36 a month...

and dinner 22 and a half for each of us.

I got about a hundred dollars

left, a hundred dollars, that's all.

Won't need any new clothes for a year.

- Perhaps...

- Oh, longer.

- So you see...

- Yes, I see.

I see that 36 and 45 make 81.

At the lowest, we'll need

a hundred dollars a month.

And I'm going to be making 32.

Real flair, real flair for

the law, that's right.

Couldn't wait till tomorrow to begin, the law

is a jealous mistress and a stern mistress.

- I can't do it. I can't take up the law.

- What?

I come to tell you I got to find something

quicker, something that pays from the start.

I can't think of anything just this

minute that pays from the start.

But sir, I've heard they pay very high

wages to people in dangerous trades.

People that handle touchy chemicals or high

explosives, men in the dynamite factories.

Thought I see if I

couldn't get a job like that.

I wanted to get started tomorrow if I could.

Georgie, your grandfather

and I were boys together.

Don't you think I ought

to know what's the trouble?

Well sir, it's Aunt Fanny.

She's set her mind on this

particular boarding house.

It seems she put everything

in the headlight company.

Well, she's got some old cronies and

I guess she's been looking forward to the...

games of bridge and the harmless kind

of gossip that goes on in such places.

Really, it's the life she

like better than anything else.

Struck me she's about got to have it.

I got her in that headlight business with

Jack, I feel a certain responsibility myself.

I'm taking responsibility,

she's not your aunt, you know.

Oh, I'm unable to see even if she's yours...

that a young man is morally called

upon to give up a career at law...

to provide his aunt with a favorable

opportunity to play bridge whist.

All right, all right.

If you promise not to get blown up,

I'll see if we can find you a job.

You certainly are the most

practical young man I ever met.

George Amberson

Minafer walked homeward slowly...

through what seemed to be the

strange streets of a strange city.

For the town was growing and changing.

It was heaving up in the middle,

incredibly, it was spreading incredibly.

And as it heaved and spread, it

befouled itself and darkened its sky.

This was the last walk home he was ever to

take up National Avenue to Amberson Addition.

And the big old house at

the foot of Amberson Boulevard.

Tomorrow, they were to move out.

Tomorrow, everything would be gone.

Mother forgive me.

God forgive me.

Something had

happened, a thing which, years ago...

had been the eagerest hope of

many, many good citizens of the town.

And now, it came at last.

George Amberson Minafer

had got his comeuppance.

He got it three

times filled and running over.

But those who had so longed for it were

not there to see it and they never knew it.

Those who were still living had

forgotten all about it and all about him.

- All right, stay back there.

- He run into me as much as I run into him.

And if he gets well, he ain't going

to get not one single cent out of me.

I'm willing to say I'm sorry

for him. So is the lady with me.

Wonderful the damage one of these

machines can do, you'll never believe it..

All right, back in your

car, back in your car.

All right, stay back there now.

What you going to do Papa?

I'm going to him.

You coming Papa?

How is he?

- How is Georgie?

- He's going to be all right.

Fanny, I wish you could've seen

George's face when he saw Lucy.

You know what he said to me

when we went into that room?

He said...

You must've known my mother

wanted you to come here today...

so that I could ask you to forgive me.

We shook hands.

I never noticed before how

much like Isabel Georgie looks.

You know something Fanny?

I wouldn't tell this to anybody but you.

But it seemed to me as if

someone else was in that room.

And that through me she brought

her boy under shelter again.

And that I been true at last...

to my true love.

Ladies and gentlemen,

The Magnificent Ambersons...

was based on Booth Tarkington's novel.

Stanley Cortez was photographer..

Mark Lee Kurt designed

the sets. Al Fields dressed them.

Robert Wise was the film editor.

Freddie Fleck was the assistant director.

Edward Stevenson

designed the ladies' wardrobe.

Special effects were by Vernon L. Walker.

The sound recording was by

Bailey Fesler and James G. Stewart.

Here's the cast:

Eugene, Joseph Cotten.

Isabel, Dolores Costello.

Lucy, Anne Baxter.

George, Tim Holt.

Fanny, Agnes Moorehead.

Jack, Ray Collins.

Roger Bronson, Erskine Sanford.

Major Amberson, Richard Bennett.

I wrote the script and directed it.

My name is Orson Welles.

This is a Mercury production.