Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 117: Orson Keeps it in the Family

I think one of the biggest Oscar surprises is that Citizen Kane never won Best Picture and instead it went to John Ford's Welsh mining drama How Green Was My Valley. Welles' next film The Magnificent Ambersons also got a nomination but lost to Mrs Miniver. Unlike in Citizen Kane, Welles doesn't feature in the cast instead giving a fairly ominous voiceover telling us the story of The Ambersons an eccentric family who have all inherited money from the patriarch Major Amberson. The film mainly focuses on George, the spoilt grandson of Major Amberson and his objections to his mother marrying an automobile manufacturer after his father has died. The man in question is Joseph Cotten's Eugene Morgan who was George's mother Isabel's first love. George also falls in love with and gets engaged to George's daughter Lucy however the union is doomed when George's spoilt nature comes out and he reveals he doesn't want to work instead live of the family's fortunes which are dwindling. One of the main themes throughout the film is new money vs. old as the Ambersons fortune is generations old whereas Eugene has earned his money from his inventions. Eugene and Isobel are never allowed to be together as George takes his mother around Europe and then returns when she gets ill and later dies. However the future looks better for Lucy and George after George learns the error of his ways and decides to get a job and also reconcile with Eugene as the film ends.

Compared to Citizen Kane, The Maginifcent Ambersons isn't as big of a film but it still has that Wellsian style to it which is mainly seen during the scenes in the Ambersons grandiose mansion which is almost too big for its inhabitants. Possibly the best performance in the film, and the only one nominated for an Oscar, was from Agnes Moorhead as the Amberson's maiden aunt Fanny who seems a bit distressed that no-one ever finds her attractive and goes off on a rant near the end of the film in which she chastises George for never taking her seriously. Welles' long time friend Joseh Cotten is basically just a bit handsome and debonair as the inventor Eugene while Dolores Costello and Anne Baxter are fine in their roles but are never more than just token female parts maybe this is because Moorhead has such an interesting character it but the other actresses in the shade. One of the biggest problems of the film is that Tim Holt's George is just plain unlikeable so I have no sympathy for him even when he changes his ways at the end of the film I've already given up on him. Although the film did get another nomination for cinematography, there was no Best Director nod for Welles and indeed he was so poorly treated by the Academy that when they awarded him with a Special Award he refused to go and pick it up. Overall the Ambersons is a well-made film but one that suffers from a lack of likeable characters or a plot that flows particularly well.