Ambersons clips

NOTE:  These clips are BIG (3-4 MB)

1.  George greets Eugene.  Here, George has just found out that the town is talking about Eugene's interest in Isabel.  Eugene comes by the Amberson mansion to take Isabel for a drive.  George doesn't try to hide his hatred of Eugene .

    Part 1.                                                                                Part 2.

2. The introduction.  This clip is part of the approximately 3 minute introduction in which Orson Welles narrates.   Here we're introduced to the slow-paced and almost fantasy world that existed before the advent of the automobile.     An expressionistic technique that Welles used here was to shade the edges of the film to seem like a vignette, to make this period of time seem antiquated.   

3.  The sleighride.   This was filmed in an icehouse with real snow.    In part 1, George is pushing Eugene's broken-down horseless carriage to get it going.  In part 2, the carriage finally goes, and everyone sings a rousing rendition of "The Man who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo".  These are the last happy sequences from the film.

Part 1.                                                                                 Part 2.

4. The bathroom.    George is shocked that his uncle Jack is OK with Isabel and Eugene getting married.  Just before these clips, George has just been kicked out of the house of one of the townspeople, after he barged in and badgered her about details of the scandal surrounding her mother and Eugene.     The bathroom scene is a true classic.

Part 1.                                                                                 Part 2.

5.  Major Amberson's speech.  After Isabel's death, Major Amberson sits alone with his thoughts. George and Jack are questioning the Major about the deed for the mansion, but unfortunately the Major can't remember where it is. The Amberson fortune and reputation are gone, and he is close to death.  Richard Bennett acts this scene beautifully, even though he wasn't able to remember even a single line of dialogue (his lines were read to him by Welles).  Bennett himself died shortly after the film was finished.