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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Dalya Alberge

The Magnificent Ambersons: rebirth for ruined Orson Welles masterpiece that rivalled Citizen Kane

A still from The Magnificent Ambersons with two women and a man sitting on a porch
A still from The Magnificent Ambersons (1942). After studio executives left just 13 scenes intact, Orson Welles said: ‘They destroyed Ambersons and it destroyed me.’ Photograph: Alamy

The idea of deleting scenes from a film by renowned actor-director Orson Welles would be sacrilege today. But just after he made his masterpiece Citizen Kane for RKO in 1941, studio executives butchered his next great movie, The Magnificent Ambersons, burning extensive footage without consulting him.

Welles was so devastated that he later lamented: “They destroyed Ambersons and it destroyed me.”

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