Orson Welles interview on The Magnificent Ambersons and It's All True 

Wise chopped up the opening sequence of Ambersons, which was, according to John Houseman, Welle's partner and cohort in the Mercury Theater, the greatest piece of filmmaking he ever saw (this was before they took the film from Orson. You can feel where Orson ends and the shlocky ending hits in Ambersons. He was one of the greatest geniuses ever in film, and Hollywood spent decades destroying him. The same morons still rule this business.

Welles is the greatest american director ever.The fact that this happened to him is terrible.

Pandering to test audiences. This is the biggest failure in cinematic history.

Crazy. What a disgusting story.

As always, studio involvement ruined Welles vision. Today 2019, and for some years now, Citizen Kane is always quoted, by many film institutes, directors, actors and film historians as the greatest movie ever made. Now that is some statement to make, and it could very well be true. Making Kane was the only time, while working for a major Hollywood studio, that Welles had 100% complete control over every aspect of the movie, directing, casting, producing, cutting etc etc, and look at the result, maybe the greatest movie ever made. If only the studio had had the foresight to keep their meddling hands out of more of Orson's work. Even so, Welles did make some other masterpieces after Kane, The Stranger, Touch of Evil immediately spring to mind, plus every role he played as an actor was also totally immersing to watch. The thing that makes Orson Welles the great man he was, in my eyes, was the fact that he faced a lifetime of adversity from Hollywood after making Citizen Kane, and the wrath of media mogul, of which Kane was based, William Randolph Hearst, but never caved in under pressure, rejection or setback after setback. He often struggled financially to get funding for his projects, but still, against all this he managed to produce master works of statements in film.

I still hope that someday the missing film will be discovered. I doubt it, though. It's hard to believe that when they took 40 minutes out they didn't bother saving the footage.

RKO not only destroyed ‘The Magnificent Ambersons’, but also the fledgling directing career of Orson Welles at the same time. What a tragedy!

If only those missing 45 minutes could be found.

Welles was one of our geniuses . He may have been insane to deal with in life, but his art is incredible . CITIZEN KANE, MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS , OTHELLO ,MACBETH, THE STRANGER ,TOUCH OF EVIL -all films one can revisit again and again .

Apparently, RKO didn’t realize that you don’t hire someone like Orson Welles in order to make a lot of money. Any journeyman director could do that. You hire him because of his unique talents and artistic vision. He brings prestige and credibility to the studio. Warner Brothers understood this with Stanley Kubrick later on. Today, most people don’t even remember that RKO ever existed, but they remember Orson Welles.

Butchered masterpiece notwithstanding, a shining memory for me was sharing The Criterion Collection laserdisc production of “Ambersons” with my uncle, Joseph Cotten.

'They'll love me when I'm dead'

Orson.The Magnificent Ambersons is still a masterpiece. A movie I get great enrichment from.

A loss to the world incredible , noble man.. rest well Mr Wells

Still a fantastic movie with great stars: Agnes Moorehead, Joseph Cotten, Anne Baxter, etc. Seen it a couple of times as I have it. Hadn't realised that much was cut. I happen to like period dramas. Also discovered the novel and who wrote it which you can download for free as it's a classic. Welles was one of the greats.

Rest in Peace, Mr. Welles. : )

Žižek considering Welles' version could be greater than Citizen Kane makes me wonder what would it be really like with that lost footage..

Wise and studio made huge mistake not saving the edits.

I could never get behind Wise and others saying the released version of the Magnificent Ambersons is the best version

Orson Welles 🎭