10 Famous Lost Films You Wish You Could Watch

2. The Magnificant Ambersons - Orson Welles Original Cut (1942)

The Day The Clown Cried
RKO
If the granddaddy of all great movies, Citizen Kane, was Orson Welles' Star Wars, then Welles' follow-up, The Magnificent Ambersons, was to be his Empire Strikes Back; an equally brilliant follow-up.

Sadly, it didn't play out that way.

The Magnificent Ambersons tells the story of the wealthy aristocratic Amberson family, their gradual decline, and how money, love, jealousy, and cars just don't mix. Welles had high hopes for this film and after months of production and a few test previews, the final film clocked in at 135 minutes. 

Unfortunately for Welles, the studios took control from there and cut nearly an hour of footage whilst re-shooting a new and happier ending in place of the original bittersweet conclusion. Welles was shattered but he had no power to do anything other than watch his intended magnum opus flop at the box office. Whilst the negatives of the deleted scenes and original ending were kept, the studio later destroyed them in order to "free up vault space", meaning that the original 135 minute cut is presumably lost forever.

The chance to see The Magnificent Ambersons in its intended glory will sadly never happen so everyone will just have to make do with the remaining 2/3 of Orson Welles' second masterpiece still available.

Contributor
Contributor

My life story is nothing special. I haven't cured ebola, I'm nowhere near stopping terrorism, and I'm still working on that climate change problem. Instead, all I've done so far is put a few hundred words together in an attempt to make people laugh. You can follow me at @Fry_ying_pan but don't be offended if I don't tweet back. It's usually because I've spent too long trying to think up a witty response that the reply window has closed.