The Magnificent Ambersons: Georgie Scenes


Figure 1.--There are only two brief scences in the film with George as a boy. Georgie has long curls and is first outfitted in a classic Fauntleroy suit and then a lkittle later in is outfitted in a kilt outfit. Early in the story we get a flashback of Georgie as a spoiled boy. He gets into a fight with a neighboring boy for being so pampered, and the two wrestle on the ground for a few minutes before one of the Amberson elders sees the fight through a window in the family mansion and rushes out to break it up.

There are only two brief scences in the film with George as a boy. Georgie has long curls and is first outfitted in a classic Fauntleroy suit and then a lkittle later in is outfitted in a kilt outfit. Early in the story we get a flashback of Georgie as a spoiled boy. He gets into a fight with a neighboring boy for being so pampered, and the two wrestle on the ground for a few minutes before one of the Amberson elders sees the fight through a window in the family mansion and rushes out to break it up. Then there is a subsequent scene in the Ambsesons' garden where Georgie denies what happened. We have the text from the film.

Preliminary Nariation

Wilbur, could she? Well, it'll all go to her children, and she'll ruin them. As time passes, her prophetic prediction about Isabel's marriage (and child) is close to the truth: (Welles' voice in narration) The prophetess proved to be mistaken in a single detail merely...Wilbur and Isabel did not have children; they had only one. (Mrs. Foster's voice intones) Only one! But I'd like to know if he isn't spoiled enough for a whole carload. (Welles' continues) Again, she found none to challenge her. George Amberson Minafer, the Major's one grandchild, was a princely terror.

Although there is "only one" child - he is a spoiled, insufferable, hateful, daredevil brat dressed in velveteen and with golden ringlets in his hair. Young George Minafer (Bobby Cooper) - [he is not an Amberson] is introduced while riding recklessly through town in a tiny carriage, whipping his buggy pony. Careening by, he upsets a gardener with a hoe. Although indulged and adored by his mother, everyone in town longs to see George receive his ultimate "come-uppance": There were people, grown people they were, who expressed themselves longingly. They did hope to live to see the day, they said, when that boy would get his come-uppance.

The words of the off-screen narrator are questioned by a married couple in the street: Wife: His what? Husband: His come-uppance! Something's bound to take him down someday. I only want to be there.

Fight

When derisively called "girlie curlie" by the son of the local lawyer Benson (Erskine Sanford), the pair fight and wrestle on the lawyer's front lawn. Benson views the scrappy fight from a window, exasperatedly rapping on the glass: "Boy! Boy!" After he comes out and drags the two boys apart, George rebelliously punches him in the stomach when Benson calls him a "disgrace" and a "bad little boy." As the scene cuts, he loudly and angrily tells the parent to "Go to ..." [The word 'Hell' is blatantly censored as Benson shouts back "What?!"]

Garden Scene

In the garden of the Amberson mansion after the fight, George (wearing a kilt and tam-o'-shanter) is reprimanded by his parents and aged patriarch Major Amberson (Richard Bennett) as he stands formally in front of them. [The characters in the scene look like tableaux figures posed before an artistic backdrop of an old painting.] George, positioned in the foreground, dominates the scene and shows total disregard for his accusers or family behind him. Wilbur, squeezed to the right side of the frame, reads only a sentence from a letter written by a concerned citizen about George's foul use of language: "This was heard not only by myself but by my wife and the lady who lives next door."

Taking center stage in a lordly manner, George conceitedly and haughtily denounces the neighbor as a "liar," "story-teller" and as "riff-raff." After inaccurately referring to himself as an Amberson, he causes his grandfather to laugh boisterously: "Grandpa wouldn't wipe his shoe on that old storyteller... I mean, none of us Ambersons wouldn't have anything to do with them. I'll bet if he wanted to see any of us, he'd have to go around to the side door." Although his doting, sheltering mother requests that he never use bad language again, George half-heartedly assents to her wishes - with a mischievous last word: Isabel (to George): You must promise me never to use those bad words again. George: I promise not to... (pause) unless I get mad at somebody.








HBC





Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Return to the Main "Magnificent Ambersons page]
[Return to the Main "Mam-Mz" movie page]
[Return to the Main alphabetical movie page]
[Return to the Main movie dance scene page]
[Introduction] [Activities] [Biographies] [Chronology] [Clothing styles] [Countries] [Theatricals]
[Bibliographies] [Contributions] [FAQs] [Glossaries] [Images] [Links] [Registration] [Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]



Created: 9:02 PM 1/11/2012
Last updated: 9:02 PM 1/11/2012