The Magnificent Ambersons Page #7

Come in.

Did you read it, dear?

Yes, I did.

All of it?

Yes.

Well what do you think, Georgie?

What do you mean?

You can see how fair

he means to be.

Fair?

Fair when he says you and he

don't care what people say?

What people say?

That Eugene loves me?

He's always loved you.

That's true, Georgie.

But you're my mother.

You're an Amberson.

You just...

Yes, dear?

I don't know, mother.

I'll write Eugene.

He'll understand.

He'll wait.

Be better this way.

We'll go away for awhile, you and I.

Hello.

Lucy, you...

- Haven't you...?

- Haven't I what?

Nothing.

- May I walk with you a little ways?

- Yes, indeed.

I want to talk to you, Lucy.

Hope it's about something nice.

Papa's been so glum today,

he's scarcely spoken to me.

- Well, it's...

- Is it a funny story?

May seem like one to you.

Just to begin with,

When you went away, you didn't

let me know. Not a word!

- Not even a line!

- Why, no!

I just trotted off for some visits.

- At least you might have done something...

- Why no, George!

Don't you remember we'd had a quarrel.

And we didn't speak to

each other all the way home

from a long, long drive.

And since we couldn't play

together like good children,

of course it was plain that

we oughtn't to play at all.

Play!

What I mean is, we'd come

to the point where it was

time to quit playing.

Well,

what we were playing.

- That being lovers you mean, don't you?

- Something like that, it was absurd.

- Didn't have to be absurd.

- No, it couldn't help but be.

The way I am, and the way you are,

it would never be anything else.

This time, I'm going away.

That's what I wanted to tell you, Lucy.

I'm going away tomorrow night,

indefinitely.

I hope you have ever

so nice a time, George.

I don't expect to have a

particularly nice time.

Well then, if I were you,

I don't think I'd go.

This is our last

walk together, Lucy.

Evidently, if you're

going away tomorrow night.

This is the last time

I'll see you, ever.

Ever in my life.

Mother and I are starting on

a trip around the world tomorrow,

and we've made no plans

at all for coming back.

My, that does sound like a long trip.

You plan to be traveling all the

time, or will you stay in one

place for the greater part of it?

I think it would be lovely to...

Lucy! I can't stand this!

I'm just about ready to go in

that drugstore there and ask

the clerk to give me

something to keep me

from dying in my sights.

- It's quite a shock, Lucy.

- What is?

To find out just

how deeply you care.

- To see how much difference

this makes to you!

- George!

I can't stand this any longer!

I can't, Lucy.

Goodbye, Lucy.

It's goodbye.

- I think it's goodbye for good, Lucy.

- Goodbye, George.

I do hope that you have

the most splendid trip.

Give my love to your mother.

May I please have a few

drops of aromatic spirits of

ammonia and a glass of water?

For gosh sake, Miss!

It's mighty nice of you, Lucy.

You and Eugene to have me over to

your new house my first day back.

You'll probably find the old

town rather dull after Paris.

I...found Isabel

as well as usual.

Only I'm...afraid

"as usual" isn't...

particularly well.

Struck me Isabel oughta

be in a wheelchair.

What do you mean by that?

Oh, she's cheerful enough. At least...

she manages to seem so.

She's pretty short of breath.

Father's been that way

for years, of course, but...

never nearly so much

as Isabel is now.

I told her I thought she oughta

make Georgie let her come home.

"Let her"?

Does she want to?

She doesn't urge it.

George seems to like the life there

in his grand, gloomy and peculiar way.

She'll never change about being

proud of him, and all that.

It's quite as well...

she does want to come.

She'd like to be with father,

of course, and I think she's...

well...

She intimated to me one

day that she was afraid

it might even happen that...

she wouldn't get to see him again.

Think she was really thinking

of her own state of health.

I see.

And you say he won't

let her come home?

Well uh, I don't think he uses force...

He's very gentle with her.

Doubt if the subject is

mentioned between them, yet...

Yet knowing my interesting

nephew as you do,

wouldn't you think that was...

about the way to put it?

Knowing him as I do...

Yes.

Changed.

So change.

You mean...

you mean the town?

- You mean the old place is

changed, don't you dear?

- Yes.

It'll change to a happier place, old

dear, snow that you're back in it.

You're going to get well again.

- Mr. George will be

right down, Mr. Morgan

- Thank you.

I've come to see your mother, George.

I'm sorry, Mr. Morgan.

Not this time, George.

I'm going up to see her.

The doctor said that...

she had to be kept quiet.

I'll be quiet.

I don't think you

should, right now.

The doctor says...

Fanny's right, Gene.

Why don't you come back later?

All right.

She wants to see you.

Darling...

- Did you get something to eat?

- Yes, mother.

- All you needed?

- Yes, mother.

Are you sure you didn't...

catch cold coming home?

I'm all right, mother.

That's sweet...

Sweet...

What is, mother darling?

My hand against your cheek.

I can feel it.

I wonder...

if Eugene and Lucy know

that we've come home.

I'm sure they do.

Has he asked about me?

Yes.

He was here.

Has he gone?

Yes, mother.

I'd like to have seen him...

just once.

She must rest now.

George!

She loved you!

You loved you!

And now,

Major Amberson

was engaged in the profoundest

thinking of his life.

And he realized that everything

which had worried him

or delighted him

during this lifetime,

all his buying and building

and trading and banking,

that it was all trifling and waste,

beside what concerned him now.

For the Major knew now that

he had to plan how to enter

an unknown country,

where he was not even

sure of being recognized

as an Amberson.

Father...

- Father.

- Ah?

The house was in Isabel's

name, wasn't it?

Yes.

Can you remember...

when you gave her the deed, father?

No.

No I...

- can't just remember.

- It doesn't matter.

Oh, this estate's about as

mixed-up as an estate can get.

You oughta have that deed, George.

No, don't bother.

It must be...in the sun...

there wasn't anything here...

but the sun in the first place.

The sun...

The earth came out of the sun,

and we came out of the earth.

So,

whatever we are, we

must be of the Earth.

Well...

Odd way for us to be saying goodbye.

One wouldn't have thought

of even a few years ago.

But here we are!

Two gentlemen of elegant appearance,

in a...state of bustitude.

Ah, you can't ever tell what'll

happen at all, can you?

Once I stood where you're standing

now to say goodbye to a pretty girl.

Only it was in the old station, before

this was built, we called it the "depot."

We knew we wouldn't see each

other again for almost a year...

I thought I couldn't live through it.

She stood there crying...

Don't even know where she lives, now.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes