Pampered Youth (1925) User Reviews

There are only fragments and condensed versions found so far, but here's the whole plot.

[larry41onEbay · 7/10 · 10 March 2017]

"At the turn of the 20th century, the Ambersons are the leading family in a small Indiana town: their home is the local showplace, and their views are news. Major Amberson's daughter, Isabel, is unable to decide between two suitors until one of them, Eugene Moran, disgraces himself by a drunken serenade. Isabel then marries the other, Wilbur Minafer, whom she does not love, and Eugene leaves town. When Wilbur dies, she centers all her affection on her son, George, who develops from a spoiled child into a shallow, self-centered man. After a number of years, Eugene, now a widower, returns to the town, having made a fortune in the manufacture of automobiles. George falls in love with Eugene's daughter but resents Eugene's obvious attachment to Mrs. Minafer. When Major Amberson dies, George, who has dissipated the family fortune, is forced to go to work. Matured by his job, George is reconciled to Eugene when Eugene rescues Mrs. Minafer from a fire in the Amberson mansion."

A silent film based on Booth Tarkington's novel "The Magnificent Ambersons."

[gmatusk · 14 July 2011]

The only review I can offer is based on the fragmentary version I watched on a DVD issued by RetroFlix. Poor picture quality, and nowhere near 70 minutes in length. The title character is called Jack, not Georgie Amberson Minafer as in the novel and in the 1942 Orson Welles film. Jack's childhood scenes (where he is purportedly portrayed by Ben Alexander, who later played Sgt. Friday's partner in the TV series "Dragnet") are absent from this DVD. Jack turns away Mr. Morgan, who is courting Jack's widowed mother Isabel. Isabel does not die of a broken heart in this version --- she is hospitalized due to a tenement fire, from which she is rescued by Mr. Morgan. Jack is also in the same hospital as a result of having been struck by an automobile. If Aunt Fanny is in this movie, she's not in the short fragmentary DVD I watched.