As George's uncle perceptively remarks, "life and money both behave like loose quicksilver in a nest of cracks." With the new automobile industry transforming fortunes and coal heat transforming city air into sooty clouds, anything that stands still is apt to be run over, or at least begrimed.

What is magnificent about the Ambersons is their faithful reliance on old money and old ways in a world changing rapidly around them. Or perhaps it is the magnificence of the train-wreck created when George's relatives, with the best intentions, shield him from the new realities and defer to all his wishes.