Infelizmente, a gravação original desapareceu e, provavelmente, foi queimada para dar espaço. Do livro de Robert L. Carringer The Magnificent Ambersons: A Reconstruction , que tenta reconstruir a visão de Welles:
As a protection against possible legal complications, the negative trims and outtakes were held for a time in [RKO's] vaults, but were eventually burned because of a shortage of storage space. (The leftover material from Hitchcock's Suspicion was destroyed at the same time, making it unlikely that this was a selective act of vindictiveness toward Welles.) The dupicate print sent to Welles in South America was deemed useless and was also destroyed. As a consequence, not even a frame of the extracted footage is known to survive.
O livro usa a continuidade de corte [um roteiro detalhando os planos que foram filmados] em sua tentativa de reconstruir a peça de trabalho de Welles. É o único registro completo da filmagem original. O IMDb detalha algumas das cenas que foram cortadas:
It was 132 minutes long. It included an extended Ball sequence, an extended sequence of Jack and George in the kitchen [and] a completely different ending, as well as other cuts too numerous to mention. The original last part of the movie was (in order): George and Jack at the Rail Station, George's walk home and comeuppance, Fanny at the boiler, Bronson's office, Eugene and Lucy in the garden, George in accident, Eugene hears of accident, Eugene visits Fanny in the Boarding house.
Um relato mais detalhado das imagens perdidas pode ser encontrado na aqui da Wikipedia .