Citizen Kane

Oscar Wins:  

Best Screenplay: Orson Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz

Oscar Nominations:

Best Picture
Best Actor:  Orson Welles
Best Art Direction
Best Cinematography: Gregg Toland
Best Film Editing: Robert Wise
Best Director: Gregory La Cava
Best Music: Bernard Herrmann

Cast: Orson Welles, Dorothy Comingore, Agness Morehead, Joseph Cotton, Ruth Warrick, Ray Collins, Erskine Sanford

Storyline: One man's rise and fall in the world of newspapers and corporate America, is portrayed, in this beautifully filmed, wonderfully haunting tale.  

Why Should It Have Won? Ten billion critics and fans can't be wrong.  Years after its release, the film is still regarded by many to be the best film of all time. Citizen Kane has been studied and written about, over and over again, and its style has been emulated by some of the great directors since.

Why Didn't It Win? Citizen Kane took a negative view of a newspaper giant, and it seemed obvious to most that it was patterned after the most notable giant of the day, William Randolf Hearst.  When Hearst got wind of the film, he ensured that it was never written about, or advertised in any of her newspapers.  He also threatened theatre chains with harsh penalties if they showed the film.  The fact that the film even managed to get nominated, with limited release, and little or no press, seems like a bit of a miracle.

Best Scene:  When things get too overpowering, Susan leaves the  maniacal Kane once and for all.  Kane enters her room and proceeds to smash everything in sight.  After a terrifying rampage, he comes across the snow globe, introduced at the beginning of the film, and breaks down into tears.  

Orson Welles actually cut his had during the filming of this scene, but tape kept rolling.  While you can't see actual blood, you can see that he is hiding his left hand after he smashes the mirror.

Behind the Scenes: Leave it to Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons to get the ball rolling on this one.  The leading gossip columnists of the day, who wielded considerable control over the careers of many Hollywood actors back then, used anyone, and anything to one-up each other.  Hopper saw a preview of the film, and immediately called Parsons' boss, William Randolf Hearst, to tell him that the film was about him.  This infuriated Hearst, and it didn't look too good for Louella either, who was supposed to have an ear to the ground in Tinseltown.  

Louella quickly wrote a scathing editorial about Welles, but that was about it.  Hearst made a bigger move, and forbade any of his newspapers to write about or advertise the picture.  Hearst newspapers were said to have been read by a quarter of the homes in the United States, and a common tactic for dealing with his enemies was to simply pretend that they didn't exist.  It was an effective form of censorship.

Orson Welles was practically given the keys to RKO studios, to write, direct and star in his first film.  Prior to making the film, Welles was best known for creating the Mercury Theatre in New York, where he staged outrageous and lavish productions of Shakespeare's, and other great playwright's, work.  He also dabbled in radio, where he produced War of the Worlds, a shockingly real story about aliens landing in New Jersey and killing the human race.  The story was told as a news broadcast, and used the same format that would have been used at the time.  It created a shockwave so big, that people actually took their own life while listening to it.  The FCC stepped in later to insist that all fictional works thereafter, be labeled as such, prior to broadcasting. 

Orson Welles at first denied that Citizen Kane was based on William Randolf Hearst, stating that it was actually a combination of several American tycoons, but Hearst, and anyone that knew anything about him, could not be convinced.   Hearst not only tried to silence the picture, but he also took legal action, drumming up support from fearful studio bosses like Louis B. Mayer.  While RKO was prepared to backdown, and finally shelve the picture, Welles threatened to counter sue if the terms of the original distribution agreement were not met.

Among the plot points that were obvious Hearst references was the chosen profession of the lead character, and his tendency to wield power from it.  The estate which the character lived in was called Xanadu, a lavish mansion, containing an excess of riches from all over the world.  Hearst's estate, Sam Simeon was the size of Rhode Island, and written about in gossip columns as a weekend retreat for many Hollywood elite, including Herman Mankiewicz, who wrote the screenplay with Orson Welles.  Perhaps the most glaring gem from this movie, was the part of Susan Alexander, played by Dorothy Comingore.  Kane doesn't divorce his wife, just as Hearst didn't, but takes up with a mistress, and makes her an opera star, despite her obvious inability.  

The cheapest shot from Citizen Kane seemed to be directed at Marion Davies, portrayed as a dimwitted, no-talent, social climber.  Facts about Davies own life, differ vastly from the character in the film.

In actual fact, Hearst left his wife to take up with established actress, Marion Davies.  It was suggested that the treatment of Davies in this film was the element that infuriated Hearst the most, and rightfully so.  Davies was an accomplished actress in silent films before she met Hearst, and unlike the character of Susan Alexander, she was actually pretty good.  Susan Alexander is portrayed as a bit of a dim wit, forced into a life of solitude within the walls of Xanadu.  An inside joke was the term Rosebud, the opening line from the film and the dying word uttered by Kane, that became the crux of the story.  In the film, Rosebud referred to his sled from his childhood, but according to Welles, it was the term Hearst used to describe Marion Davies' private parts.

The scandal surrounding the picture didn't go unnoticed, and defiant theatres did run it, despite lackluster attendance.  The film managed to get six Oscar nominations, including the Best Actor, Best Director and Best Screenplay nods for Welles.  By this point, however, Welles' own name was blacklisted, and he was considered to be a trouble making, outsider. At the ceremony, there were actual 'boos' and 'hisses' when his name was mentioned by presenters.  Welles didn't attend the ceremony that year as he was scouting locations for a film in South America.  The Academy did honor Welles with the screenwriting credit, although it was said that the honor was meant for the co-writer, Herman Mankiewicz, who was already a well known figure in Hollywood circles.  The Academy, too miffed with Welles' ego to recognize the genius behind it, made what is perhaps their biggest blunder of all time, by presenting the Best Picture award to the forgettable film, How Green Was My Valley.

Hearst's tactics of burying the picture, in the end, had an impact on a lot of people.  Hearst, himself, suffered the remainder of his years with his own bad press, as the incident brought to light, the great power that the man had been wielding for so many years.  It also hurt RKO studios, which backed the film, and in turn, suffered financially from the backlash of Hearst's censorship campaign.   Even Orson Welles, the boy genius, didn't escape without injury.  His career was never able to live up to the success of his first picture despite some excellent efforts (The Magnificent Ambersons, The Third Man) He, himself, said that it probably would have been best to retire from film making after Citizen Kane and move on to something completely different.

 

Kane is so smitten that he takes her as a mistress, and fosters her burgeoning operatic abilities. 

Meanwhile, Kane's own career is on the rise, with politics as the next likely step!

Citizen Kane is available on DVD and VHS.  I strongly recommend the DVD, as it comes with the Oscar nominated documentary, The Battle Over Citizen Kane, which offers a detailed insight into both Welles and Hearst, and looks at the successes and failures behind the film.  As well, the film contains audio commentaries by film critic, Roger Ebert and director, Peter Bogdanovich.  You can purchase Citiizen Kane in most video stores, or through Amazon.com by clicking below!