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| Orson Welles and Joseph Cotten in Citizen Kane (1941) D: Orson Welles C: Greg Toland |
In 1937, Orson Welles and producer John Housman formed the Mercury Theatre, a repertory theatre company that performed on the New York stage. It included many of the actors seen later in Citizen Kane—Joseph Cotten, Agnes Moorhead, Ray Collins, Ruth Warrick, Everett Sloan, George Coulouris, Erskine Sanford, William Alland, and Paul Stewart.
In 1938, Welles obtained a time slot on CBS radio for a new show, The Mercury Theatre of the Air. He planned to produce and direct adaptations of literary classics for him and his players to perform. But he became famous and infamous for bringing to the airwaves an adaptation of a popular science fiction novel, H. G. Wells's The War of the Worlds. This Mercury Theatre production was so realistic in its depiction of invaders from outer space that many listeners actually believed the U.S. was under invasion and attack by space aliens. Afterward, everyone at the water cooler talked about it whether they'd heard the broadcast or not. It was on the quality of this one-off display of talent, and the buzz it created, that Welles secured the funding for Citizen Kane.
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Citizen Kane, as you know, was loosely based on the life of newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst. Before the depths of the Great Depression he was arguably the most powerful man in America, his newspapers reaching over 20 million readers. His political influence was immeasurable.
The stock market crash of 1929 and the Depression that followed bankrupted Hearst. Worse, he became a broken man. To save his newspaper and magazine empire he was forced to borrow money, including $1 million from his lover, actress Marion Davies. (The movie business didn't flourish during the Great Depression, but it did better than Hearst.)
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The Stanford Theatre in Palo Alto is a vintage movie house that was built in 1925 and restored to its original glory in 1987. There's a lot I could say about this theatre, but I'll leave it to the link in the previous sentence. Meanwhile, this is about that movie. And like the operators of so many theaters in California in the 1940s, still afraid of the power of William Randolph Hearst, the Stanford Theatre refused to show that movie during its 1941 release. In fact, the Stanford Theatre showed that movie for the first time in the 1980s.
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| New York premiere at the RKO Palace Theatre, 1 May 1941 |
When Orson Welles co-wrote, acted in, and directed Citizen Kane, he was just 25 years old. On some days he was 25 going on 40. On others, 25 going on 10. He was a born troublemaker. He was a born showman. He was a born actor and director. Film historians and some of his fellow directors said he wasted the golden opportunities Citizen Kane presented to him by being lazy and uncommitted. If that be true, one might say that was the 10-year-old inside him.
Herman J. Mankiewicz and Welles are credited in the annals of film as co-writers of the script. Welles's contribution, however, is difficult to assess. Mankiewicz in his long career wrote or co-wrote some of Hollywood's finest scripts—the original adaptation of Anita Loos's novel and play, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1928); Dinner at Eight (1933); and The Pride of the Yankees (1942) among them. He went to his grave insisting that he singlehandedly had written Citizen Kane and that Welles hadn't contributed so much as one word. To my knowledge there has been no scholarly review of the script by the Writers Guild of America or any other entity to assign definitive writing credit. Until I hear otherwise, I will assume Welles's co-writing contribution was substantial.
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Gregg Toland was the cinematographer for Citizen Kane. His film credit marked the first time a cinematographer had his credit on a single title card, rather than grouped together with lesser credits. He more than earned it. His camerawork in this film is often breathtaking. It represents the high water mark of his career.
When shooting began in June 1940 he was already considered one of the best cinematographers in the business. He had just won an Oscar for his work on Wuthering Heights. His brilliant work on The Grapes of Wrath (1940) was then on display in theaters.
For those who plan to watch Citizen Kane on Blu-ray or DVD, you will have a front-row seat to a fantastic ride through the film and Toland's innovative and experimental work, by and through the commentary of Roger Ebert. I give my highest recommendation to a separate watching of Citizen Kane with Ebert's commentary turned "on."
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Citizen Kane was Welles's debut as a director. He directed 9 feature films in all. When asked in 1941 who his favorite directors were he answered "John Ford, John Ford, and John Ford." He had gone, as it were, to self-study film school by watching Ford's Stagecoach (1939) roughly 40 times.
In a poll conducted by Sight & Sound magazine (UK), pollsters asked hundreds of film professionals from around the world—directors, producers, critics, and distributors—to name their top three choices for the all-time greatest film. This Sight & Sound poll is conducted and published once each decade. The top 100 vote-getters make the list.
For six decades, from 1952 when the first poll was published, until 2012, Citizen Kane was voted the Greatest Film of All Time. But in 2012, Vertigo (1958) ousted Citizen Kane for the top spot, dropping Welles's classic to number 2. Then in 2022, a very-long long shot became number 1: Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxells (1975) (d. Chantal Akerman). Vertigo dropped to number 2 and Citizen Kane dropped to number 3.
In the same poll Sight & Sound announced that the film industry respondents considered Orson Welles to be the 3rd greatest film director of all time. He was well behind Alfred Hitchcock at number 1 but not far behind Jean Luc Godard at number 2. Welles's ranking was based primarily on 3 films—Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), and Touch of Evil (1958).
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Citizen Kane was nominated for 9 Oscars—Best Picture, Actor, Director, Art Direction (B&W), Cinematography (B&W), Film Editing, Sound, Musical Score, and Screenplay. It won an Oscar for its screenplay but was panned on the other awards. The Oscars for Best Picture, Director, Art Direction (B&W), and Cinematography (B&W) (Arthur C. Miller) went to John Ford's How Green Was My Valley. Gary Cooper won the Best Actor Oscar for Sergeant York.
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| C: Gregg Toland. D: Orson Welles. |
