Citizen Kane

Produced and released in 1941 by RKO, black and white 35mm negative, 1.35:1 screen ratio, mono sound, 119 mins.; Criterion Laserdisc released 1987 and 50th anniversary edition released 1991; DVD released 2001.

"Extra features on the two-disc DVD set paint Welles as a talented but arrogant young artist handicapped by his incendiary first film." (AP Photo 9/27/01)

Orson Welles in 1938

William Randolph Hearst

Production:

• Directed by Orson Welles
• Written by Herman J. Mankiewicz and Orson Welles and John Houseman (uncredited)
• Produced by Orson Welles and George Schaefer
• Original Music by Bernard Herrmann
• Cinematography by Gregg Toland
• Film Editing by Robert Wise
• Art Direction by Van Nest Polglase
• Set Decoration by Darrell Silvera
• Costume Design by Edward Stevenson
• Makeup Artist Maurice Seiderman
• Art Direction by Perry Ferguson
• Sound Recording by Bailey Fesler, James G. Stewart, John Aalberg

Cast:

• Orson Welles as Charles Foster Kane
• Joseph Cotten as Jedediah Leland/Newsreel Reporter
• Everett Sloane as Mr. Bernstein, Kane's General Manager
• Dorothy Comingore as Susan Alexander Kane
• Agnes Moorehead as Mrs. Mary Kane
• Ruth Warrick as Emily Monroe Norton Kane
• Ray Collins as Boss James 'Jim' W. Gettys
• Erskine Sanford as Herbert Carter, Inquirer Editor-in-Chief/Newsreel Reporter
• William Alland as Jerry Thompson/'News on the March' Narrator
• Paul Stewart as Raymond, Kane's Butler
• George Coulouris as Walter Parks Thatcher
• Fortunio Bonanova as Signor Matiste, Susan's Opera Coach
• Gus Schilling as The Headwaiter
• Philip Van Zandt as Mr. Rawlston
• Georgia Backus as Bertha
• Harry Shannon as Kane's Father
• Sonny Bupp as Charles Foster Kane III
• Buddy Swan as Kane, age eight

Names in film:

• Kane = Hearst
  
• Xanadu = San Simeon
  
• Emily = Millicent
  
• Susan = Marion Davies
  
• Bernstein = Carvalho
  
• Jedediah = Lent/Bierce
  
• Thatcher = J.P. Morgan
  
• Geddes = Boss Murphy
  
• Inquirer = N.Y. Journal
  
• Chronicle = N.Y. World
  

Links:

• Citizen Kane film online for review purposes.
• Hearst and Welles
• New Journalism
• Clinton pardons Patty Hearst from Reuters, January 3, 2001
• Citizen Kane plot summary from 100 Greatest Films
• The Battle over Citizen Kane from PBS The American Experience 1996 (included on disc 2 of the DVD from Warner Video
• RKO 281 was produced by HBO in 1999
• The Cat's Meow was a feature film directed by Peter Bogdanovich and released by Lion's Gate in 2002, starring Edward Herrmann as Hearst, Kirsten Dunst as Marion Davies, Eddie Izzard as Charlie Chaplin, and set in 1924 on the Hearst yacht Oneida where Thomas Ince (played by Cary Elwes) was killed.

Sources:

• Leaming, Barbara. Orson Welles, a biography. New York: Viking, 1985. 562 p.
• McBride, Joseph. Orson Welles, revised and expanded edition. NY: Da Capo, 1972, 1996 paper.
• Nasaw, David. The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2000. 687 p.
• Wood, Bret. Orson Welles: a bio-bibliography. New York: Greenwood Press, 1990. 364 p.

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