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Citizen Kane Sponsored by Viva Creative Group 1941 | PG | Drama, Mystery | d. Orson Welles Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore |
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| For a brief moment in the late 1930s, Orson Welles was a golden boy. A closely-followed writer, producer, actor and director of the New York stage, as well as one of the most recognizable voices on national radio - Welles' abilities seemed boundless. Following the great disturbance of 1938 - his infamous War of the Worlds radio program - RKO finally lured Welles to Hollywood in 1939 and gave him complete artistic control (and one of the most astounding contracts ever written) to make movies. Two years later he premiered the staggering achievement that is Citizen Kane, made enemies in powerful places and began his decades-long nomadic journey to become America's most famous independent filmmaker. Citizen Kane continues to hold down the top slot on perennial greatest-films-of-all-times lists and introduced the enigmatic "rosebud" to our lexicon. Welles co-wrote, directed and starred in this tale of one man's unbounded appetite, ambition and excess (something he knew more than a little about), taking a not so veiled swipe at billionaire-publisher William Randolph Hearst. Citizen Kane and Welles would bear the wrath of Hearst for many years and he would never again have the popular attention and extraordinary resources that he found at the ripe age of 25. Welles would later say, "I began at the top and worked my way down..." - not quite. - CH | ||