1941 USA Black/White 119 minutes

Rosebud

Citizen Kane begins with Charles Foster Kane's (Orson Welles) death and his dying word "Rosebud". He was a one-time newspaper magnate. The paper he owned, the New York Inquirer, is desperate to unearth the meaning of his cryptic last word. Jerry Thompson (William Alland), will dig into Kane´s life to find out. He interviews Kane's acquaintances and researches his life. The story is told through the flashbacks of the interviewees

We learn about Kane's rise to riches, his battles with his guardian, Walter Thatcher (George Coulouris) and his friendship with and alienation from Jedediah Leland (Joseph Cotton). He marries a president's niece and eventually moves into the political arena, but his bid for the governor's office crashes when his rival exposes Kane's affair with Susan Alexander (Dorothy Comingore). Kane divorces his first wife, marries Susan and builds an opera house for her. Eventually, his business colossus crumbles around him, his second wife leaves him, his friends and hangers-on desert him until he dies in his fabulous palace Xanadu.

Facts

Trivia

Release date: May 1, 1941

The movie was almost entirely shot in a studio. Some shots of Xanadu were made in New York.

Oscar: Best Writing, Original Screenplay -> Herman J. Mankiewicz, Orson Welles

Oscar nominations:
Best Actor
Best Cinematography
Best Director
Best Music
Best Picture
Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration
Best Film Editing
Best Sound Recording

Louella Parsons, a gossip journalist, working for Hearst threatened to publish exposes on the private lives of every one of the RKO board of directors if Citizen Kane was exhibited.Source / More (Book)

Kane bought Susan an opera house, William Hearst bought a film studio to promote Marion Davies’ (his wife) stardom.

Not only the RKO studio was afraid of the Hearst retaliation. Several other major studio’s pooled together the total cost of the picture ($842,000?) in the hopes of getting the film away from Welles and into the nearest incinerator.Source / More (Book)

The original nitrate negatives are gone.

Welles privately watched Stagecoach (1939) about 40 times while making this film.

Despite all the publicity, the film was a box office flop and was quickly consigned to the RKO vaults.Source / More (Book)

Orson Welles: “I started at the top [with this movie] and worked my way down”

Cast

Multi Media

I´m Charles Foster Kane