The Max Daddy Of Great Films-Orson Welles’ “Citizen Kane”(1941)-A Film Review

The Max Daddy Of Great Films-Orson Welles’ “Citizen Kane”(1941)-A Film  Review      

DVD Review

By Fritz Taylor

Citizen Kane, starring Orson Welles, Joseph Cotton and the merry cast of the Mercury Theater, directed by Orson Welles, 1941  

William Randolph Hearst (oops!) Charles Foster Kane was one of those larger than life personalities who in the end, hell, who knows maybe from the very beginning was brought down the slippery slope by his own hubris. Charles Foster Kane (oops!) Orson Welles was one of those larger than life personalities who in the end, hell, maybe in the beginning was brought down the slippery slope by his own hubris and so the material for this film, this great all-time classic film, Citizen Kane, was just waiting to be exploited on the screen. And after re-watching the thing for about the fifth time my first impression way back when is still valid. This is still a great cinematic effort from the material to the cinematography to theme of the mighty fallen yet human enough to remember some childhood memories untainted by success-or failure.  

“Rosebud,” the last word the dying Kane uttered triggered the whole story line. (I was told by someone back in the 1970s when I first saw the film in a revival at the Brattle Theater in Harvard Square not to miss the beginning where Kane utters the word on his death bed, or the end when we are graphically informed what it was all about, because the story line depended so much on knowing that was the key-that informative person was right.) The world- famous Kane of mighty fortunes and of late Xanadu-his ungodly palace down in Florida had by that one word sent reporters, especially one intrepid reporter searching for what that meant.

In a series of flash-backs we find that whatever virtue he had as Midwestern farm boy he had lost by the time he was a young man under the tutelage of his benefactor. We find that he was driven to distraction by placing his brand on the world. From the newspaper he turned around to make a name to be reckoned with in the industry to his ill-fated run for governor to his troubled marital life to his doddering old age as a virtual recluse in his mansion we see a man who was maybe respected, was maybe loved in a funny way but was such a control freak that he let that get the best of him. The rise and fall of Kane, part story, part newsreel, part made-up Hollywood press agent’s clippings and paid graft said something about a not very different from today America-where jockeying for cash and power, in either order rules the planet.          

From The Pen Of Joshua Lawrence Breslin- A Rosebud By Any Other Name- Orson Welles’ “Citizen Kane”

DVD Review


Citizen Kane, starring Orson Welles, Everett Sloane, Joseph Cotton, directed by Orson Welles, RKO Radio Pictures, 1941

Recently I reviewed the 2011 Academy Award –winning film The Artist and commented in that review that the silent movie directors and producers of the 1920s (the actors I am not quite as sure of) would have given their eye-teeth (or at least their first born) to have had the technology available now back then to produce higher technical quality films. I am not so sure that I could say the same about director Orson Welles’ 1941 film classic, Citizen Kane.

Oh sure some of the technical stuff today could (and has on the remastered versions ) enhance the sound, and maybe some of the production values but this magnificent film does not rely on technical skill so much (although some of the scenes and backdrops are of high quality) as the driving plot line, the script, and above the acting of director Orson Welles’s merry band of Mercury Theater players (think Joseph Cotton, Agnes Moorehead, Everett Sloan and, oh yes, Orson Welles, among others).

The plot line and the way it unfolds beginning with a clever news-of-the week video of Charles Foster Kane’s life after he passed away to bring us up to speed really is something to watch. Of course it did not hurt that this piece was a thinly-veiled portrait of the famed newspaperman and arch imperialist war-monger (the Spanish-American War and other little adventures be exact) William Randolph Hearst. He of “yellow journalism” fame although today he would be strictly minor league, maybe scandalous in Toledo or someplace like that.

Then to have the strong cinematic personality of actor Orson Welles (shown as well in other films like Falstaff, The Lady From Shang-hai, and The Third Man) play that strong Hearst personality just added to the drama. As well as did the flashbacks by various parties who knew Kane, had worked for Kane, had loved Kane, had hated Kane or were just pure baffled by him. And then that dramatic undercurrent throughout the film of Kane’s characteristic that would banish him from the godly pantheon, his utter incapacity to love anybody but himself that left him alone at the end. Yet he was still able to go back into deep childhood to remember the good part of his life, the part many of us harken back to as we age. We all, or almost all, have our Rosebud memories and maybe that is the connecting thread to the continuing relevance of this classic film. Just make sure you don’t go for popcorn or something out in the kitchen at the beginning of the film, okay. Trust me on that please.