"The American Experience" The Battle Over Citizen Kane (1996)

Directors:

Michael Epstein
Thomas Lennon

Writers:

Richard Ben Cramer (writer) and
Thomas Lennon (writer)

TV Series:

"The American Experience" (1988)

Original Air Date:

29 January 1996 (Season 8, Episode 7)

Genre:

Documentary | Biography | Crime | History | War

Plot:

Documentary about the battle between Orson Welles and William Randolph Hearst over Welles' Citizen Kane (1941). Features interviews with Welles' and Hearst's co-workers also as a relative complete bio of Hearst.

Plot Keywords:

Director | Voice Over Narration | Mistress | Publisher | Behind The Scenes

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 4 nominations

Cast

William Alland	...	Himself
Thomas Anderson	...	Himself
Richard Ben Cramer	...	Narrator (voice)
Peter Bogdanovich	...	Himself
Jimmy Breslin	...	Himself
Marion Davies	...	Herself (archive footage)
Leonard De Bur	...	Himself
Douglas Fairbanks Jr.	...	Himself
Richard France	...	Himself
William Randolph Hearst	...	Himself (archive footage)
William Herz	...	Himself
Sam Leve	...	Himself
Norman Lloyd	...	Himself
Nancy Loe	...	Herself
Frank Mankiewicz	...	Himself
David Nasaw	...	Himself
Lon Etta Santucci	...	Himself
John Tebbel	...	Himself
Ruth Warrick	...	Herself
Orson Welles	...	Himself (archive footage)
Vern Whaley	...	Himself
Gloria Widelock	...	Herself
Robert Wise	...	Himself

Runtime:

108 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Lennon Documentary Group

Movie Connections:

Edited from The Patsy (1928)

Hatchet job on Welles

There must still be relatives of William Randolph Hearst around who had something to do with this polished piece of junk. That this "documentary" was included as part of Warner's DVD of Citizen Kane is a disgrace, and a disservice (to say the least) to Welles. The whole tone of this film is anti-Welles, and, if not pro-Hearst, at least fairer to him than to Welles. It seems that every time an image of Welles appears on screen dark and sinister music underscores it, and the narration becomes ominous and insinuating, but when Hearst is shown happy, upbeat music is the rule. Welles is made out to be an arrogant, sometimes violent man, and no opportunity is missed to tell some denigrating anecdote about his appetites and ego. Hearst is treated far more gently, even though he was by far the more dangerous and destructive of the two men. Factual errors abound in this silly film; such as the totally inaccurate notion that Hearst was successful in ruining Welles, if not Citizen Kane. The sad truth is that Welles largely was his own worst enemy, abandoning projects like The Magnificent Ambersons before it had been completed. If Hearst was so successful in defeating Welles, why was it that the film was nominated for nine Academy Awards? That it "only" won one is cited as proof that Hearst had destroyed the picture AND Welles. Rubbish.