Editing Citizen Kane (section)

==Production==
===Development===
[[File:George Schaefer.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Welles's 1938 radio broadcast of "[[The War of the Worlds (1938 radio drama)|The War of the Worlds]]" caught the attention of [[RKO Pictures|RKO]] studio chief [[George J. Schaefer]]]]

Hollywood had shown interest in Welles as early as 1936.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Johnston |first1=Alva |last2=Smith |first2=Fred |date=February 3, 1940 |title=How to Raise a Child (part 3) |url=http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/wp-content/flbk/How_to_Raise_a_Child_part_iii/#/1/ |journal=[[The Saturday Evening Post]] |pages=27, 28, 40, 45 |access-date=December 5, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924094616/http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/wp-content/flbk/How_to_Raise_a_Child_part_iii/#/1/ |archive-date=September 24, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{Rp|40}} He turned down three scripts sent to him by [[Warner Bros.]] In 1937, he declined offers from [[David O. Selznick]], who asked him to head his film company's story department, and [[William Wyler]], who wanted him for a supporting role in ''[[Wuthering Heights (1939 film)|Wuthering Heights]]''. "Although the possibility of making huge amounts of money in Hollywood greatly attracted him," wrote biographer Frank Brady, "he was still totally, hopelessly, insanely in love with the theater, and it is there that he had every intention of remaining to make his mark."<ref name="Brady">{{cite book |last=Brady |first=Frank |author-link=Frank Brady (writer) |title=Citizen Welles: A Biography of Orson Welles |publisher=[[Charles Scribner's Sons]] |location=New York |date=1989 |isbn=0-385-26759-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/citizenwellesbio00brad}}</ref>{{Rp|118–119, 130}}

Following the 1938 "[[The War of the Worlds (1938 radio drama)|The War of the Worlds]]" broadcast of his CBS radio series ''[[The Mercury Theatre on the Air]]'', Welles was lured to Hollywood with a remarkable contract.<ref name="Carringer TMOCK">{{cite book |last=Carringer |first=Robert L. |title=The Making of Citizen Kane |url=https://archive.org/details/makingofcitizenk00carr |url-access=registration |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |location=Berkeley and Los Angeles |date=1985 |isbn=978-0-520-20567-3}}</ref>{{Rp|1–2, 153}} [[RKO Pictures]] studio head [[George J. Schaefer]] wanted to work with Welles after the notorious broadcast, believing that Welles had a gift for attracting mass attention.<ref name="Leaming OW"/>{{Rp|170}} RKO was also uncharacteristically profitable and was entering into a series of independent production contracts that would add more artistically prestigious films to its roster.<ref name="Carringer TMOCK"/>{{Rp|1–2, 153}} Throughout the spring and early summer of 1939, Schaefer constantly tried to lure the reluctant Welles to Hollywood.<ref name="Leaming OW">{{cite book |last=Leaming |first=Barbara |title=Orson Welles, A Biography |url=https://archive.org/details/orsonwellesbiogr00leam |url-access=registration |publisher=[[Viking Press]] |location=New York |date=1985 |isbn=978-0-618-15446-3}}</ref>{{Rp|170|December 2014}} Welles was in financial trouble after failure of his plays ''[[Chimes at Midnight#Five Kings (1939)|Five Kings]]'' and ''[[The Green Goddess (play)|The Green Goddess]]''. At first he simply wanted to spend three months in Hollywood and earn enough money to pay his debts and fund his next theatrical season.<ref name="Leaming OW"/>{{Rp|170|December 2014}} Welles first arrived on July 20, 1939,<ref name="Leaming OW"/>{{Rp|168|December 2014}} and on his first tour, he called the movie studio "the greatest electric train set a boy ever had".<ref name="Leaming OW"/>{{Rp|174}}

Welles signed his contract with RKO on August 21, which stipulated that Welles would act in, direct, produce and write two films. Mercury would get $100,000 for the first film by January 1, 1940, plus 20% of profits after RKO recouped $500,000, and $125,000 for a second film by January 1, 1941, plus 20% of profits after RKO recouped $500,000. The most controversial aspect of the contract was granting Welles complete artistic control of the two films so long as RKO approved both projects' stories<ref name="Leaming OW"/>{{Rp|169|December 2014}} and the budget did not exceed $500,000.<ref name="Carringer TMOCK"/>{{Rp|1–2, 153}} RKO executives would not be allowed to see any footage until Welles chose to show it to them, and no cuts could be made to either film without Welles's approval.<ref name="Leaming OW"/>{{Rp|169|December 2014}} Welles was allowed to develop the story without interference, select his own cast and crew, and have the [[final cut privilege|right of final cut]]. Granting the final cut privilege was unprecedented for a studio because it placed artistic considerations over financial investment. The contract was deeply resented in the film industry, and the Hollywood press took every opportunity to mock RKO and Welles. Schaefer remained a great supporter<ref name="Carringer TMOCK"/>{{Rp|1–2, 153}} and saw the unprecedented contract as good publicity.<ref name="Leaming OW"/>{{Rp|170|December 2014}} Film scholar Robert L. Carringer wrote: "The simple fact seems to be that Schaefer believed Welles was going to pull off something really big almost as much as Welles did himself."<ref name="Carringer TMOCK"/>{{Rp|1–2, 153}}

[[File:Orson-Home-1939.jpg|thumb|left|Orson Welles at his Hollywood home in 1939, during the long months it took to launch his first film project]]
Welles spent the first five months of his RKO contract trying to get his first project going, without success. "They are laying bets over on the RKO lot that the Orson Welles deal will end up without Orson ever doing a picture there," wrote ''[[The Hollywood Reporter]]''.<ref name="Carringer TMOCK"/>{{Rp|15}} It was agreed that Welles would film ''[[Heart of Darkness]]'', previously adapted for ''The Mercury Theatre on the Air'', which would be presented entirely through a [[Point-of-view shot|first-person camera]]. After elaborate pre-production and a day of test shooting with a hand-held camera—unheard of at the time—the project never reached production because Welles was unable to trim $50,000 from its budget.{{efn|"I did a very elaborate production for [''Heart of Darkness''], such as I've never done again—never could," Welles said. "I shot my bolt on preproduction on that picture. We designed every camera setup and everything else—did enormous research in aboriginal, Stone Age cultures in order to reproduce what the story called for. I'm sorry not to have got the chance to do it."<ref name="Welles TIOW"/>{{Rp|31}}}}{{efn| Welles later used the subjective camera in ''The Magnificent Ambersons'', in a sequence that was later all but eliminated because it did not work in that picture. "''Heart of Darkness'' is one of the few stories that it's very well adapted to, because it relies so heavily on narration," Welles said. "The camera was going to be Marlow&nbsp;... He's in the pilot house and he can see himself reflected in the glass through which you see the jungle. So it isn't that business of a hand-held camera mooching around pretending to walk like a man."<ref name="Welles TIOW"/>{{Rp|31}}}}<ref name="Welles TIOW"/>{{Rp|30–31}} Schaefer told Welles that the $500,000 budget could not be exceeded; as war loomed, revenue was declining sharply in Europe by the fall of 1939.<ref name="Brady"/>{{Rp|215–216}}

He then started work on the idea that became ''Citizen Kane''. Knowing the script would take time to prepare, Welles suggested to RKO that while that was being done—"so the year wouldn't be lost"—he make a humorous political thriller. Welles proposed ''The Smiler with a Knife'', from a novel by [[Cecil Day-Lewis]].<ref name="Welles TIOW"/>{{Rp|33–34}} When that project stalled in December 1939, Welles began brainstorming other story ideas with screenwriter [[Herman J. Mankiewicz]], who had been writing Mercury radio scripts. "Arguing, inventing, discarding, these two powerful, headstrong, dazzlingly articulate personalities thrashed toward ''Kane''", wrote biographer [[Richard Meryman]].<ref name=Meryman/>{{Rp|245–246}}

===Screenplay===
{{main|Screenplay for Citizen Kane}}
{{multiple image
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<!-- Image 1 -->
| image1    = Herman-Mankiewicz.jpg
| alt1      =
| caption1  = [[Herman J. Mankiewicz]] co-wrote the script in early 1940. He and Welles separately re-wrote and revised each other's work until Welles was satisfied with the finished product.
<!-- Image 2 -->
| image2    = Citizen-Kane-Book-FE.jpg
| alt2      =
| caption2  = [[Pauline Kael]]'s controversial essay "[[Raising Kane]]" was published in ''[[The New Yorker]]'' and in ''The Citizen Kane Book'' (1971).
}}
{{blockquote|I wished to make a motion picture which was not a narrative of action so much as an examination of character. For this, I desired a man of many sides and many aspects. It was my idea to show that six or more people could have as many widely divergent opinions concerning the nature of a single personality...There have been many motion pictures and novels rigorously obeying the formula of the "success story". I wished to do something quite different. I wished to make a picture which might be called a "failure story".|Press statement issued by Welles regarding the impending release of ''Citizen Kane'' (January 15, 1941)<ref>{{cite web |last= |first= |date=February 25, 2013 |title=Rosebud meaning in ''Citizen Kane'' as given by Orson Welles|url=https://www.wellesnet.com/orson-welles-the-meaning-of-rosebud-in-citizen-kane/ |website=Wellesnet |location= |publisher= |access-date=February 9, 2025}}</ref><ref name="Brady"/>{{Rp|283–285}}}}

One of the long-standing controversies about ''Citizen Kane'' has been the authorship of the screenplay.<ref name=Meryman>{{cite book |last=Meryman |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Meryman |title=Mank: The Wit, World and Life of Herman Mankiewicz |publisher=[[William Morrow and Company]], Inc. |location=New York |date=1978 |isbn=978-0-688-03356-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/mankwitworldlife00mery}}</ref>{{Rp|237}} Welles conceived the project with screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz, who was writing radio plays for Welles's CBS Radio series, ''[[The Campbell Playhouse (radio series)|The Campbell Playhouse]]''.<ref name="Carringer TMOCK"/>{{Rp|16}} Mankiewicz based the original outline on the life of [[William Randolph Hearst]], whom he knew socially and came to hate after being exiled from Hearst's circle.<ref name=Meryman/>{{Rp|231}}

In February 1940 Welles supplied Mankiewicz with 300 pages of notes and put him under contract to write the first draft screenplay under the supervision of [[John Houseman]], Welles's former partner in the [[Mercury Theatre]]. Welles later explained, "I left him on his own finally, because we'd started to waste too much time haggling. So, after mutual agreements on storyline and character, Mank went off with Houseman and did his version, while I stayed in Hollywood and wrote mine."<ref name="Welles TIOW">{{cite book |last1=Welles |first1=Orson |author-link1=Orson Welles |last2=Bogdanovich |first2=Peter |author-link2=Peter Bogdanovich |last3=Rosenbaum |first3=Jonathan |author-link3=Jonathan Rosenbaum |title=This is Orson Welles |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] Publishers |location=New York |date=1992 |isbn=0-06-016616-9|title-link=This is Orson Welles }}</ref>{{Rp|54}} Taking these drafts, Welles drastically condensed and rearranged them, then added scenes of his own. The industry accused Welles of underplaying Mankiewicz's contribution to the script, but Welles countered the attacks by saying, "At the end, naturally, I was the one making the picture, after all—who had to make the decisions. I used what I wanted of Mank's and, rightly or wrongly, kept what I liked of my own."<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|54}}

The contract stated that Mankiewicz was to receive no credit for his work, as he was hired as a [[script doctor]].<ref name="Callow">{{cite book |last=Callow |first=Simon |author-link=Simon Callow |title=Orson Welles: The Road to Xanadu |publisher=[[Viking]] |location=New York |date=1996 |isbn=978-0-670-86722-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/orsonwellesvolum00simo}}</ref>{{Rp|487}} Before he signed the contract Mankiewicz was advised by his agents that all credit for his work belonged to Welles and the Mercury Theatre, the "author and creator".<ref name="Brady"/>{{Rp|236–237}} As the film neared release, however, Mankiewicz began wanting a writing credit and even threatened to take out full-page advertisements in trade papers and to get his friend [[Ben Hecht]] to write an exposé for ''[[The Saturday Evening Post]]''.<ref>{{Cite book| last=Stern| first=Sydney Ladensohn| title=The Brothers Mankiewicz: Hope, Heartbreak, and Hollywood Classics| publisher=University Press of Mississippi| year=2019|isbn=978-1617032677|location=Jackson| pages=}}</ref> Mankiewicz also threatened to go to the [[Screen Writers Guild]] and claim full credit for writing the entire script by himself.<ref name="Leaming OW"/>{{Rp|204}}

After lodging a protest with the Screen Writers Guild, Mankiewicz withdrew it, then vacillated. The question was resolved in January 1941 when the studio, [[RKO Pictures]], awarded Mankiewicz credit. The guild credit form listed Welles first, Mankiewicz second. Welles's assistant [[Richard Wilson (director)|Richard Wilson]] said that the person who circled Mankiewicz's name in pencil, then drew an arrow that put it in first place, was Welles. The official credit reads, "Screenplay by Herman J. Mankiewicz and Orson Welles".<ref name=Meryman/>{{Rp|264–265}} Mankiewicz's rancor toward Welles grew over the remaining twelve years of his life.<ref name="Whaley">{{cite book |last=Whaley |first=Barton |date=2005 |title=Orson Welles: The Man Who Was Magic |url=https://www.lybrary.com/orson-welles-the-man-who-was-magic-p-400.html |publisher=Lybrary.com |asin=B005HEHQ7E |access-date=December 21, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171222104859/https://www.lybrary.com/orson-welles-the-man-who-was-magic-p-400.html |archive-date=December 22, 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{Rp|498}}

Questions over the authorship of the ''Citizen Kane'' screenplay were revived in 1971 by influential film critic [[Pauline Kael]], whose controversial 50,000-word essay "[[Raising Kane]]" was commissioned as an introduction to the shooting script in ''The Citizen Kane Book'',<ref name="Welles TIOW"/>{{Rp|494}} published in October 1971.<ref name="CK Book Coming">{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Citizen Kane Film Book Due in Fall |newspaper=[[The Bakersfield Californian]] |date=June 6, 1971 |quote=On Oct. 28, Atlantic–Little, Brown will publish ''The Citizen Kane Book'', an outsize volume that will include not only 'Raising Kane' but also, as Miss Kael had always intended, the complete, original text of the Mankiewicz–Welles shooting script, published here for the first time.}}</ref> The book-length essay first appeared in February 1971, in two consecutive issues of ''[[The New Yorker]]'' magazine.<ref name="Welles TIOW"/>{{Rp|494}}<ref name="Raising Kane">{{cite book |last1=Kael |first1=Pauline |author-link1=Pauline Kael |last2=Welles |first2=Orson |author-link2=Orson Welles |last3=Mankiewicz |first3=Herman J. |author-link3=Herman J. Mankiewicz |year=1971 |title=The Citizen Kane Book |chapter=Raising Kane by Pauline Kael |chapter-url=http://www.paulrossen.com/paulinekael/raisingkane.html |location=Boston |publisher=[[Little, Brown and Company]] |pages=1–84 |oclc=209252 |access-date=August 18, 2015 |archive-date=June 20, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060620060353/http://www.paulrossen.com/paulinekael/raisingkane.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
In the ensuing controversy, Welles was defended by colleagues, critics, biographers and scholars, but his reputation was damaged by its charges.<ref name="Whaley"/>{{Rp|394}} The essay's thesis was later questioned and some of Kael's findings were also contested in later years.<ref>{{cite news |last=McCarthy |first=Todd |author-link=Todd McCarthy |date=August 22, 1997 |title=Welles pic script scrambles H'wood history |url=https://variety.com/1997/voices/columns/welles-pic-script-scrambles-h-wood-history-1116678396/ |newspaper=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |access-date=January 7, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150112143336/http://variety.com/1997/voices/columns/welles-pic-script-scrambles-h-wood-history-1116678396/ |archive-date=January 12, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Patterson |first=John |date=September 6, 2001 |title=Exit the hatchet woman: Why Pauline Kael was bad for world cinema |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2001/sep/07/artsfeatures |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=January 6, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150107222152/http://www.theguardian.com/film/2001/sep/07/artsfeatures |archive-date=January 7, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Rich">{{cite news |last=Rich |first=Frank |author-link=Frank Rich |date=October 27, 2011 |title=Roaring at the Screen with Pauline Kael |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/books/review/roaring-at-the-screen-with-pauline-kael.html |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=August 18, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150825010419/http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/books/review/roaring-at-the-screen-with-pauline-kael.html |archive-date=August 25, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Questions of authorship continued to come into sharper focus with Carringer's 1978 thoroughly researched essay, "The Scripts of ''Citizen Kane''".<ref name="Carringer Scripts"/>{{efn|First published in ''[[Critical Inquiry]]'', "The Scripts of Citizen Kane" was described by Rosenbaum as "the definitive piece of scholarship on the authorship of ''Kane''—and sadly one of the least well known". He wrote that many biographers may wrongly assume that Carringer included all of its facts in his later book, ''The Making of Citizen Kane''.<ref name="Discovering OW">{{cite book |editor-last=Rosenbaum |editor-first=Jonathan |title=Discovering Orson Welles |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley, California|date=2007 |isbn=978-0-520-25123-6}}</ref>{{Rp|18, 247}}}} Carringer studied the collection of script records—"almost a day-to-day record of the history of the scripting"—that was then still intact at RKO. He reviewed all seven drafts and concluded that "the full evidence reveals that Welles's contribution to the ''Citizen Kane'' script was not only substantial but definitive."<ref name="Carringer Scripts">{{cite book |last=Carringer |first=Robert L. |editor-last=Naremore |editor-first=James |title=Orson Welles's Citizen Kane: A Casebook |url=https://archive.org/details/orsonwellessciti00nare |url-access=limited |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |date=2004 |orig-year=first published 1978 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/orsonwellessciti00nare/page/n89 79]–121 |chapter=The Scripts of ''Citizen Kane'' |isbn=978-0-19-515892-2}}</ref>{{Rp|80}}

===Casting===
[[File:Citizen-Kane-Mercury.jpg|right|thumb|The [[Mercury Theatre]] was an independent [[repertory theatre]] company founded by Orson Welles and John Houseman in 1937. The company produced theatrical presentations, radio programs, films, [[promptbook]]s and phonographic recordings.]]
''Citizen Kane'' was a rare film in that its principal roles were played by actors new to motion pictures. Ten were billed as Mercury Actors, members of the skilled repertory company assembled by Welles for the stage and radio performances of the [[Mercury Theatre]], an independent theater company he founded with Houseman in 1937.<ref name="Brady"/>{{Rp|119–120}}<ref name="NYT Winged Mercuries">{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Ten Little Winged Mercuries; Introducing the Band of Lads and Lassies in 'Citizen Kane' |newspaper=The New York Times |date=May 4, 1941}}</ref> "He loved to use the Mercury players," wrote biographer Charles Higham, "and consequently he launched several of them on movie careers."<ref name="Higham">{{cite book |last=Higham |first=Charles |author-link=Charles Higham (biographer) |title=Orson Welles: The Rise and Fall of an American Genius |url=https://archive.org/details/orsonwellesrisea00high |url-access=registration |publisher=[[St. Martin's Press]] |location=New York |date=1985 |isbn=0-312-31280-6}}</ref>{{Rp|155}}

The film represents the feature film debuts of [[William Alland]], [[Ray Collins (actor)|Ray Collins]], [[Joseph Cotten]], [[Agnes Moorehead]], [[Erskine Sanford]], [[Everett Sloane]], [[Paul Stewart (actor)|Paul Stewart]] and Welles himself.<ref name="AFIcat"/> Despite never having appeared in feature films, some of the cast members were already well known to the public. Cotten had recently become a Broadway star in the hit play ''[[The Philadelphia Story (play)|The Philadelphia Story]]'' with [[Katharine Hepburn]]<ref name="Leaming OW"/>{{Rp|187|December 2014}} and Sloane was well known for his role on the radio show ''[[The Goldbergs (broadcast series)|The Goldbergs]]''.<ref name="Leaming OW"/>{{Rp|187|December 2014}}{{Efn|According to RKO records, Sloane was paid $2,400 for shaving his head.<ref name="AFIcat"/>}} Mercury actor [[George Coulouris]] was a star of the stage in New York and London.<ref name="NYT Winged Mercuries"/>

Not all of the cast came from the Mercury Players. Welles cast [[Dorothy Comingore]], an actress who played supporting parts in films since 1938 using the name "Linda Winters",<ref>{{cite news |last1=Lowrance |first1=Dee |title=Lady Luck: Movieland's Best Talent Scout |newspaper=The San Bernardino County Sun |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4052098/the_san_bernardino_county_sun/ |agency=The San Bernardino County Sun |date=July 19, 1942 |location=The San Bernardino County Sun |page=24 |via=[[Newspapers.com]] |access-date=January 16, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160911063432/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4052098/the_san_bernardino_county_sun/|archive-date=September 11, 2016|url-status=live}} {{Open access}}</ref> as Susan Alexander Kane. A discovery of [[Charlie Chaplin]], Comingore was recommended to Welles by Chaplin,<ref name="Lunches">{{cite book |last1=Biskind |first1=Peter |author-link1=Peter Biskind |last2=Jaglom |first2=Henry |author-link2=Henry Jaglom |last3=Welles |first3=Orson |title=My Lunches with Orson: Conversations between Henry Jaglom and Orson Welles |publisher=[[Metropolitan Books]] |location=New York |date=2013 |isbn=978-0-8050-9725-2}}</ref>{{Rp|170}} who then met Comingore at a party in Los Angeles and immediately cast her.<ref name="Howard">{{cite book |last=Howard |first=James |title=The Complete Films of Orson Welles |publisher=Carol Publishing Group |location=New York |date=1991 |isbn=0-8065-1241-5}}</ref>{{Rp|44}}

Welles had met stage actress [[Ruth Warrick]] while visiting New York on a break from Hollywood and remembered her as a good fit for Emily Norton Kane,<ref name="Leaming OW"/>{{Rp|188|December 2014}} later saying that she looked the part.<ref name="Lunches"/>{{Rp|169}} Warrick told Carringer that she was struck by the extraordinary resemblance between herself and Welles's mother when she saw a photograph of Beatrice Ives Welles. She characterized her own personal relationship with Welles as motherly.<ref>{{cite book |last=Carringer |first=Robert L. |date=1993 |title=The Magnificent Ambersons: A Reconstruction |location=Berkeley and Los Angeles |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=0-520-07857-8}}</ref>{{Rp|14}}

"He trained us for films at the same time that he was training himself," recalled Agnes Moorehead. "Orson believed in good acting, and he realized that rehearsals were needed to get the most from his actors. That was something new in Hollywood: nobody seemed interested in bringing in a group to rehearse before scenes were shot. But Orson knew it was necessary, and we rehearsed every sequence before it was shot."<ref name="Directors in Action">{{cite book |editor-last=Thomas |editor-first=Bob |title=Directors in Action: Selections from Action, The Official Magazine of the Directors Guild of America |publisher=The Bobbs Merrill Company, Inc. |location=Indianapolis |year=1973 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/directorsinactio00thom/page/1 1–11] |chapter=Citizen Kane Remembered [May–June 1969] |chapter-url=http://www.dga.org/Craft/DGAQ/All-Articles/0601-Spring-2006/Features-Raising-Kane.aspx |isbn=0-672-51715-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/directorsinactio00thom/page/1 }}</ref>{{Rp|9}}

When ''The March of Time'' narrator [[Westbrook Van Voorhis]] asked for $25,000 to narrate the ''News on the March'' sequence, Alland demonstrated his ability to imitate Van Voorhis, and Welles cast him.<ref name="BBC Complete"/>

Welles later said that casting character actor [[Gino Corrado]] in the small part of the waiter at the El Rancho broke his heart. Corrado had appeared in many Hollywood films, often as a waiter, and Welles wanted all of the actors to be new to films.<ref name="Lunches"/>{{Rp|171}} Other uncredited roles went to [[Thomas A. Curran]] as [[Teddy Roosevelt]] in the faux newsreel; [[Richard Barr|Richard Baer]] as Hillman, a man at Madison Square Garden, and a man in the ''News on the March'' screening room; and [[Alan Ladd]], [[Arthur O'Connell]] and [[Louise Currie]] as reporters at Xanadu.<ref name="AFIcat"/>

===Filming===
[[File:Citizen-Kane-Soundstage.jpg|thumb|right|Sound stage entrance, as seen in the [[Citizen Kane trailer|''Citizen Kane'' trailer]]]]

Production advisor Miriam Geiger quickly compiled a handmade film textbook for Welles, a practical reference book of film techniques that he studied carefully. He then taught himself filmmaking by matching its visual vocabulary to ''[[The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari]]'', which he ordered from the [[Museum of Modern Art]],<ref name="Leaming OW"/>{{Rp|173|date=December 2014}} and films by [[Frank Capra]], [[René Clair]], [[Fritz Lang]], [[King Vidor]]<ref name="Wakeman">{{cite book |last=Wakeman |first=John |title=World Film Directors, Volume 1 |publisher=The H. W. Wilson Company |location=New York |date=1987 |isbn=978-0-8242-0757-1 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/worldfilmdirecto0000unse }}</ref>{{Rp|1172}}{{Rp|1171}} and [[Jean Renoir]].<ref name="Brady"/>{{Rp|209}} The one film he genuinely studied was [[John Ford]]'s ''[[Stagecoach (1939 film)|Stagecoach]]'',<ref name="Welles TIOW"/>{{Rp|29}} which he watched 40 times.<ref>{{cite book |last=McBride |first=Joseph |author-link=Joseph McBride (writer) |title=Searching for John Ford: A Life |publisher=[[Macmillan Publishers (United States)|Macmillan Publishers]] |location=New York |date=2003 |isbn=978-0-312-31011-0 |pages=299–300}}</ref> "As it turned out, the first day I ever walked onto a set was my first day as a director," Welles said. "I'd learned whatever I knew in the projection room—from Ford. After dinner every night for about a month, I'd run ''Stagecoach'', often with some different technician or department head from the studio, and ask questions. 'How was this done?' 'Why was this done?' It was like going to school."<ref name="Welles TIOW"/>{{Rp|29}}

Welles's cinematographer for the film was [[Gregg Toland]], described by Welles as "just then, the number-one cameraman in the world." To Welles's astonishment, Toland visited him at his office and said, "I want you to use me on your picture." He had seen some of the Mercury stage productions (including ''[[Caesar (Mercury Theatre)|Caesar]]''<ref name="Whaley"/>{{Rp|66}}) and said he wanted to work with someone who had never made a movie.<ref name="Welles TIOW"/>{{Rp|59}} RKO hired Toland on loan from [[Samuel Goldwyn Productions]]<ref name="Mulvey"/>{{Rp|10}} in the first week of June 1940.<ref name="Carringer TMOCK"/>{{Rp|40}}

"And he never tried to impress us that he was doing any miracles," Welles recalled. "I was calling for things only a beginner would have been ignorant enough to think anybody could ever do, and there he was, ''doing'' them."<ref name="Welles TIOW"/>{{Rp|60}} Toland later explained that he wanted to work with Welles because he anticipated the first-time director's inexperience and reputation for audacious experimentation in the theater would allow the cinematographer to try new and innovative camera techniques that typical Hollywood films would never have allowed him to do.<ref name="Leaming OW"/>{{Rp|186|December 2014}} Unaware of filmmaking protocol, Welles adjusted the lights on set as he was accustomed to doing in the theater; Toland quietly re-balanced them, and was angry when one of the crew informed Welles that he was infringing on Toland's responsibilities.<ref name="Welles TIOW 1A"/>{{Rp|5:33–6:06}} During the first few weeks of June, Welles had lengthy discussions about the film with Toland and art director Perry Ferguson in the morning, and in the afternoon and evening he worked with actors and revised the script.<ref name="Carringer TMOCK"/>{{Rp|69}}

[[File:Gregg Toland.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Cinematographer [[Gregg Toland]] wanted to work with Welles for the opportunity of trying experimental camera techniques that other films did not allow.<ref name="theasc/realism-citizen-kane">{{cite news |last1=Toland |first1=Gregg |author1-link=Gregg Toland |title=Realism for Citizen Kane |url=https://theasc.com/articles/realism-for-citizen-kane |access-date=7 July 2024 |work=[[American Society of Cinematographers]] |date=February 1941 |language=en}}</ref>]]
On June 29, 1940—a Saturday morning when few inquisitive studio executives would be around—Welles began filming ''Citizen Kane''.<ref name="Carringer TMOCK"/>{{Rp|69}}<ref name="Whaley"/>{{Rp|107}} After the disappointment of having ''Heart of Darkness'' canceled,<ref name="Welles TIOW"/>{{Rp|30–31}} Welles followed Ferguson's suggestion{{efn|Speaking to Bogdanovich, Welles corrects himself when speaking about who suggested the "test" shooting: "That was Toland's idea—no, it was Ferguson's idea, the art director."<ref name="Welles TIOW 1A">Welles, Orson, and Peter Bogdanovich, ''[[This is Orson Welles]]''. HarperAudio, September 30, 1992. {{ISBN|1-55994-680-6}} Audiotape 1A.</ref>{{Rp|19:25–19:31}}}}<ref name="Welles TIOW"/>{{Rp|57}} and deceived RKO into believing that he was simply shooting [[Screen test|camera tests]]. "But we were shooting the ''picture''," Welles said, "because we wanted to get started and be already into it before anybody knew about it."<ref name="Welles TIOW"/>{{Rp|57}}

At the time RKO executives were pressuring him to agree to direct a film called ''The Men from Mars'', to capitalize on "The War of the Worlds" radio broadcast. Welles said that he would consider making the project but wanted to make a different film first. At this time he did not inform them that he had already begun filming ''Citizen Kane''.<ref name="Leaming OW"/>{{Rp|186}}

The early footage was called "Orson Welles Tests" on all paperwork.<ref name="Carringer TMOCK"/>{{Rp|69}} The first "test" shot was the ''News on the March'' projection room scene, economically filmed in a real studio projection room in darkness that masked many actors who appeared in other roles later in the film.<ref name="Carringer TMOCK"/>{{Rp|69}}<ref name="Welles TIOW"/>{{Rp|77–78}}{{efn|"I used the whole Mercury cast, heavily disguised by darkness," Welles said. "And there they all are—if you look carefully, you can see them. Everybody in the movie is in it.&nbsp;... Yes, I'm there."<ref name="Welles TIOW"/>{{Rp|78}}}} "At $809 Orson did run substantially beyond the test budget of $528—to create one of the most famous scenes in movie history," wrote Barton Whaley.<ref name="Whaley"/>{{Rp|107}}

The next scenes were the El Rancho nightclub scenes and the scene in which Susan attempts suicide.{{efn|No figures can be found for the cost of filming Susan's attempted suicide, but filming the nightclub scene was budgeted at $1,038 and cost $1,376.79.<ref name=Lebo>{{cite book |last=Lebo |first=Harlan |title=Citizen Kane: The Fiftieth Anniversary Album |publisher=[[Doubleday (publisher)|Doubleday]] |location=New York |date=1990 |isbn=978-0-385-41473-9}}</ref>{{Rp|74}}}}<ref name="Carringer TMOCK"/>{{Rp|69}} Welles later said that the nightclub set was available after another film had wrapped and that filming took 10 to 12 days to complete. For these scenes Welles had Comingore's throat sprayed with chemicals to give her voice a harsh, raspy tone.<ref name="Lunches"/>{{Rp|170–171}} Other scenes shot in secret included those in which Thompson interviews Leland and Bernstein, which were also shot on sets built for other films.<ref name="BBC Complete">{{cite video |author=BBC Arena |author-link=Arena (UK TV series)|title=The Complete Citizen Kane |publisher=[[BBC Two]] |date=October 13, 1991}}</ref>

[[File:Oheka Castle.jpg|thumb|Aerial view of [[Otto Hermann Kahn]]'s [[Oheka Castle]] that portrays the fictional ''Xanadu'']]
During production, the film was referred to as ''RKO 281''. Most of the filming took place in what is now Stage 19 on the [[Paramount Pictures]] lot in Hollywood.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.paramountstudios.com/stages-backlots/stages/stage-19.html |title=The Studios – Paramount |publisher=[[Paramount Pictures]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140812062236/http://www.paramountstudios.com/stages-backlots/stages/stage-19.html |archive-date=August 12, 2014 |url-status=dead}}</ref> There was some location filming at [[Balboa Park (San Diego)|Balboa Park]] in San Diego and the [[San Diego Zoo]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Williams |first=Gregory L. |title=Filming San Diego |url=http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/2002-2/filming.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110521030941/http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/2002-2/filming.htm |archive-date=May 21, 2011 |access-date=April 6, 2012 |publisher=San Diego History Center}}</ref> Photographs of German-Jewish investment banker [[Otto Hermann Kahn]]'s real-life estate [[Oheka Castle]] were used to portray the fictional [[Xanadu (Citizen Kane)|Xanadu]].<ref>Levin, Eric. [http://www.travelandleisure.com/articles/the-open-island/1 "The Open Island"], ''[[Travel + Leisure]]'', May 2002</ref><ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1989/02/19/nyregion/follow-up-on-the-news-citizen-kane-site-changing-hands.html "'Citizen Kane' Site Changing Hands"] ''[[The New York Times]]'' (February 19, 1989, corrected April 6, 1989)</ref>

In the end of July, RKO approved the film and Welles was allowed to officially begin shooting, despite having already been filming "tests" for several weeks. Welles leaked stories to newspaper reporters that the "tests" had been so good that there was no need to re-shoot them. The first "official" scene to be shot was the breakfast montage sequence between Kane and his first wife Emily. To strategically save money and appease the RKO executives who opposed him, Welles rehearsed scenes extensively before actually shooting and filmed very few takes of each shot set-up.<ref name="Leaming OW"/>{{Rp|193|December 2014}} Welles never shot [[master shot]]s for any scene after Toland told him that Ford never shot them.<ref name="Lunches"/>{{Rp|169}} To appease the increasingly curious press, Welles threw a cocktail party for selected reporters, promising that they could watch a scene being filmed. When the journalists arrived Welles told them they had "just finished" shooting for the day but still had the party.<ref name="Leaming OW"/>{{Rp|193|December 2014}} Welles told the press that he was ahead of schedule (without factoring in the month of "test shooting"), thus discrediting claims that after a year in Hollywood without making a film he was a failure in the film industry.<ref name="Leaming OW"/>{{Rp|194|December 2014}}

[[File:Citizen-Kane-Welles-Collins.jpg|thumb|left|Welles fell {{convert|10|ft|m|spell=in}} while shooting the scene in which Kane shouts at the departing Boss Jim W. Gettys; his injuries required him to direct from a wheelchair for two weeks.]]
Welles usually worked 16 to 18 hours a day on the film. He often began work at 4&nbsp;a.m. since the special effects make-up used to age him for certain scenes took up to four hours to apply. Welles used this time to discuss the day's shooting with Toland and other crew members. The special contact lenses used to make Welles look elderly proved very painful, and a doctor was employed to place them into Welles's eyes. Welles had difficulty seeing clearly while wearing them, which caused him to badly cut his wrist when shooting the scene in which Kane breaks up the furniture in Susan's bedroom. While shooting the scene in which Kane shouts at Gettys on the stairs of Susan Alexander's apartment building, Welles fell ten feet; an X-ray revealed two bone chips in his ankle.<ref name="Leaming OW"/>{{Rp|194|December 2014}}

The injury required him to direct the film from a wheelchair for two weeks.<ref name="cinephiliabeyond/citizen-kane">{{cite web |title='Citizen Kane': The Astonishing Debut of Hollywood's Greatest Wunderkind |url=https://cinephiliabeyond.org/citizen-kane-the-astonishing-debut-of-hollywoods-greatest-wunderkind/ |website=Cinephilia & Beyond |access-date=7 July 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303221450/https://cinephiliabeyond.org/citizen-kane-the-astonishing-debut-of-hollywoods-greatest-wunderkind/ |archive-date=3 March 2016 |date=3 March 2016 |quote=Orson Welles (seated by the giant megaphone) directs a scene from 1941′s 'Citizen Kane' while laid up with a broken ankle he suffered during the shoot. The visor-adorned gentleman next to the camera is cinematographer Gregg Toland. Production still photographer: Alexander Kahle}}</ref><ref name="Leaming OW"/>{{Rp|194–195|December 2014}} He eventually wore a steel brace to resume performing on camera; it is visible in the low-angle scene between Kane and Leland after Kane loses the election.{{efn|"It took nerve to shoot from down there, with that steel brace right in front of the camera, but I thought rightly that at that point they'd be looking at Leland and not at me."<ref name="Welles TIOW"/>{{Rp|61–62}}}}<ref name="Welles TIOW"/>{{Rp|61}} For the final scene, a stage at the Selznick studio was equipped with a working furnace, and multiple takes were required to show the sled being put into the fire and the word "Rosebud" consumed. Paul Stewart recalled that on the ninth take the Culver City Fire Department arrived in full gear because the furnace had grown so hot the flue caught fire. "Orson was delighted with the commotion", he said.<ref name="Directors in Action"/>{{Rp|8–9}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.dga.org/Craft/DGAQ/All-Articles/0601-Spring-2006/Features-Raising-Kane.aspx|title=Raising Kane|date=Spring 2006|access-date=December 13, 2020}}</ref>

When "Rosebud" was burned, Welles [[Blocking (stage)|choreographed]]{{clarify|date=July 2020}} the scene while he had composer [[Bernard Herrmann]]'s cue playing on the set.<ref name="alexross">{{cite magazine |last=Ross |first=Alex |date=June 27, 2005 |title=Sound and Vision: Glass's 'Koyaanisqatsi' and the art of film scoring |url=http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/06/27/050627crmu_music |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |access-date=December 18, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140425172558/http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/06/27/050627crmu_music |archive-date=April 25, 2014 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Unlike Schaefer, many members of RKO's board of governors did not like Welles or the control that his contract gave him.<ref name="Leaming OW"/>{{Rp|186|December 2014}} However such board members as [[Nelson Rockefeller]] and NBC chief [[David Sarnoff]]<ref name="Wakeman"/>{{Rp|1170}} were sympathetic to Welles.<ref name="Wellesnet Memos">{{cite web |url=http://www.wellesnet.com/?p=1585 |title=The Memos Part X: George Schaefer resigns as RKO president&nbsp;... |publisher=Wellesnet.com |date=July 5, 2012 |access-date=December 11, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121018200036/http://www.wellesnet.com/?p=1585 |archive-date=October 18, 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref> Throughout production Welles had problems with these executives not respecting his contract's stipulation of non-interference and several spies arrived on set to report what they saw to the executives. When the executives would sometimes arrive on set unannounced the entire cast and crew would suddenly start playing softball until they left. Before official shooting began the executives intercepted all copies of the script and delayed their delivery to Welles. They had one copy sent to their office in New York, resulting in it being leaked to press.<ref name="Leaming OW"/>{{Rp|195|December 2014}}

[[Principal shooting]] wrapped October 24. Welles then took several weeks away from the film for a lecture tour, during which he also scouted additional locations with Toland and Ferguson. Filming resumed November 15<ref name="Carringer TMOCK"/>{{Rp|87}} with some re-shoots. Toland had to leave due to a commitment to shoot [[Howard Hughes]]' ''[[The Outlaw]]'', but Toland's camera crew continued working on the film and Toland was replaced by RKO cinematographer [[Harry J. Wild]]. The final day of shooting on November 30 was Kane's death scene.<ref name="Carringer TMOCK"/>{{Rp|85}} Welles boasted that he only went 21 days over his official shooting schedule, without factoring in the month of "camera tests".<ref name="Leaming OW"/>{{Rp|195|December 2014}} According to RKO records, the film cost $839,727. Its estimated budget had been $723,800.<ref name="AFIcat"/>

===Post-production===
''Citizen Kane'' was edited by [[Robert Wise]] and assistant editor [[Mark Robson (film director)|Mark Robson]].<ref name="Mulvey"/>{{Rp|85}} Both would become successful film directors. Wise was hired after Welles finished shooting the "camera tests" and began officially making the film. Wise said that Welles "had an older editor assigned to him for those tests and evidently he was not too happy and asked to have somebody else. I was roughly Orson's age and had several good credits." Wise and Robson began editing the film while it was still shooting and said that they "could tell certainly that we were getting something very special. It was outstanding film day in and day out."<ref name="Wakeman"/>{{Rp|1210}}

Welles gave Wise detailed instructions and was usually not present during the film's editing.<ref name="Carringer TMOCK"/>{{Rp|109}} The film was very well planned out and intentionally shot for such post-production techniques as slow [[Dissolve (filmmaking)|dissolves]].<ref name="BBC Complete"/> The lack of coverage made editing easy since Welles and Toland edited the film "in camera" by leaving few options of how it could be put together.<ref name="Carringer TMOCK"/>{{Rp|110}} Wise said the breakfast table sequence took weeks to edit and get the correct "timing" and "rhythm" for the [[whip pan]]s and overlapping dialogue.<ref name="BBC Complete"/> The ''News on the March'' sequence was edited by RKO's newsreel division to give it authenticity.<ref name="Carringer TMOCK"/>{{Rp|110}} They used [[stock footage]] from [[Pathé News]] and the General Film Library.<ref name="AFIcat"/>

During post-production Welles and special effects artist [[Linwood G. Dunn]] experimented with an [[optical printer]] to improve certain scenes that Welles found unsatisfactory from the footage.<ref name="BBC Complete"/> Whereas Welles was often immediately pleased with Wise's work, he would require Dunn and post-production audio engineer James G. Stewart to re-do their work several times until he was satisfied.<ref name="Carringer TMOCK"/>{{Rp|109}}

Welles hired Bernard Herrmann to compose the film's score. Where most Hollywood film scores were written quickly, in as few as two or three weeks after filming was completed, Herrmann was given 12 weeks to write the music. He had sufficient time to do his own orchestrations and conducting, and worked on the film reel by reel as it was shot and cut. He wrote complete musical pieces for some of the montages, and Welles edited many of the scenes to match their length.<ref name=Herrmann/>