Editing Citizen Kane (section)

===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"/>