Editing Orson Welles (section)

=== ''Citizen Kane'' ===
{{Main|Citizen Kane}}
[[File:Citizen-Kane-Welles-Podium.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|Welles in ''[[Citizen Kane]]'' (1941)]]

RKO rejected Welles's first two movie proposals,<ref name="Carringer 1985"/>{{Rp|3–15}} but agreed on the third—''[[Citizen Kane]]''. Welles co-wrote, produced, directed and starred in it.<ref name="autogenerated2001">McMahon, Thomas, "Orson Welles", ''Authors & Artists for Young Adults: Vol. 40''. Michigan: Gale Research, 2001 {{ISBN|0-7876-4673-3}}</ref> Welles conceived the project with screenwriter [[Herman J. Mankiewicz]], who was writing radio plays for ''[[The Campbell Playhouse (radio series)|The Campbell Playhouse]]''.<ref name="Carringer 1985">{{cite book |title=The Making of Citizen Kane |url=https://archive.org/details/makingofcitizenk00carr |url-access=registration |last=Carringer |first=Robert L. |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley and Los Angeles California |year=1985 |isbn=978-0-520-20567-3 }}</ref>{{Rp|16}} Mankiewicz based the original outline of the film script on the life of [[William Randolph Hearst]], whom he knew and came to hate after being exiled from Hearst's circle.<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|231}}

After agreeing on the storyline and character, 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 wrote his own draft,<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|54}} then drastically condensed and rearranged both versions and 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}}

For the cast, Welles primarily used actors from his Mercury Theatre, including [[William Alland]],  [[Ray Collins (actor)|Ray Collins]], [[Joseph Cotten]], [[Agnes Moorehead]], [[Erskine Sanford]], [[Everett Sloane]] and [[Paul Stewart (actor)|Paul Stewart]] in their film debuts. Welles's project attracted some of Hollywood's best technicians, including cinematographer [[Gregg Toland]].<ref name="autogenerated2001" /> Welles and Toland made extensive use of [[deep focus]] photography, in which everything in the frame is in focus. Toland explained that he and Welles thought "that if it was possible, the picture should be brought to the screen in such a way that the audience would feel it was looking at reality, rather than merely at a movie." They composed "our angles and compositions so that action which ordinarily would be shown in direct cuts would be shown in a single, longer scene--often one in which important action might take place simultaneously in widely separated points in extreme foreground and background."<ref name=AFI>{{cite web| title=AFI Catalog Citizen Kane| url=https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/27624| access-date=December 30, 2024| archive-date=December 26, 2024| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241226022629/https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/27624| url-status=live}}</ref>

Toland explained their use of deep (or pan) focus: <blockquote> Through its use, it is possible to photograph action from a range of eighteen inches from the camera lens to over two hundred feet away, with extreme foreground and background figures and action both recorded in sharp relief. Hitherto, the camera had to be focused either for a close or a distant shot, all efforts to encompass both at the same time resulting in one or the other being out of focus. This handicap necessitated the breaking up of a scene into long and short angles, with much consequent loss of realism. With pan-focus, the camera, like the human eye, sees an entire panorama at once, with everything clear and lifelike.<ref name=Toland>{{cite news| last=Toland| first=Gregg| author-link=Gregg Toland| title=The American Cameraman| date=September 1941| work=Theater Arts| url=https://www.wellesnet.com/gregg-toland-on-working-with-orson-welles-on-citizen-kane/| archive-date=January 1, 2025| access-date=December 30, 2024| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250101194349/https://www.wellesnet.com/gregg-toland-on-working-with-orson-welles-on-citizen-kane/| url-status=live}}</ref></blockquote>

Welles called Toland "the greatest gift any director—young or old—could ever, ever have. And he never tried to impress on us that he was performing miracles. He just went ahead and performed them. I was calling on him to do things only a beginner could be ignorant enough to think anybody could ever do, and there he was, ''doing'' them." When asked why he and Toland used depth of focus, Welles explained: "Well, in life you see everything in focus at the same time, so why not in the movies?"<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|60}}

It was the first film scored by [[Bernard Herrmann]], who had worked with Welles in radio. Hermann recalled: "two full weeks were spent in the dubbing room, and music under our supervision was often re-recorded six or seven times before the proper dynamic level was achieved. The result is an exact projection of the original musical ideas in the score. Technically, no composer could ask for more."<ref name=Herrmann>{{cite news| title=Score For a Film| last=Herrmann| first=Bernard| author-link=Bernard Herrmann| date=May 25, 1941| work=[[The New York Times]]| url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1941/05/25/85499646.html?pageNumber=179}}</ref> Filming ''Citizen Kane'' took ten weeks.<ref name="autogenerated2001" />

Hearst's newspapers barred all reference to ''Citizen Kane'' and exerted enormous pressure on the Hollywood film community to force RKO to shelve the film.<ref name="Carringer 1985" />{{Rp|111}} RKO chief [[George J. Schaefer]] received a cash offer from [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer|MGM]]'s [[Louis B. Mayer]] and other major studio executives if he would destroy the negative and existing prints of the film.<ref name="Carringer 1985" />{{Rp|112}}
[[File:Canada-Lee-Native-Son-1941.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|[[Canada Lee]] as Bigger Thomas in ''[[Native Son (play)|Native Son]]'' (1941), co-produced and directed by Welles]]
While waiting for ''Citizen Kane'' to be released, Welles produced and directed the original Broadway production of ''[[Native Son (play)|Native Son]]'', a drama written by [[Paul Green (playwright)|Paul Green]] and [[Richard Wright (author)|Richard Wright]] based on Wright's  [[Native Son|novel]]. Starring [[Canada Lee]], the show ran March 24 – June 28, 1941, at the [[St. James Theatre]]. The Mercury Production was the last time Welles and Houseman worked together.<ref name="Bret Wood" />{{Rp|12}}

Although ''Citizen Kane'' was given a limited release, it received overwhelming critical praise. It was voted the best picture of 1941 by the [[National Board of Review]] and [[New York Film Critics Circle]]. The film garnered nine Academy Award nominations but won only [[Academy Award for Best Writing (Original Screenplay)|Best Original Screenplay]], shared by Mankiewicz and Welles.<ref>{{cite web| title=The 14th Academy Awards| work=[[The Academy Awards]]| date=October 3, 2014| url=https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1942| access-date=January 3, 2025| archive-date=October 11, 2014| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141011022900/https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1942| url-status=live}}</ref> ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' reported that block voting by extras deprived ''Citizen Kane'' of Oscars for Best Picture and Best Actor (Welles), and similar prejudices were likely to have been responsible for the film receiving no technical awards.<ref name="Carringer 1985" />{{Rp|117}} [[Bosley Crowther]] wrote that Welles "has made a picture of tremendous and overpowering scope, not in physical extent so much as in its rapid and graphic rotation of thoughts. Mr. Welles has put upon the screen a motion picture that really moves."<ref>{{cite news| title=Orson Welles's Controversial 'Citizen Kane' Proves a Sensational Film at Palace| last=Crowther| first=Bosley| author-link=Bosley Crowther| date=May 21, 1941| work=[[The New York Times]]| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1941/05/02/archives/orson-welless-controversial-citizen-kane-proves-a-sensational-film.html}}</ref> [[Cecelia Ager]], in ''[[PM Magazine]]'', wrote: "Before ''Citizen Kane'', it's as if the motion picture were a slumbering monster, a mighty force stupidly sleeping, lying there...awaiting a fierce young man to come kick it to life, to rouse it, shake it, awaken it to its potentialities ... Seeing it, it's as if you never really saw a movie before."<ref name=Kael/>

The delay in the film's release and uneven distribution contributed to mediocre results at the box office. After it ran its course theatrically, ''Citizen Kane'' was retired to the vault in 1942. In France, however, its reputation grew after it was seen there for the first time in 1946.<ref name="Carringer 1985" />{{Rp|117–118}} In the US, it began to be re-evaluated after it appeared on television in 1956. That year it was re-released theatrically,<ref name="Carringer 1985" />{{Rp|119}} and film critic [[Andrew Sarris]] described it as "the great American film" and "the work that influenced the cinema more profoundly than any American film since ''[[The Birth of a Nation]]''."<ref name="Sarris">{{cite news |last=Sarris |first=Andrew |author-link=Andrew Sarris |title=Citizen Kane: The American Baroque |publisher=[[Film Culture]], number 9 |year=1956 }}</ref> ''Citizen Kane'' [[Legacy of Citizen Kane|is now widely hailed]] as one of the greatest films ever made.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bfi.org.uk/news/50-greatest-films-all-time |title=The 50 Greatest Films of All Time |publisher=[[British Film Institute]] |date=September 2012 |access-date=February 11, 2016 |archive-date=March 1, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170301135739/http://www.bfi.org.uk/news/50-greatest-films-all-time |url-status=dead }}</ref> From 1962 to 2012, it topped the decennial ''[[Sight and Sound]]'' poll of the Greatest Films of All Time.<ref>{{cite news| author=[[David Thomson (film critic)|David Thomson]]| title=Is Citizen Kane still the greatest film of all time?| work=[[Sight and Sound]]| date=May 10, 2012| url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/features/greatest-films-all-time/what-makes-citizen-kane-great| archive-date=April 25, 2024| access-date=April 25, 2024| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240425191133/https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/features/greatest-films-all-time/what-makes-citizen-kane-great| url-status=live}}</ref>