(1941; b/w) It has been several years since I previously watched this classic film, which operates on many different levels for interpretation (offering new discoveries with each viewing), almost universally acclaimed to be the greatest contribution to cinema of all time, nominated for nine Academy Awards, although taking an Oscar only for Best Original Screenplay, written by Herman J. Mankiewicz, Orson Welles, and (uncredited) John Houseman. The make-up artistry deserved recognition for convincingly conveying the aging of the various characters, especially Joseph Cotton, Dorothy Comingore, and Welles, who appears on camera, passing through half a century, from 25 through early 70s.

Launching his first feature film, Welles, director and star, was 25 years old with a contract from RKO Pictures granting him sole control of its creation. The film, with score by Bernard Herrmann, introduced several talented, fresh actors to the silver screen along with innovative cinematic techniques. The story seems to have anticipated Howard Hughes's biography along with elements found in Robert Penn Warren's novel All the King's Men, an account of politician Willie Stark representing Louisiana Governor Huey Long.

The picture opens upon a severe scene of a forbidding gate with a "No Trespassing" sign to what looks to be a black castle on a rise in the distance. The imagery suggests a vampire film, and I think this impression was consciously intended for our subconscious. An old man lies dying in his bed, clutching a crystal snowglobe, with a memory of snow falling in his thoughts, as he exhales his last breath: "Rosebud."

Nearly a biopic of newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst (1863-1951) with his castle at San Simeon in California, Welles's American Kubla Khan, Charles Foster Kane (1868-1941), builds his Xanadu in Florida where he collects "loot of the world" and stocks "the biggest zoo since Noah." With a newsreel presentation we get a review of Kane's life and empire, comprising 37 newspapers, various radio stations, paper mills, grocery stores, and other commercial interests. Called a communist by one faction and a fascist by another, Kane answers by saying: "I'm an American. I've always been an American."

His first marriage to Emily Monroe Norton (Ruth Warrick), niece to the president of the United States, and bid to become governor of New York ended with the "love nest" scandal of Kane's affair with singer Susan Alexander (Dorothy Comingore), whom, after marrying her, he tried to turn into an opera star, foisting his standard for artistic performance on an unwilling elite. In the end, with his empire and reputation in decline, the elderly Kane is isolated and all but alone inside his palace.

Getting an assignment from his editor, Mr Rawlston (Philip Van Zandt), reporter Jerry Thompson (William Alland) begins his research to "find out about rosebud." He interviews Susan Alexander (who never heard of rosebud); he reads through the autobiographical manuscript of Walter Parks Thatcher, the lawyer who first met Kane in 1871 to inform his mother (Agnes Moorhead) of her rich strike in the Colorado lode, whereupon he became Kane's guardian to raise the boy in preparation for his coming into full possession of the sixth largest private fortune in the world at age 25.

Everyone he contacts - Mr Bernstein (Everett Sloane), Kane's general manager at the New York Inquirer; Jedediah Leland (Joseph Cotton), long-time friend and theater critic, who says, "I never believed anything I saw in the Inquirer" - appears to be clueless as to the secret behind "rosebud." The name of a race horse or a girl?

Kane became successful and famous for sensationalizing rumors as the truth and portraying himself as the tireless champion of people's rights. When Emily questions her husband as to what "People will think," he retorts: "What I tell them to think." He boasts responsibility for the war with Spain in 1898. After thinking "it would be fun to run a newspaper," Kane uses his wealth and influence to campaign against "public thief" Boss Jim W. Gettys (Ray Collins) for governor, running on a liberal reform platform, fighting for the working man, ahead in the polls when his relationship with Miss Alexander comes to light.

Jedediah cautions Kane, the workingman's hero, about organized labor coming into its own and demanding its rights as opposed to his gifts. Leland tells Thompson of Kane's losing control over people, including his wives and his friends (Jedediah was fired for writing a belittling notice of Susan's opera debut), because he wanted love only on his own terms. Here the vampire conceit becomes clear in Kane's egomaniac possessiveness, demanding complete control while craving love from everyone to sustain his insatiable hunger with selfish disregard for their own needs.

Finally Thompson inside the palace prison hears from Raymond (Paul Stewart), Kane's butler and overseer of the enormous warehouse of Kane's amassed trophies and treasure, whose Transylvanian accent reinforces the blood-sucking theme, of Kane's megalomania of never discarding anything: "rosebud" is "a piece in a jigsaw puzzle" (such as those Susan spent lonely hours constructing) "a missing piece," something he lost or couldn't get.

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Copyright © 2008 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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