Citizen Kane - The Greatest Movie Ever Almost Didn't Get Made. Find Out the Shocking Story
Posted: Thursday, April 15, 2010
by Mark Hester
Citizen Kane is considered to be one of the greatest movies ever made. It ranked #1 on the American Film Institutes to 100 films list in 2007.
(The much better Casablanca and The Godfather came in second and third. Just one man's opinion.)
But Citizen Kane almost never made it to theaters. And when it did, it was booed.
If you've seen the film and read the history, you know that it a thinly veiled expose of the life of newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst.
Orson Welles, despite his fame after the 1939 War of the World's radio broadcast and the attention he got when he "headed to Hollywood," filmed Citizen Kane in almost complete secrecy (it was certainly a different era.)
But as soon as the film was completed, Hearst got wind of it and offered RKO studios $800,000 to destroy the film -- $100,000 more than the picture cost to make.
When this failed he used his influence -- and newspapers -- to prevent theaters from showing the film and to turn public opinion against it.
So effective was his smear campaign that even though Citizen Kane received 9 Academy Award nominations, it had a negative, even hostile, reception with the public.
Finally Given Its Due
Upon it's rerelease to theaters in the 1950's (a common practice in the era before TV and DVD's) Citizen Kane was finally recognized as the modern masterpiece it is.
Even if it's not as good as Casablance or The Godfather. ;-)
One Last Interesting Note
Orson Welles was known as the Boy Genius because of his superior work on The Shadow, Mercury Theater of the Air (War of the Worlds) and Citizen Kane all before he was 30 years old.
However, "Boy Genius" is even more accurate than most people know: "Greatest Movie of All Time", Citizen Kane, seems to be based almost entirely upon an original play he wrote in High School!
The author, Mark, loves old movies.
I also love to grill out and I've recently created a new site to help you find replacement DCS Grill Parts so you can keep your DCS grill running hot and you can enjoy many summer evenings with your friends and your DCS Grill.
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