'Citizen Kane' on CNN's The Movies

[Florinaldo]

I saw an ad today on CNN about the next episode of their The Movies series, called "The Golden Age", and it will feature a segment on Citizen Kane. I do not know how extensive it will be, but it does include Bogdanovich as one of the people interviewed. Previous episodes in the series have not really held my attention and I gave up on them because they were very breezy and superficial, and often dealt with movies I do not care for, so this may not go into great depths about Welles' movie.

The episode is scheduled for next Sunday night at 9 PM and lasts 2 hours according to my on-screen TV guide, covering the 30s, 40s and 50s.

[RayKelly]

TCM host Ben Mankiewicz is being interviewed on CNN right now.
When the interviewer mentioned his grandfather co-wrote Citizen Kane, Ben Mankiewicz made it clear his grandfather wrote Citizen Kane.
Repeating a lie doesn't make it true.

https://www.scribd.com/document/231563552/The-Scripts-of-Citizen-Kane-R-Carringer

[atcolomb]

I saw that too and he said that Rosebud came from a name of a bicycle which is the first time I heard of that.

[RayKelly]

I saw that too and he said that Rosebud came from a name of a bicycle which is the first time I heard of that.

I have heard the old chestnut before. In the book "Young Orson: The Years of Luck and Genius on the Path to Citizen Kane," biographer Patrick McGilligan tied the plot device to Old Rosebud, a Kentucky Derby winning horse that Mankiewicz wagered on as a teenager.

[atcolomb]

Something else I noticed about the CNN episode is that they spent less than one minute on silent films. Griffith, Chaplin, Keaton, and others were important to the history of film and should have had more about them instead of a few stills.

[Florinaldo]

When the interviewer mentioned his grandfather co-wrote Citizen Kane, Ben Mankiewicz made it clear his grandfather wrote Citizen Kane.

BM was very sly, saying OW knew to hire people who has expertise in fields where he had none, like cinematography, composing, etc. and of course writing. Glossing over the fact that OW had a long experiene in scriptwriting and adaptations for radio and the theater; not screenwriting of course (setting aside the non-narrative Hearts of Age or odds and ends like Too Much Johnson), but not quite the ignorant babe in arms he made OW out to be as a writer. Predictably, no mention of the extensive back and forth between the two men during the script rewriting phase, nor of Houseman's involvement. In short, the usual Mankiewicz family official story, although no mention of OW's alleged attempt to "steal" the credit from his writer.

To be fair, BM did say that the movie should have won the Oscars for best picture, best director and even best actor that year.

Something else I noticed about the CNN episode is that they spent less than one minute on silent films. Griffith, Chaplin, Keaton, and others were important to the history of film and should have had more about them instead of a few stills.

CNN know their potential audience and that most of them would have no interest in silent movies, in B&W to boot. All through the series they seemed to favour box office successes or crowd-pleasers, which is why I just sampled most of the episodes and skipped a good part of their contents.

[I=Eye]

BM was very sly, saying OW knew to hire people who has expertise in fields where he had none, like cinematography, composing, etc. and of course writing. Glossing over the fact that OW had a long experiene in scriptwriting and adaptations for radio and the theater...

sly
/slī/
adjective
having or showing a cunning and deceitful nature.

[Florinaldo]

sly
/slī/
adjective
having or showing a cunning and deceitful nature.

The word is also defined as "wise in practical affairs" and "displaying cleverness", but I will certainly accept your definition in this specific instance.