By RAY KELLY
Orson Welles made his big screen debut on May 1, 1941 with the premiere of Citizen Kane at the Palace Theater in New York City.
RKO Radio Pictures had given Welles considerable control in making his Hollywood directorial debut, which he also produced, starred in and co-wrote with Herman Mankiewicz. But Welles had drawn the ire of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, who saw the film’s Charles Foster Kane as a thinly veiled portrait of himself. Hearst loyalists attacked Welles and RKO Pictures was called upon to scrap the film.
During the pre-release controversy, The New Republic criticized the Hays office for its hands-off policy in the batlle between Hearst and Welles., writing that the “neutral position of the Hays office, which is supposed to defend the interests of RKO as well as those of other companies, is reminiscent of the sterling fortitude displayed by the late Neville Chamberlain when Hitler trampled Czecho-Slovakia.”
Despite Hearst’s efforts, Kane was released and has been hailed by many as the greatest movie Hollywood has ever produced.
The late Roger Ebert called Kane “one of the miracles of cinema that in 1941 a first-time director; a cynical, hard-drinking writer; an innovative cinematographer, and a group of New York stage and radio actors were given the keys to a studio and total control, and made a masterpiece. Citizen Kane is more than a great movie; it is a gathering of all the lessons of the emerging era of sound, just as Birth of a Nation assembled everything learned at the summit of the silent era, and 2001 pointed the way beyond narrative.”
When the film opened in 1941, its power was not lost on film critics. Among the views shared:
New York Daily News: “The most talked about picture of the year, Orson Welles’ production of Citizen Kane, finally had its New York premiere at the Palace theatre last night, where an eager first night audience enthusiastically applauded the young theatrical man’s latest achievement. Citizen Kane, the first picture made by Welles to reach the screen, arrived at the Palace only after a major battle of words and wits had been engaged in by the executives of RKO, who released the film, and Welles, on one side, and the legal advisers of William Randolph Hearst, on the other. The latter evidently imagined that the central character of the picture, one Charles Foster Kane, bore an uncomfortably close resemblance of the great California publisher. We are not, however, concerned with the controversy, except to say that the portrait of Kane seems more like a composite of a dozen or more American tycoons, rather than a faithful representation of an individual. We are interested in the picture, however, as a contribution to the screen and in that respect, it is one of the most interesting and technically superior films that has ever come out of a Hollywood studio.”
TIME: “So sharply does Citizen Kane veer from cinema cliche, it hardly seems like a movie. There are some extraordinary technical novelties through which Welles and wiry, experienced little Photographer Gregg Toland have given the camera a new eloquence — for example, the “stolen” newsreels, the aged and streaked documentary shots. When Susan makes her disastrous operatic debut, the camera tells the story by climbing high up among the flies to find two stagehands — one with his hand pinching his nose in disgust. Always the camera seems to be giving the narrative a special meaning where it will help most: picturing a small bottle beside a tumbler when Susan Kane is lying drugged with an overdose of sedatives, exploring the love nest and the family breakfast table like a pair of prying eyes and ears… Unforgettable are such scenes as the spanning of Kane’s first marriage in a single conversation, the silly immensity of the castle halls which echo the flat whines of Susan.”
The Nation: “Many would probably have rejoiced to find producer, director, actor, and part-author Orson Welles’s ambitious first effort in Hollywood not an unqualified success: after all, the man had had no previous cinema experience, and if reports were true he had walked into the studio and produced on a very low budget a film which was a masterpiece. It must be stated here that no amount of advance publicity or ballyhoo could possibly ruin the effect of this remarkable picture. It is probably the most original, exciting, and entertaining picture that has yet been produced in this country, and although it may lack their subtlety it can certainly be placed in the same bracket as the very best pre-war French productions.”
The New York Times: “Count on Mr. Welles; he doesn’t do things by halves. Being a mercurial fellow, with a frightening theatrical flair, he moved right into the movies, grabbed the medium by the ears and began to toss it around with the dexterity of a seasoned veteran. Fact is, he handled it with more verve and inspired ingenuity than any of the elder craftsmen have exhibited in years. With the able assistance of Gregg Toland, whose services should not be overlooked, he found in the camera the perfect instrument to encompass his dramatic energies and absorb his prolific ideas. Upon the screen he discovered an area large enough for his expansive whims to have free play. And the consequence is that he 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.”
Variety: “Orson Welles. who nearly scared the country half to death with his memorable broadcast of a blitz by invaders from Mars, has uncovered for press review his initial production, of which he is co-author, star, director and producer, following an advance publicity barrage that has made it the most widely exploited entertainment of the season. When its plan for exhibition finally is set by RKO, probably as a roadshow attraction in key spots, it is certain to draw heavily at the box office. Welles has found the screen as effective for his unique showmanship as radio and the theatre.”
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