You may learn more about the making of Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane" (1941) by reading one or two of the several books about it, but you're not likely to find a more thorough and well-executed documentary than this. It's informative, entertaining, and fascinating.
Everyone the producers could get their hands on has something to contribute in their interviews. And if the subjects are dead, there are archived interviews. At the very end, we hear Orson Welles exchanging compliments with H. G. Wells on the radio.
Here are Pauline Kael, Robert Wise, Anita Loos, all having their say. The story of Welles and the making of -- and disposition of -- the film are a parody of the "March of Time" segment of "Citizen Kane." We hear the stentorian narrator's voice. "With glory came fame. Then, 1929 -- disaster. Welles falls from grace. Excluded from tony parties. Backward ran sentences until bogggled the mind." Well, not that last sentence. And who is reading this? William Alland, the now-aged actor who played the inquiring reporter, Mr. Thompson, and who also did the voice for the "March of Time" parody. And Alland still has the SAME VOICE. It's as if every sentence is announcing the Second Coming.
I don't really want to get into the story. It's dense, tangled, and some details are in dispute. I'll just leave it with the suggestion that it might as well have a different title: "Everything you've always wanted to know about 'Citizen Kane' but didn't know whom to ask." The makers of this extraordinary documentary will give you the dish.
Everyone the producers could get their hands on has something to contribute in their interviews. And if the subjects are dead, there are archived interviews. At the very end, we hear Orson Welles exchanging compliments with H. G. Wells on the radio.
Here are Pauline Kael, Robert Wise, Anita Loos, all having their say. The story of Welles and the making of -- and disposition of -- the film are a parody of the "March of Time" segment of "Citizen Kane." We hear the stentorian narrator's voice. "With glory came fame. Then, 1929 -- disaster. Welles falls from grace. Excluded from tony parties. Backward ran sentences until bogggled the mind." Well, not that last sentence. And who is reading this? William Alland, the now-aged actor who played the inquiring reporter, Mr. Thompson, and who also did the voice for the "March of Time" parody. And Alland still has the SAME VOICE. It's as if every sentence is announcing the Second Coming.
I don't really want to get into the story. It's dense, tangled, and some details are in dispute. I'll just leave it with the suggestion that it might as well have a different title: "Everything you've always wanted to know about 'Citizen Kane' but didn't know whom to ask." The makers of this extraordinary documentary will give you the dish.