The Battle Over Citizen Kane (1996) on Netflix
NR19961h 48mDocumentary
Orson Welles wins an almost unheard-of two-picture deal at RKO Pictures. His first film, Citizen Kane, draws its title character's life partly from William Randolph Hearst, who objects.
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- IMDb7.7/101,511 votes
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Plot summary
Archive footage and interviews with people who worked alongside Orson Welles and William Randolph Hearst trace the two men's careers up to their clash over Citizen Kane. Welles builds his reputation with New York stage productions for the Mercury Theatre, among them a Macbeth with an all-black cast, and with an October 30, 1938 radio adaptation of The War of the Worlds that panics listeners around Grovers Mill. That standing brings him a two-picture deal at RKO Pictures with creative control and a budget limit. His first film gives its title character a life assembled partly from Hearst's and partly from Joseph Pulitzer, Samuel Insull, Robert R. McCormick and Welles himself. Hearst carries debts from spending on his mansion near San Simeon, California, and, while married to Millicent Hearst, keeps the actress Marion Davies as a mistress.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Battle Over Citizen Kane (1996)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The Battle Over Citizen Kane was the basis for the 1999 film RKO 281, which won Best Miniseries or Television Film at the 57th Golden Globe Awards.
- The original nitrate print of Citizen Kane was destroyed in a fire, so Warner Bros. Home Entertainment's 2001 two-DVD set used a restored version taken from the best available print.
