Behind the Camera on CITIZEN KANE

Orson Welles brought New York actress Ruth Warrick out to Hollywood to test for the part of Emily Norton Kane. He tempted her by telling her that he was looking for a real lady, a woman of charm and good upbringing, to play the part. He was not looking for someone who could act like a lady, but an actual lady. After several tests of Hollywood actresses, Welles came to the conclusion that "there are no ladies in Hollywood." Warrick flew out for a screen test and was awarded the part.

The excesses that Welles exhibited during production offer a glimpse of the madness behind his method. According to Ruth Warrick, the actress who portrays Emily Norton Kane, Welles was not in good shape at the beginning of production. When principal photography began, Welles was suffering from the effects of caffeine poisoning as the result of consuming thirty to forty cups of coffee a day. Welles then switched to tea, figuring that the hassle of having to brew the beverage would naturally limit his intake. But Welles had someone on call to brew the tea for him, and within two weeks, Welles was the color of tannic acid. It was also reported that he would go for long periods without eating, then put away two or three large steaks with side items at one sitting.

During the violent rampage through Susan Alexander's bedroom, Welles badly gashed his left hand. Luckily, the camera did not capture his injury or else expensive retakes would have been in order. Welles also spent some time in a wheelchair, due to an injured ankle sustained when he fell down the staircase in the scene between Kane and Boss Gettys (Ray Collins). This untimely accident forced Joseph Cotten to jump feet first into his first and most important scene, the interview between the aged Jed Leland and the reporter. Poor Joe had to start shooting without a finished script or any idea when he would have to report to the set in order to have the old age makeup applied: 4:00 a.m. Cotten shot the scene in one day, but had to return a few days later to re-shoot the scene, due to an unconvincing wig. While the makeup artists were making a new wig for the scene, Cotten went to Tex's Tennis Shop and bought a tennis sun visor that his character eventually wore throughout the scene.

The cast of Citizen Kane enjoyed a close camaraderie with director Orson Welles and with each other, with the exception of Dorothy Comingore (Susan Alexander Kane). Welles treated her with contempt on the set, while showing only courtesy to Ruth Warrick, who played the first Mrs. Kane. Warrick objected to the shabby treatment that was obvious to everyone on the set. But Welles explained, "I treat her that way because she's got to hate my guts when we get to the later scenes. When she yells and screams and finally walks out on me, I want her to feel every bit of it in her bones." Warrick argued that an actress does not have to suffer real abuse in order to show those emotions. But Welles said, "That's just the point. She is not an actress. She is Susan Alexander, and she'll probably end up just like the woman she's playing. I'm not mistreating her. I treat her exactly as she expects to be treated. She wouldn't respect anything else." Comingore's subsequent life played out like a bad melodrama. Her film career after Citizen Kane came to a grinding halt when she was blacklisted in 1951 for her affiliation with known Communist Party members. Her final film was The Big Night (1951), directed by Joseph Losey (also blacklisted). Her personal life was also rocky. A few years after the release of Citizen Kane, her marriage failed. Once her ex-husband won custody of their children, Comingore became an alcoholic and frequented nightspots, telling willing patrons her tales of woe. It was later reported that she was arrested for solicitation on Hollywood Boulevard. Her sad life came to an end in 1971.

Many scenes in Citizen Kane were shot during arduous, all night shoots. Many times after pulling a difficult all-nighter, Welles and the rest of the cast and crew would sit on the curb at RKO and drink cocktails at 6:30 a.m., instead of 6:30 p.m. when every other "normal" Hollywood actor or crew member would break for refreshment.

Gregg Toland used faster film and much more powerful lighting that made it possible to get deep focus shots. Toland also used a self-blimped (self-muffling) camera, which meant that Welles had the freedom of greater camera movement. Some historical and critical accounts credit Welles for being the first to place ceilings prominently in shots. While Welles certainly used these extreme low-angle shots to great effect, going so far as to dig a hole in the soundstage floor to get a low enough angle, he most likely got the idea from John Ford's Stagecoach (1939). Welles has admitted that he learned filmmaking from Ford and Stagecoach in particular. He claimed to have watched the film 40 times during the production of Citizen Kane. Once asked whom he considered his influences, Welles remarked, "The old masters, by who I mean John Ford, John Ford, and John Ford."

In the scene where Kane and his entourage set off for the beach from Xanadu, large birds are seen flying across the background. In fact, the background was lifted from a science fiction film to reduce costs, and the birds are, in fact, pterodactyls. The prehistoric beasties were probably lifted from either King Kong (1933) or Son of Kon (1933).

Despite the enormous controversy surrounding Citizen Kane, the film actually passed the review of the Hays Office, the self-regulatory censorship office that set production codes in Hollywood. It's actually surprising that the film passed without incident, given the power that someone like William Randolph Hearst could have brought to bear on such an organization.

Susan Alexander Kane's disastrous debut in the opera world is accompanied by a libretto written not by the film's composer, Bernard Herrmann, but by producer John Houseman. According to Houseman, Herrmann had decided not to use a scene from a standard opera but to create one on his own. He decided that it should be a French opera and asked Houseman to write it. Houseman hurriedly assembled a mixed bag from Racine's "Athalie", "Ph¿e," and others. It did not make any sense. As lip-synched by Dorothy Comingore, the opera is barely intelligible, but Welles built one of the film's most visually striking sequences.

Screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz wrote the balance of the screenplay for this film from a hospital bed recovering from an illness. But his poor health was the least of his worries. Welles eventually tried to claim sole credit for the screenplay, an action that Mankiewicz was determined to prevent. He countered with arbitration with the Screen Writers Guild, the organization that settles disputes over screenwriting credit. The Guild ruled in favor of Mankiewicz and he won top billing over Welles' name on the title card.

The true unsung hero behind the production of Citizen Kane is an artist named Perry Ferguson, the primary creator of the ornate sets and the film's dazzling art direction. While Van Nest Polglase was RKO's administrative head of the art department, it was Ferguson who Welles hired to create sets that looked expensive, but were wholly reflective of the film's severely limited budget. Ferguson ended up doing his job so well that Citizen Kane remains a textbook example to this day of how to function creatively under severe budgetary constraints. Indeed, when Welles reported to RKO studio chief George Schaefer, he proudly stated that the film is deceptively much less expensive than it looked on the screen. And speaking of Schaefer, he too deserves plenty of accolades for standing up courageously for Welles and the film in front of his fellow studio chiefs and the RKO board of directors.

by Scott McGee