Orson Welles dominates Citizen Kane.
He produced, directed, and starred in it, and his overpowering presence
both on and off screen has often overshadowed the fact that the
film was actually the result of a successful collaboration between
some of the greatest minds in Hollywood at that time. The greatest
controversy is over who wrote the script, and this battle has colored
much of the discussion of this movie over the years.
Before making Citizen Kane, Welles had
been accustomed to taking full credit for works that were often
collaborations. When Welles worked with the Mercury Theatre, the
Mercury Theatre on the Air scripts were generally credited as studio
productions—until the great success of the War of the Worlds radio
broadcast. The broadcast generated so much publicity that Welles
decided to take full authorship credit, even though it had actually
been written by studio writer Howard Koch. The Mercury Theatre continued
to encourage Welles to take credit for productions, believing that
his name and reputation would bring good publicity. Welles’s reputation
as a theatrical genius had been growing since his adolescence, and
the Mercury Theatre was more than happy to take advantage of it.
Welles eventually began to buy into his own publicity,
and he conveniently disregarded the fact that he was not the sole
creative genius behind his troupe’s endeavors. His ego wasn’t welcome
when he went to Hollywood to work on Citizen Kane,
and, not surprisingly, Hollywood wasn’t willing to give Welles credit
he didn’t deserve. Welles met huge opposition when he tried to take
full credit for creating Citizen Kane.
Although he played a key role in writing Citizen
Kane, Welles did not create the script single-handedly.
Much evidence suggests that the original idea for Citizen
Kane came from Herman Mankiewicz, a battle-hardened Hollywood
scriptwriter. Mankiewicz was well acquainted with William Randolph
Hearst, having spent a great deal of time at Hearst’s ranch in San
Simeon. Charles Foster Kane, the protagonist of the film, resembles
Hearst in many specific, personal ways, and such information could
have come only from insider knowledge of Hearst's life, which Welles
did not have. Welles did play an important role in creating the
script, and few critics doubt that he drew from his personal life,
in the same way that Mankiewicz drew from Hearst’s life, to flesh
out the character of Charles Foster Kane. Welles, however, was certainly
not the only person responsible for the script’s creation.
Mankiewicz collaborated with John Houseman, Welles’s partner at
the Mercury Theater, on the initial draft of Citizen Kane.
Both Mankiewicz and Houseman wanted writing credit on the final
version, but Welles refused. Houseman gave up when Welles dug in
his heels, but Mankiewicz had the power of the Hollywood writers’ union
behind him. He threatened Welles with legal action in order to be
listed as a writer, and Welles yielded. On Oscar night, Citizen Kane won
the award for Best Original Screenplay, and this was the only Oscar
either Welles or Mankiewicz ever received.
