Citizen Kane: A Filmmaker’s Journey

Lebo (The Godfather Legacy) deftly pays tribute to Orson Welles’s masterpiece Citizen Kane, in this history of the film’s production and release, written just in time for its 75th anniversary. The book certainly honors Welles’s filmmaking genius, but it also goes notably in-depth on Welles’s principal collaborators. With memorable sections on, among others, cinematographer Gregg Toland; Welles’s cowriter, Herman J. Mankiewicz; and art director Perry Ferguson, Lebo illustrates just how much thought and hard work went into the film from a whole team of artists, though Welles was writer, producer, director, and star. Again and again, the emphasis is on the unprecedented level of artistic freedom given to Welles by George Schaefer, the head of RKO Radio Pictures, a move that was seen as highly risky by the Hollywood establishment. The second part of the book is dedicated to Kane’s tortured release. The author recounts the battle between RKO and publisher William Randolph Hearst, who tried to prevent the film from coming out when he saw too much of himself in the morally shaky title character. Lebo’s book is highly readable; it’s dense, lucid, and page-turning. Fans of Welles and classic Hollywood will be delighted by this comprehensive, intelligent work. (Apr.)