Iconic classic

Rating: 8/10 (30 August 2014)

Newspaper tycoon Charles Foster Kane (Orson Welles) is dead in his palatial estate. His last word is "Rosebud" and reporters investigate what could it possibly mean to spice up his obituary newsreel. First they contact a drunken Susan Alexander Kane (Dorothy Comingore) who was Kane's dance hall girl second wife. There is Walter Parks Thatcher recollection of Kane's childhood and beyond as he first became his guardian and then became his biggest target. Jedediah Leland (Joseph Cotten) was his partner in the newspaper business. Emily Monroe Norton Kane (Ruth Warrick) is his first wife who died in a car crash with their son.
This is a technically superior movie. The scale is grand in its ambition. It's a character loosely based on newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst. Almost all of the movie is one flashback after another which does take away some of the immediacy from the movie. It also clouds the character in second hand recollections. Despite that and the movie starts with a highlight reel of his life, the story remains fascinating.