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I disagree. I believe his narration of "War of the worlds" was incredible and the opening sequence of "Touch of Evil" is one of the best ever. He never got the
by myth_buster 11y ago
I disagree. I believe his narration of "War of the worlds" was incredible and the opening sequence of "Touch of Evil" is one of the best ever.
He never got the same creative freedom as he got while creating Citizen Kane. Citizen Kane wasn't a blockbuster of it's time as many theaters refused to play when they came under pressure from Hearst. Following which he spent his time in England.
His battle with Hearst has been documented in quite a few places[0].
[0] http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/kane2/ http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/kane2/
- iiiggglll 11y agoIt is true that the common wisdom says Hearst destroyed Welles' career as revenge for Citizen Kane, but I'm not sure it's that cut and dried. For example, Robert Wise (who worked with him in his early career and eventually went on to surpass him in terms of success and output) disagreed with the idea that Welles was held back: "Not true there was a cabal preventing Orson from making more films. He simply never fulfilled himself after that magnificent start; his own fault - lack of self-discipline."[1] See also this comment[2] right here in this HN story which goes into some more detail about Welles' chronic string of failed projects. While Hearst may have done some damage, I think ultimately it was possible to Welles to recover, but he unfortunately spiraled down the drain instead. [1] http://imdb.com/name/nm0936404/bio [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9503266
- myth_buster 11y agoThis is an interesting perspective, thanks for sharing. I'm not sure I would take Wise's word on it but anyways this gives me an intriguing angle to dig deeper.