Serial Number: 20985
Title: Citizen Kane (1941)
 |
Country of Origin: US
Genre: Private Gallery - The 40's
Subject: Drama
Size: STILL 8x10
Condition: VF/EX
Card Number: N/A
Price: $NOT FOR SALE
|
| Actors/Actresses: Orson Welles, Everett Sloane, George Coulouris |
| Notes: Director: Orson Welles: Director: Orson Welles; Citizen Kane, certainly on just about everyone’s list of the greatest American films ever produced. A movie that dozens of books have been written about, analyzing it from every possible aspect. Except for one, seemingly insignificant detail: Everett Sloane, here on the right-hand side, is playing the part of Mr. Bernstein, no first name, a Jew who is Charles Foster Kane’s business manager. Nothing unusual about that, or is it? Even though Hollywood was created by Jewish studio moguls, Jewish characters were rarely portrayed on screen in those days. Certainly not as one of the film’s major characters. Peter Bogdanovich, a close friend, and confidant of Welles is not surprised that the director chose to include a sympathetic Jewish character in his first film, knowing him to have great empathy for Jewish culture. Welles, who lost both parents at a young age and became an orphan at 15, came under the guardianship of a doctor who was a close friend of the family. His name was Maurice Bernstein, and he was a very important figure in his life. Welles named Bernstein in the movie as a gesture toward his guardian. Incidentally, the famed Herman Mankiewicz who shares writing credits for the film, was considerably less comfortable than Welles in having a major Jewish character in the film. When asked if the creation of a sympathetic Jewish character in Citizen Kane was somehow influenced by the plight of Europe’s Jews at the time, Bogdanovich said, “it was very much on his (Welles’) mind.” |
|