A key point which some of our younger contributors here are probably missing involves the context of this film. With KANE, Welles, in only a slightly veiled fashion, was taking on one of the most powerful and wealthiest men in the United States, William Randolph Hearst. That made a lot of people in Hollywood extremely uncomfortable.
RESPONSE from head RAZZberry: I love the story of how, while KANE was in production, Welles was deliberately vague about its exact plot and content, and even played the dangerous game of courting Hearst gossip columnist Louella Parsons to promote KANE in Hearst's hundreds of daily newspapers. When the film was finally in rough cut, Welles cattily screened it for Parsons -- who ran from the screening room to the nearest phone on the RKO lot and called Hearst personally to warn him of what was coming...and to protect her own job. When the film was released, Hearst (understandably) refused to let RKO advertise it in any of his publications or media outlets...
