In 1941 Orson Welles made his first feature film now considered by most as the greatest film ever made. The year this came out it was nominated for nine Academy Awards but failed to recoup its costs at the box office. The screenplay did win the Oscar for Herman Mankiewicz and Welles. Welles and RKO started a war because of "Kane" that would have a big effect on Welles and his Directing career. Forced to quickly finish films that the studio then added "happy endings" to without Welles consent lead to box office failure and little Directing jobs for Welles. His radio and acting careers did continue. Citizen Kane is a story of Charles Foster Kane a newspaper man with a large ego, a character based in part upon the American newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst. This great story is told through flashbacks that start and end with the elusive "Rosebud." When Welles was again given the Directors chair he made some more stand out films including "The Lady from Shanghai" '47 and "Touch of Evil" '58. Did Welles make his best film first? How does the story of the power hungry, motivated, obsessed Charles Foster Kane help tell the story of Orson Welles? Who or what was "Rosebud" to these two men one real and one fiction? Go down to the Sunshine Cinema this weekend at midnight and see if you can unravel the mystery.
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