Instructor: Walter Metz

The State of American Film in 1941

By 1941, the studio system was in full-blown operation, and was an efficient, well-oiled machine. The fifth-largest Hollywood studio, RKO signed the celebrated radio broadcaster Orson Welles to a six-film contract. Most traditional film historians attribute the greatness of Citizen Kane (1941), the first film resulting from this relationship, to the genius of Orson Welles. Even debates over the film’s authorship merely quibble about what percentage of the film’s genius can be linked to Welles, its producer John Houseman, or its writer Herman K. Mankiewicz. I would instead like to offer the more radical claim that Citizen Kane was "authored" by RKO and its studio-contracted crew.  To make this argument, I want to compare the aesthetic and thematic practices of Citizen Kane to two other RKO releases of 1940-41: Dance, Girl, Dance (directed by Dorothy Arzner), released shortly before Kane, and The Devil and Daniel Webster (directed by William Dieterle), released shortly after Kane.   All three films feature the same editor, Robert Wise; the same art director, Van Nest Polgase, and the same special effects supervisor, Vernon L. Walker. Both Kane and Devil feature musical scores by Bernard Hermann.

Arguments for Citizen Kane as a Typical RKO Film

1. Aesthetics

The much celebrated "look" of Citizen Kane can be seen in many RKO products of that year

Example 1:

CLIP: Citizen Kane: Introduction of Susan Alexander in nightclub

Example 2:

CLIP: Citizen Kane: Susan Alexander’s debut as opera diva

CLIP: The Devil and Daniel Webster: The barn dance

2. Thematics

The vaunted thematic concerns of Citizen Kane (the existential meaning of man’s life) are matched by other equally-significant yet less-attended-to concerns in other RKO films

CLIP: The Devil and Daniel Webster: Ending (The Devil prepares to come for your soul)

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This page was last updated on May 30, 2001

Questions or Comments? Please phone me at (406) 994-6403 or send e-mail to: metz@montana.edu

Walter Metz, Department of Media and Theatre Arts, Montana State University--Bozeman