The Battle for Hearst

Excerpt from “People Will Think What I Tell Them to Think: The Story of Orson Welles’Hearst ” by Mark Kemode, published in the Vertov Journal of Cinema, 2010

”… By 1939, the story of “Charles Foster Kane” as told by Herman Mankiewicz had morphed into a more straightforward evisceration of former Vice President William Randolph Hearst with rewrites by Welles. Welles admitted that “we could just take down the man himself. There’s nothing he can do to us now.” Indeed, the Hearst syndicates had long been a target of the socialist movement, and a direct attack on Hearst fit perfectly within the revolutionary character of American film.

Or so it was thought. In truth, the ambition Welles had brought to Hollywood came at an unfortunate time. Austerity was being put in place in preparation for the war, and Welles had been promised complete creative control by Zanuck, which he hoped to use to its fullest extent. This clashed with the efforts of former United Artists executive turned Secretary of Culture Joseph Schenck, who wanted to streamline films to prevent excess and produce steady propaganda. As the war started, the budget of Hearst was reduced, starting off a series of conflicts between Welles and Shenck.

Welles was able to gain access to the ruins of Hearst Castle (destroyed during the Revolution) in San Simeon, and even restored parts of it for certain scenes. Much of the film was shot at Hearst Castle (especially since Hearst lived there as Vice-President). However, because of the reduced budget, after filming wrapped in San Simeon, Welles found material harder to find due to wartime rations. As such, much to his consternation, he had to cut some scenes. Notably, a scene depicting Hearst and several business, political, and military leaders expressing their frustrations with President Leonard Wood (William Alland), and eventually discussing plans to get rid of Wood and put Hearst into the White House.

The conspiracy that Hearst and a cabal of business and political leaders assassinated Wood had circulated in the years following the assassination, especially in The Daily Worker, and it was a focus of an investigation of the assassination following the Revolution (which proved it inconclusive, but likely inaccurate), and its inclusion was likely because of the prevalence of the idea.

In the years following its release, a popular rumor stated that the scene was removed because it was feared it would offend the Hearst syndicates in Britain, which would potentially jeopardize a potential alliance. Welles himself denied this in a 1964 interview, noting, “They were going to denounce it anyway, so it’s not like it would’ve mattered either way.”

After cutting the scenes, Schenck attempted to further stymie the production to keep efforts focused on propaganda or lower budget films, but Welles managed to win out after he had agreed to restrain some of his ambitions (and Zanuck intervened on Welles’ behalf, and the film production went relatively smoothly afterwards.

Released on December 20th, 1940, the film would be a critical success, and would be regarded as the last great film of the pre-war period. It would sweep the Oscars, and is regarded as one of the greatest films ever made. More importantly, Welles finally got to do his dream film project, in spite of the compromises. Dalton Trumbo, impressed by the film, recruited Welles to the Workers’ Film and Photo League, ironically to help make propaganda films. Welles joked, “Schenck got to me, I suppose.” Welles would go on to produce short form documentaries throughout the war, including narrating The Root of All Evil and Conquista , a film about Chilean soldiers on the Bolivian front, and making the critically acclaimed It’s All True , exploring various stories throughout the Americas.

His wartime activities delayed him assuming control of Heart of Darkness , which was part of his deal with Zanuck in exchange for making Hearst. Indeed, when Welles reassumed production, he soon found inspiration in the growing conflict in the Horn of Africa… *[WPA]: Works Progress Administration *[NBI]: National Bureau of Investigation