Citizen Kane

 

And what of Susan Alexander? What indeed.

It was a real man who built an opera house for the soprano of his choice, and much in the movie was borrowed from that story, but the man was not Hearst. Susan, Kane’s second wife, is not even based on the real life soprano. Like most fictional characters, Susan’s resemblance to other fictional characters is quite startling. To Marion Davies, she bears no resemblance at all.

-Orson Welles
Los Angeles, California
May 28, 1978

And what of Citizen Kane? Well no one exactly knows. The comparisons to Marion Davies and William Randolph Hearst lie in the plot that revolves around a journalism tycoon whose ambition for his lover is to make her the most respected entertainer in the world. Hearst certainly had those same ambitions for Marion when she entered films, like Charles Foster Kane had the drive to make Susan Alexander the most respected opera singer in the world. Orson Welles claimed that since Susan was Kane’s wife, and Marion was Hearst’s mistress, there are no comparisons at all. However, under the production code, which went into effect in July 1934, men were unable to have such relationships in films. Welles would have had no other choice but to make Susan Alexander Mrs. Charles Foster Kane. Scenes like when Susan is performing in the opera house, and the people next to Kane begin to comment on how horrible she is, seem a little bit too similar to the public eventually who stopped going to all of Marion Davies’ films, and the poor critical reception of the big epic costume dramas Hearst was notorious for making for Marion.

Not Marion, nor William Randolph Hearst, ever saw the film according to Marion’s autobiography, but her sister did and informed Marion on how horrible it was, and obviously about the resemblance. Welles, a strange man who felt himself to be mentally superior to others and actually tried to be “different”, always denied the idea that Marion and WR were the subject for Citizen Kane. Look, he can claim whatever he wants, but it is an obvious lie. It was a cruel joke that basically cost him his career. (He was blacklisted after the film’s release.) The movie portrayed Marion as Susan’s equal: A no talented alcoholic, trampy loser. Marion was well known for being one of the nicest, kindest women to ever work in Hollywood. Was she a saint? Of course not. However, Marion Davies was a star in her own right. Had she gone into pictures on her own, no doubt she would have been a more popular comedienne than Charles Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, or Buster Keaton. Her voice, which once stuttered in her childhood but was later coached to perfection, was perfect for talking pictures. Marion’s acting was natural, the best example of this being Going Hollywood (1933), which Marion plays the character of the school teacher who leaves her job to meet the star of her dreams. In the scene where the head mistress of the strict school demands she turn off the radio, Marion calmly responds, “That’s just what your school needs.”

Hollywood needed Marion Davies, not only then, but now more than ever. Luckily, she is widely appreciated for her entertaining films, instead of being the butt of cruel jokes made behind her back, or brought to the big screen. Bottom line is without Marion Davies, Orson Welles’ cinematic masterpiece would never have been conceived.