It ends where it began.
Major Actors:
- Orson
Welles as Charles Foster Kane: the titular
"Citizen Kane"; a wealthy, megalomaniacal
newspaper publisher whose life is the subject of the movie.
- William Alland as Jerry Thompson: the
reporter in charge of finding out the meaning of Kane's last word,
"Rosebud". Thompson is seen only in shadow or with his back
turned to the camera.
- Ray Collins as Jim W. Gettys: Kane's
political rival and the incumbent governor of New York. Kane appears to be
the frontrunner in the campaign, but Gettys exposes Kane's relationship
with Susan Alexander which leads to his defeat.
- Dorothy Comingore as Susan Alexander
Kane: Kane's mistress, who later becomes his second wife.
- Joseph Cotten as Jedediah Leland: Kane's
best friend and the first reporter on Kane's paper. Leland continues to
work for Kane as his empire grows, although they grow apart over the
years. Kane fires Leland after he writes a bad review of Susan Alexander
Kane's operatic debut.
- George Coulouris as Walter Parks
Thatcher: a miserly banker who becomes Kane's legal guardian.
- Agnes Moorehead as Mary Kane: Kane's
mother.
- Harry Shannon as Jim Kane: Kane's
father.
- Everett Sloane as Mr. Bernstein: Kane's
friend and employee who remains loyal to him to the end. According to RKO
records, Sloane was paid $2400 for shaving his head.[2]
- Ruth Warrick as Emily Monroe Norton Kane:
Kane's first wife and the niece of the President. She leaves him after
discovering his affair with Susan Alexander. She dies in a car accident
along with their only child, a son, a few years later.
- Paul Stewart as Raymond: Kane's
cynical butler who assists him in his later years. Stewart had discovered
Welles when he was a radio producer.[10]
Let’s begin with who they set the beginning up. It is a black
and white film created even when there was Technicolor; to be honest I’m glad
they did it this way. I personally think that the color might have actually played
a part in this movie, it made it seem dark and gloomy at points, then later on
it would transition to make it warmer and more comfortable. I think that it
made you want to figure out what was going on.
The sound actually played a huge part in this film. It would
be dark and gloomy, and then happy and inviting. Then there were those
occasions when it actually showed us more than the actors. The most obvious
point of this was directly after Mr. Kane had slapped his wife. You hear a girl’s
shrill scream in the background. As where Mrs. Kane did nothing but stare up at
him.
At one point in the movie he was writing a review on his wife’s
opera. Now you may be thinking that he wrote a good one, but that isn’t the
case he actually finished the review of it that his friend started, according
to his friend that is the only thing he ever finished.
”He never finished anything he started, except my review.” This
quoted leads me on to talk about his……. the best thing to call it would be
structure dedicated to destroying wealth, yet proving you have enough for the
building to never be done. He had his own personal collection of animals from
around the world, two of each. He had also bought thousands of statues, you don’t
even realistically know how many he has due to how much of a monstrosity his “monument
of money” was, I don’t even think you even see the “complete building it is so
large.
“Even if I lost $1,000,000 a year, I wouldn’t have to close
my doors for 60 years.” 
If you wondering why I put that quote there it is because I’m
going to begin on the subject of Mr. Kane’s story now, and this is just a line
from him. As a boy Kane was signed away by his parents, in the middle of
winter. Throughout the whole movie you are trying to figure out, what in the
world “Rosebud” is, that is his very last word. To be honest when I figured out
what he meant by it I was flipping out. But you will have to watch it to find
out what he means by it. This movie in all reality is on giant series of flashbacks.
I give this movie a 5 on my rating scale. The reason are as
follow
Good Things- Angles, Story, Color, Acting, Volume of Voices,
Music, and Lighting
Bad Things- Can be confusing, and that stupid bird
*Links provided by Wikipedia, on the actors names*