The John Wayne movie Orson Welles watched 40 times before making ‘Citizen Kane’
As far as introductions to the world of cinema go, they may never get any better than Orson Welles announcing his arrival as an elite-level auteur with Citizen Kane. However, it couldn’t have happened without John Wayne, after the precocious filmmaker developed an obsession with a classic that starred ‘The Duke’ in the lead role.
Feature debuts don’t come much more seminal than Welles’ first tilt at Hollywood, which overcame some controversy and no small amount of subterfuge to be greeted as a masterpiece. The film’s reputation has only grown stronger over time, and no list of the greatest pictures ever made feels complete without Citizen Kane hovering somewhere near the very top.
Welles had already established himself as a mercurial talent before he’d even taken his first steps into celluloid, having directed several acclaimed plays and struck fear into the hearts of an entire nation with his legendary radio broadcast of HG Wells’ The War of the Worlds, which aired when he was only 23 years old.
There were no limits to his creativity or ambition, which rang even truer when Citizen Kane premiered in May 1941. Welles directed, co-wrote the screenplay, produced, and played the title character, a four-pronged assault that wasted little time in catapulting him to international stardom, and he was still a month away from turning 26 when the nine-time Academy Award-nominated drama entered a wide release that September.
He was clearly a singular mind who was given free rein to make exactly the film he’d envisioned in his head, but Wayne nonetheless lent an assist. Welles’ official biographer, Simon Callow, revealed that he watched John Ford’s 1939 western Stagecoach 40 times when Citizen Kane was in the midst of development, “often with some different technician or department head from the studio” involved so he could pick their brains.
It might have been his first time directing a Hollywood production, but thanks to the first collaboration between Wayne and Ford, he felt like he knew everything he needed to. “As it turned out, the first day I ever walked onto a set was my first day as a director,” Welles once said. “I’d learned whatever I knew in the projection room from Ford.”
The two films couldn’t be more different, but Stagecoach became such an obsession for Welles that not only did he watch it dozens of times, but he also sought out the people who’d worked on the production to watch it with him so they could answer any lingering questions he had about its technical and artistic virtuosity.
Needless to say, ‘The Duke’ made completely different kinds of movies from the ones that would define Welles’ career on either side of the camera, but Citizen Kane was indebted to his first successful leading role for shaping its creator’s vision of what cinema could be.
Never Miss A Tale
The Far Out John Wayne Newsletter
All the latest stories about John Wayne from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.