‘Citizen Kane’ Was a Box Office Flop Because of This Man’s Vendetta

Close up on a log cabin in a fierce storm of white, blowing snow. Zoom out to show that cabin encased in a crystal globe held in the palm of someone’s hand. Close up on a mouth, wiry black and white whiskers grazing the upper lip. “Rosebud,” the mouth faintly whispers. Cut to the crystal globe being released by the palm, toppling down the stairs, then shattering at the end of its brief journey to the wooden floor. Orson Welles was a master at using the camera to tell a story that conveys tension, mystery, and emotion, and in no film did he do that better than in the opening scene of Citizen Kane, the 1941 masterpiece widely regarded as one of the greatest American movies ever made.