Orson Welles

By Matthew Sweet

1938 THE WAR OF THE WORLDS
Welles was 23 when he persuaded America that Mars had invaded New Jersey. It was the second-greatest hoax of his career. The greatest, of course, being his career. Wellesian myths are as rich as his realities. Did he play Lear at the age of eight? Did his mother hobnob with Rachmaninov? Did his radio space war really cause mass panic? Not quite. Not really. Not that it matters, when your own star burns so brightly in the sky.

1941 CITIZEN KANE
Charles Foster Kane forged and lost an empire. So too did the boy genius from Kenosha, Wisconsin, who, after conquering Broadway and the airwaves, was enthroned by RKO Pictures and asked to name his desires. Welles, just 25, deployed an army of old acting friends, a camera that moved in defiance of nature, stock footage of elephants, giraffes and octopuses – and raised a wonder of classical cinema, the picture that topped film critics’ polls for generations. “Kane” was a zenith for him and for the medium. It is now a monument to its own greatness, and to the moment before the knives came out for the emperor.