Kane on Blu-ray

[RayKelly]

Joseph McBride on "Citizen Kane: http://www.tgdaily.com/games-and-entertainment-features/58334-citizen-kane-celebrates-its-70th-anniversary-on-blu-ray

[ToddBaesen]

A review at The Celebrity Cafe notes the Citizen Kane extras "are rather useless."


Citizen Kane still mystifies and wows audiences 70 years later. While the Blu-ray itself is magnificent, the ‘Ultimate Collector’s Edition’ bonuses are rather useless. Unless you need to see this right now, wait until Warner releases the Blu-ray itself, like they did with The Wizard of Oz and Gone With The Wind.


http://thecelebritycafe.com/reviews/cit ... 09-14-2011

[Roger Ryan]

With all the hubbub about AMBERSONS, I just wanted to comment that the KANE Blu-ray does indeed look superb. The image has a lovely amount of grain that makes it look like real film, the contrasts are excellent and the picture is sharp and detailed. At the same time, I didn't detect any damage whatsoever. In effect, the Blu-ray corrects all of the issues of the 2001 DVD while maintaining a sharp, damage-free image.

The deluxe packaging is fine as well, but nothing spectacular. The Rosebud sled is a folder which contains the original 1941 program (a nicely-done reproduction) and other promotional items. I can really do without the hackneyed lobby displays, but I smiled when seeing a copy of a Schwab's Drugstore receipt for a case of Scotch (for a "Studio Party")! Also interesting is a budget breakdown that determines what each of the actors will be paid. The hardcover booklet is nothing special, but it provides a more even-handed summary of the making of the film than the BATTLE OVER CITIZEN KANE documentary does. Frustratingly, the storyboards featured in the booklet are printed black-on-red making it almost impossible to discern what they represent.

There is one questionable art direction choice that rivals the misuse of the deleted scenes stills on the AMBERSONS packaging and that is the Blu-ray label image for the KANE disc. The image shows three head shots peering through missing jigsaw pieces. Two of the heads belong to Welles as Kane and Ruth Warrick as Emily (Kane's first wife); the third is actually Joan Blair as Georgie the madam! The images of Welles and Blair are taken from a production still for the infamous brothel scene that was cut from the film. I'm sure the Warner art department thought Blair was Dorothy Comingore (who played Kane's second wife Susan) and that the image was meant to represent the love triangle featured in the film. So, good for Blair; her role was cut out of the movie, but her photo is now prominently featured on the Blu-ray disc itself!

[mteal]

That's fascinating about Joan Blair, Roger. Good catch. I had always thought that Georgie was the girl in the chorus line that Kane kisses while doing the song and dance at the party scene. Here's a picture of Blair being rehearsed for the bordello scene by Welles:

[Roger Ryan]

As you can see, that photo of Blair in costume in on the Inquirer party set. The party and the bordello scene were very closely linked (the bordello scene was meant to take place immediately after the party scene - Kane, Leland and Bernstein "retire" to the brothel with several of the dancing girls who turn out to be prostitutes). I suspect that Welles knew the bordello scene wouldn't be allowed to stay in the film, so he ended up transplanting some of the important dialog from the scene as scripted into the party scene that precedes it (the whole "are we going to declare war on Spain or are we not?" exchange was originally scripted to take place at Georgie's place).

[etimh]

There is one questionable art direction choice that rivals the misuse of the deleted scenes stills on the AMBERSONS packaging and that is the Blu-ray label image for the KANE disc. The image shows three head shots peering through missing jigsaw pieces. Two of the heads belong to Welles as Kane and Ruth Warrick as Emily (Kane's first wife); the third is actually Joan Blair as Georgie the madam! The images of Welles and Blair are taken from a production still for the infamous brothel scene that was cut from the film. I'm sure the Warner art department thought Blair was Dorothy Comingore (who played Kane's second wife Susan) and that the image was meant to represent the love triangle featured in the film. So, good for Blair; her role was cut out of the movie, but her photo is now prominently featured on the Blu-ray disc itself!

Yeah, I caught that too--not sure exactly who it was but it didn't look like Comingore. Isn't it amazing that these kind of errors can still happen? Absolutely incredible.

Nice "review" of the whole package, Roger--I agree, the Kane disc is great. All of the extrra "goodies" are really unnecessary, but fun, and I do enjoy the substantial look and feel of the box and set. Still completely embarrased when I open it up and see the two included junk discs. How cool it would have been to have an extra disc with all new interviews and features specifically about Kane. Dreaming on...

Thanks for the info and clarification on Joan Blair.

Tim

[atcolomb]

I feel the same way that it's great to have Kane on blu-ray but the whole package seems to be missing something and that is new features and interviews but happy they got a great image on the disc. Lets pray that one day Chimes at Midnight will get a nice dvd/blu-ray release.

[ToddBaesen]

What really upsets me about this release is that Warner Bros. has done such great supplements in the past. THE SEARCHERS, RIO BRAVO, CASABLANCA, GONE WITH THE WIND... yet when it comes to KANE they can't afford to add any new material to a Blu-Ray release? I mean, it's only the "Greatest movie ever made," but the best they can do is come up with two discs of supplements that basically denigrate Orson Welles?

If you look at the WB extras on the above mentioned discs, all the extras treat the films and their directors with great respect for the classic movies they created. Yet for CITIZEN KANE we get a distorted "documentary" and an absurd fictional movie that is so ridiculous it is laughable. Here is a script excerpt from RKO 281, much of which (thankfully) didn't make it into the actual movie:


LOUIS B. MAYER
Who does that cocksucker (Welles) think he is?

FLUNKIE
They're laying bets over on the RKO
lot that this great deal will end up
with him never doing a picture. Back
to New York he goes.

MAYER
Serves him right. I mean can you stomach the
arrogance?

FLUNKIE
Inside skinny says the glory boy's finished,
can't come up with a movie. Wants to do a biography now.

MAYER
After RKO boots him maybe we'll pick him up cheap.
Have him do that WAR OF THE WORLDS crap as a
feature.

Meantime, shelve the newsreel. No one cares

INT: SAN SIMEON. WELLES' SUITE EVENING

Orson Welles, elegant and impressive, is flourishing a cigarette and a
coin in his magnificently expressive hands He is perfecting a magic
trick.

Welles is lounging on the bed of an enormous guest suite at San Simeon.
He is wearing a tuxedo.

In the bathroom beyond him we can see the writer HERMAN MANKIEWICZ
("MANK". )

Mank is a wonderful wreck of a human being. 43 years old, but looking
considerably older, he is short and squat and bitter. A compulsive
gambler and drinker, Mank still glimmers with wry humor that is equally
wicked and corrosive. He is incomplete without the stub of a cigar
clenched in his teeth.

Mank, also dressed in a tuxedo, is looking at himself in the bathroom
mirror as he struggles with his bow tie. He occasionally glances in the
mirror to Welles.

Title: JANUARY 3, 1940

MANK
I don't know what you expected with Joseph-
fucking-Conrad for Chrissake. I mean this is
Hollywood, pal.

WELLES
All right! Enough! I've heard this from Schaefer
and RKO. I've heard it from everyone--

MANK
But you keep coming up with the same elitist crap -
- HEART OF DARKNESS with a million dollar budget?! -
- no one wants to see that.

WELLES
Nonsense

Welles dramatically taps the cigarette on the coin, practicing his
trick as:

MANK
What are movies about, Orson?

WELLES
Forget it-

MANK
What are movies about?

WELLES
Telling stories.

MANK
Nope.

WELLES
Showing life

MANK
Who the hell wants to see life?! People are sick to
death of life! They want make-believe, pal. Fantasy.
They want Tarzan and Jane, not Tristan and Isolde.

Welles quickly makes the cigarette seem to completely pass through the
coin. An astounding bit of slight of hand.

WELLES
(happily)
Magic

MANK
Butts on seats. That's what movies are about. You
got one job in Hollywood -- everyone has the same
job, in fact -- putting the butts on the seats. You
gotta sell 'em popcorn and Pepsi- cola. It's all
about popcorn and Pepsi-cola.

WELLES
Not for me.

MANK
Then you better get ready to be the youngest never-
was in Hollywood history.

WELLES
That's better than being the oldest has-been in
Hollywood history.

MANK
You're a laugh-riot, kid.

Welles laughs and goes to Mank in the bathroom.

WELLES
Here, turn around.

Welles ties Mank's bow tie for him as:

WELLES
So, we've got to come up with our movie. Our
biography.

MANK
Right-

WELLES
We find the man and then we dissect him-

MANK
Like a bug.

WELLES
But with compassion and insight--

MANK
(glancing at his watch)
Christ, we gotta go! The old man doesn't cotton to
lateness.

Mank takes a quick swig from a flask of vodka, shoves it into his coat
and scurries into the other room as Welles checks himself in the
mirror.

A beat. Welles smiles, confident and resplendent

WELLES
(into the mirror)
How do you do, Mr. Hearst? My name is Orson
Welles.

INT: SAN SIMEON. HALLWAY FOLLOWING


Welles and Mank walk through an impressive upstairs hallway of San
Simeon. Quick glimpses of the astounding grandeur everywhere around
them as:

WELLES
How about Howard Hughes? We could do Hughes

MANK
I'm not fucking with Hughes. That shit-kicker would
kill us dead, baby. Just like Jean Harlow

WELLES
Howard Hughes killed Jean Harlow?

MANK
Sure. Dropped her out of his Lockheed over Utah

They disappear down a long stairway.

[LostOverThere]

I've heard conflicting reports that Kane on Blu-Ray is actually region free. Can anyone confirm this?

[Sabres]

It works on my UK machine if that's any help.

I've heard conflicting reports that Kane on Blu-Ray is actually region free. Can anyone confirm this?

[LostOverThere]

It works on my UK machine if that's any help.

Thank-you. I bought it recently and it appears it is indeed a region free disc.

[the scotsman]

I can confirm that it is a Region Free blu-ray.I bought it from Amazon and it plays on my european Blu-ray player.Unlike all the latest Criterion Collection Blu-rays which are region A locked. So if the Welles´criterion issues Arkadin or F for Fake are issued on criterion blu-ray any europeans wil have to import a blu-ray machine from the States as I did.
As for the special features, I still cant believe that WB did not pick up the1991 BBC documentary "The complete Citizen Kane" and updated it. That would certainly have been the right kind of material to include in a 70th anniversary edition package.It is still without doubt the best analysis of the subject,using interviews with all then still living participants.

[atcolomb]

Saw the following on The Digital Bits web site:
The Magnificent Ambersons (1942, Tim Holt) finally gets a wide DVD release on January 10th. That's the same day that Warners also releases Citizen Kane (1941, Orson Welles) in a standalone Blu-ray book edition (as opposed to September's UCE). The latter includes a DVD containing the Battle Over Citizen Kane documentary

[Roger Ryan]

I guess the KANE Blu-ray book will be available everywhere in January, but it's been available at Best Buy stores (and on-line) for over a month now.

[RayKelly]

The Best Buy version of Citizen Kane -- 2 disc set (Kane at Battle) with a booklet -- marked down at stores this week.
Instead of $32.99t is $10.99