After all, beyond the technical dazzle of Orson Welles' magnum opus, it is also the story of a clash between two towering egos at opposite ends of their careers: In one corner Welles, the prodigiously talented upstart from New York who was handed the keys to Hollywood for his first motion picture; in the other, William Randolph Hearst, the fearsome magnate who dominated the largest and most influential media empire in the United States. It is also the tale of two sprawling estates that became monuments to their builders; Hearst Castle, an opulent testament to Heart's immense wealth, and Xanadu, Welles' gloomy fictionalized version of the former that would loom large over the rest of his career. Perhaps understandably considering the subject matter, Hearst's family refused to grant access to the filmmakers, leaving them to decamp to the U.K., where other suitably grand old buildings stood in for the real thing.
Author: staff@slashfilm.com (Lee Adams)
Published at: 2025-08-02 22:45:00
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