The battle over Citizen Kane

There was a buzz about Welles' film Citizen Kane long before it was released. At a preview screening, everyone present knew they had seen the work of a genius - everyone except Hedda Hopper, a leading gossip columnist, who hated the movie, calling it 'a vicious attack on a great man'. The 'great man' was William Randolph Hearst. The film was a thinly-veiled portrait of the immensely powerful newspaper magnate. When Hearst learned of the film, he set out to destroy Welles and suppress the movie. Welles was no stranger to trouble. Just a year earlier he had terrorised the USA with The War of the Worlds, a radio broadwast simulating an alien invasion. But now, the 24-year-old director had taken on one of the most powerful men in America....