>> Ben Kenigsberg, The New York Times
Published: 13 Dec 2020 10:22 AM BdST
Updated: 13 Dec 2020 10:22 AM BdST
Gary Oldman, centre, as the title character in “Mank,” with Adam Shapiro, left, and Joseph Cross. The film argues that Orson Welles had little to do with the screenplay. Netflix
“Mank,” the new drama from David Fincher, revives an old charge against Orson Welles. Was Welles, who with “Citizen Kane” (1941) created what is often cited as the greatest movie ever made on his first try, actually standing on the shoulders of another genius?
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The movie, streaming on Netflix, dramatises the writing of “Citizen Kane” through the eyes of Herman J Mankiewicz, who received top billing on the shared screenplay credit with Welles. The film focuses on the period when Mankiewicz wrote what became a 300-page doorstop called “American,” partly drawing on his own experiences as a dinner guest of William Randolph Hearst, the newspaper tycoon and inspiration for the character of Charles Foster Kane.