Citizen Kane trailer | |
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Ending title card | |
Directed by | Orson Welles |
Written by | Orson Welles |
Produced by | Orson Welles |
Starring | Ray Collins Joseph Cotten Everett Sloane |
Narrated by | Orson Welles |
Cinematography | Harry J. Wild |
Production company | |
Distributed by | RKO Radio Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 4 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
The Citizen Kane trailer is a four-minute, self-contained, "making of" promotional short film by Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre, released in 1940 to promote the film Citizen Kane. Unlike other standard theatrical trailers of the era, it did not feature any footage of the actual film itself, but was a wholly original pseudo-documentary piece. It is considered by numerous film scholars such as Simon Callow, Joseph McBride and Jonathan Rosenbaum to be a standalone short film, rather than a conventional trailer, and to represent an important stage in developing Welles's directorial style.