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Citizen Kane is the Hamlet of film-not just because of the multiplicity of interpretations suggested by its structure and characterization, but because it has been written about more than any other work in its field. And, as meanings have been mined, so the contributions of its many collaborators have been parsed and proclaimed. Not only Orson Welles' performance and direction, but Herman Mankiewicz's script, Gregg Toland's cinematography, Perry Ferguson's art direction, Bernard Herrmann's score, and the editing by Robert Wise and Mark Robson have been cited by film scholars.
It may at first seem pettifogging to introduce one more name into the Kane mix: that of Maurice Seiderman, the film's uncredited sculptor. But, as the following interview-and, for that matter, a close look at the film-will reveal, Seiderman's contribution was substantial, for it was he who created faces for the novice film actors that helped determine their visual character. The actors were treated not as living personalities, or as stars, but visually as objêts d'art.
One of the problems faced by the production staff of Citizen Kane was that none of the images of the principal actors was known to the American filmgoer, and yet they had to be presented to the American audiences as recognizable character types. Paralleling this problem was that the story had its principals age as much as fifty years.
To make the actors' faces and bodies conform to the symbolic needs of the script, as he interpreted them, Seiderman studied the appearances of Mercury Theatre actors, and sculpted makeup portraits for them that followed Hollywood genre types. What he achieved was made possible through unique sculptural materials and procedures.
Seiderman was a Russian immigrant whose father had been a wig maker and makeup artist for the Moscow Art Theatre during the early part of the century. He studied the human figure at the Art Students' League in New York, and worked in theater for over ten years before coming to Hollywood. His European and New York art and theater experiences prepared him well; in the mid-Thirties he was hired by RKO. Artists and graduates of art institutes were used by studios, according to Jack Dawn, because of "their knowledge of facial contour, anatomy, sculpture, and painting." Dawn, who was trained...