# Finally saw Citizen Kane

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finally-saw-citizen-kane/487058>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [February 23, 2009, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finally-saw-citizen-kane/487058 "2009-02-23T15:56:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\
**Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finally-saw-citizen-kane/487058/41 "2009-02-25T03:33:33Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> It would have been natural enough for the dying man to call out for his long-lost mother, but he does not.

That was part of my point that a lot of Kane was based on Welles rather than Hearst. Hearst had a happy childhood and a very close relationship with his mother. If anything, Hearst was something of a “momma’s boy” who was smothered by maternal love. And he certainly wasn’t abandoned as a child by his mother: Hearst was 56 when his mother died.

It was Welles who lacked for maternal love. His mother was a brilliant artist but she apparently was distant as a mother. And whatever connection existed was severed when she died when Welles was only nine years old. It was Welles not Hearst who pined for a lost childhood.

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