Xanadu · 14 May 2001
C.F. KANE: You long-faced, overdressed anarchist.
LELAND: I am not overdressed.
We don’t get HBO piped into our igloos up here in the savage tundra (where broadcasting is strictly regulated to protect our cultural identity, but public works are deregulated enough that people die drinking tap water), but lately ZnaimerVision has been running some HBO original features; last week it was The Rat Pack (Ray Liotta as Sinatra?), and tonight it was RKO 182, you know, the one about making Citizen Kane.
Compared to a movie like Working Girl, which had a dangerously high Melanie Griffith quotient (and the added problems of Mike Nichols on autopilot and a Carly Simon soundtrack), RKO 182 is quite light on Melanie Griffith. Compared to Born Yesterday or Milk Money, there’s hardly any Melanie Grifith at all. In fact, despite playing the central role of Marion Davies – the very namesake of ‘Rosebud’ – you barely notice Melanie Griffith. Also, John Malkovich, playing Herman Mankiewicz, refrains from overacting to an unusual degree.
I’ve always preferred The Third Man.
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