LMGI COMPASS
|
Summer 2021
•
45
1930s. He interacts with Hollywood titans Irving Thalberg and
Louis B. Mayer and meets sultry movie star Marion Davies and her
lover, William Randolph Hearst. The notorious press baron would
become the model for Charles Foster Kane.
Once scouting really got going, it quickly became apparent that
their options for practical locations might be fairly limited. One
very specific scripted location, Hearst Castle at San Simeon, was
never even considered.
"We knew from the start that we wouldn't be able to shoot at
Hearst Castle because not only would they not want us there in
the first place, but also because we were telling the story of the
guy who was kicking Hearst while he was down," explains Doyle.
"From a functional perspective," adds Burt, "we were an L.A.-
based film, and we were working with a lower budget, but even if
we had been able to go there, we knew it would've been a situation
where they'd be telling us, 'well, you can use this room, but you
can't move that chair,' or 'you can't light candles.' There would
have been too many restrictions, so that was always going to be
the challenge."
There are two key scenes in the film that were, as Burt put it, "The
tail that wags the dog for the whole thing," and both were set at
Hearst Castle. One was a birthday party for Louis B. Mayer, and the
other was the final scene in the film, a lavish dinner party.
As the start of principal photography grew close, they were still
searching for a location that could approximate Hearst Castle.
"Bill and his crew dug up so many amazing places for us to try
to approximate the scope of Hearst's property as best you could in
Los Angeles," said Burt. One such location was a stunning home in
Beverly Hills.
"It was this beautiful old house that started out as a hunting lodge
in 1910 or so and later, I think, Douglas Fairbanks lived there," Doyle
adds. "But when you looked at what it would take to shoot there, it
