When he directed Citizen Kane, a twenty-five year-old wunderkind Orson Welles had already had some success with his War of the Worlds radio broadcast and his independent Mercury Theatre company.

But despite his success, RKO Pictures took a huge risk by giving him a movie contract that gave him full creative control to make whatever movie he wanted. Welles had control over his own script, his cast and crew, and even the final cut of the movie. It's like the company just said, "Go ahead and have at it, Orson. We know you're a boy genius."

Welles would go on to reward their faith with some of the most innovative directing of his time… and a movie that routinely gets the gold star for best movie ever made.

Citizen Kane was the only film where Welles had total creative control. His second effort, The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), was taken away from him and recut. From then on, he took directing-for-hire work while scrounging up money for his pet projects, many of which never came to fruition. All this struggle and heartache for the guy behind the greatest movie ever made?

Oof.