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Orson Welles put Mank under contract to write the first draft screenplay for "Citizen Kane" under the supervision of  John Houseman. Mank is former partner in the Mercury Theatre, Welles's former partner in the Mercury Theatre. At his new residence, Mank recieved a phone call from Orson Welles:

Orson Welles: Ready and willing to hunt the great white whale?

Mank: Just call me Ahab.

What's the purpose of "Moby Dick" reference here?

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    They are asking about a reference, so I added reference tag. Don't understand why someone removed it???
    – Darth Locke
    Oct 17, 2021 at 15:33
  • Also just doing a quick google search, turns out that Wells adapted a meta-play of Moby Dick in the 50's, and later in the 70's, attempted to adapt it to film, but it was never finished. Now I haven't seen Mank to be able to better connect the dots on why that is significant to it's plot, so I will let someone else answer that.
    – Darth Locke
    Oct 17, 2021 at 15:40

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Welles is commissioning a movie about Kane which is a thinly veiled reference to William Randolph Hearst who, through his ownership of a media empire was incredibly powerful in Hollywood and California (if not the United States).

He was considered untouchable due to his ability to cause damage to his detractors careers and prospects,

The movie was not going to be complimentary to Hearst and so attacking him was similar to hunting the Great White Whale, Moby Dick.

Mankiewitz was writing the story/screenplay and so could be considered the captain of the ship hunting the whale, hence, Ahab.

The film Citizen Kane (released on May 1, 1941) is loosely based on Hearst's life. Welles and his collaborator, screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz, created Kane as a composite character, among them Harold Fowler McCormick, Samuel Insull and Howard Hughes. Hearst, enraged at the idea of Citizen Kane being a thinly disguised and very unflattering portrait of him, used his massive influence and resources to prevent the film from being released—all without even having seen it. Welles and the studio RKO Pictures resisted the pressure but Hearst and his Hollywood friends ultimately succeeded in pressuring theater chains to limit showings of Citizen Kane, resulting in only moderate box-office numbers and seriously impairing Welles's career prospects.

Wikipedia

It should perhaps be noted that this is a meta reference to the first line of Moby Dick.

"Call me Ishmael".

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