Citizen Kane

[Lully]

Citizen Kane (1941)

by Herman J. Mankiewicz and Orson Welles.

Final script.

More info about this movie on imdb.com



PROLOGUE



FADE IN:



EXT. XANADU - FAINT DAWN - 1940 (MINIATURE)



Window, very small in the distance, illuminated.



All around this is an almost totally black screen. Now, as the camera

moves slowly towards the window which is almost a postage stamp in the

frame, other forms appear; barbed wire, cyclone fencing, and now,

looming up against an early morning sky, enormous iron grille work.

Camera travels up what is now shown to be a gateway of gigantic

proportions and holds on the top of it - a huge initial "K" showing

darker and darker against the dawn sky. Through this and beyond we

see the fairy-tale mountaintop of Xanadu, the great castle a

sillhouette as its summit, the little window a distant accent in the

darkness.



DISSOLVE:



(A SERIES OF SET-UPS, EACH CLOSER TO THE GREAT WINDOW, ALL TELLING

SOMETHING OF:)



The literally incredible domain of CHARLES FOSTER KANE.



Its right flank resting for nearly forty miles on the Gulf Coast, it

truly extends in all directions farther than the eye can see.

Designed by nature to be almost completely bare and flat - it was, as

will develop, practically all marshland when Kane acquired and changed

its face - it is now pleasantly uneven, with its fair share of rolling

hills and one very good-sized mountain, all man-made. Almost all the

land is improved, either through cultivation for farming purposes of

through careful landscaping, in the shape of parks and lakes. The

castle dominates itself, an enormous pile, compounded of several

genuine castles, of European origin, of varying architecture -

dominates the scene, from the very peak of the mountain.



DISSOLVE:



GOLF LINKS (MINIATURE)



Past which we move. The greens are straggly and overgrown, the

fairways wild with tropical weeds, the links unused and not seriously

tended for a long time.



DISSOLVE OUT:



DISSOLVE IN:



WHAT WAS ONCE A GOOD-SIZED ZOO (MINIATURE)



Of the Hagenbeck type. All that now remains, with one exception, are

the individual plots, surrounded by moats, on which the animals are

kept, free and yet safe from each other and the landscape at large.

(Signs on several of the plots indicate that here there were once

tigers, lions, girrafes.)



DISSOLVE:



THE MONKEY TERRACE (MINIATURE)



In the foreground, a great obscene ape is outlined against the dawn

murk. He is scratching himself slowly, thoughtfully, looking out

across the estates of Charles Foster Kane, to the distant light

glowing in the castle on the hill.



DISSOLVE:



THE ALLIGATOR PIT (MINIATURE)



The idiot pile of sleepy dragons. Reflected in the muddy water - the

lighted window.



THE LAGOON (MINIATURE)



The boat landing sags. An old newspaper floats on the surface of the

water - a copy of the New York Enquirer." As it moves across the

frame, it discloses again the reflection of the window in the castle,

closer than before.



THE GREAT SWIMMING POOL (MINIATURE)



It is empty. A newspaper blows across the cracked floor of the tank.



DISSOLVE:



THE COTTAGES (MINIATURE)



In the shadows, literally the shadows, of the castle. As we move by,

we see that their doors and windows are boarded up and locked, with

heavy bars as further protection and sealing.



DISSOLVE OUT:



DISSOLVE IN:



A DRAWBRIDGE (MINIATURE)



Over a wide moat, now stagnant and choked with weeds. We move across

it and through a huge solid gateway into a formal garden, perhaps

thirty yards wide and one hundred yards deep, which extends right up

to the very wall of the castle. The landscaping surrounding it has

been sloppy and causal for a long time, but this particular garden has

been kept up in perfect shape. As the camera makes its way through

it, towards the lighted window of the castle, there are revealed rare

and exotic blooms of all kinds. The dominating note is one of almost

exaggerated tropical lushness, hanging limp and despairing. Moss,

moss, moss. Ankor Wat, the night the last King died.



DISSOLVE:



THE WINDOW (MINIATURE)



Camera moves in until the frame of the window fills the frame of the

screen. Suddenly, the light within goes out. This stops the action

of the camera and cuts the music which has been accompanying the

sequence. In the glass panes of the window, we see reflected the

ripe, dreary landscape of Mr. Kane's estate behind and the dawn sky.



DISSOLVE:



INT. KANE'S BEDROOM - FAINT DAWN - 1940



A very long shot of Kane's enormous bed, silhouetted against the

enormous window.



DISSOLVE:



INT. KANE'S BEDROOM - FAINT DAWN - 1940



A snow scene. An incredible one. Big, impossible flakes of snow, a

too picturesque farmhouse and a snow man. The jingling of sleigh

bells in the musical score now makes an ironic reference to Indian

Temple bells - the music freezes -



KANE'S OLD OLD

VOICE

Rosebud...



The camera pulls back, showing the whole scene to be contained in one

of those glass balls which are sold in novelty stores all over the

world. A hand - Kane's hand, which has been holding the ball,

relaxes. The ball falls out of his hand and bounds down two carpeted

steps leading to the bed, the camera following. The ball falls off

the last step onto the marble floor where it breaks, the fragments

glittering in the first rays of the morning sun. This ray cuts an

angular pattern across the floor, suddenly crossed with a thousand

bars of light as the blinds are pulled across the window.



The foot of Kane's bed. The camera very close. Outlined against the

shuttered window, we can see a form - the form of a nurse, as she

pulls the sheet up over his head. The camera follows this action up

the length of the bed and arrives at the face after the sheet has

covered it.



FADE OUT:



FADE IN:



INT. OF A MOTION PICTURE PROJECTION ROOM



On the screen as the camera moves in are the words:



"MAIN TITLE"



Stirring, brassy music is heard on the soundtrack (which, of course,

sounds more like a soundtrack than ours.)



The screen in the projection room fills our screen as the second title

appears:



"CREDITS"



NOTE: Here follows a typical news digest short, one of the regular

monthly or bi-monthly features, based on public events or

personalities. These are distinguished from ordinary newsreels and

short subjects in that they have a fully developed editorial or

storyline. Some of the more obvious characteristics of the "March of

Time," for example, as well as other documentary shorts, will be

combined to give an authentic impression of this now familiar type of

short subject. As is the accepted procedure in these short subjects,

a narrator is used as well as explanatory titles.



FADE OUT:



NEWS DIGEST





NARRATOR

Legendary was the Xanadu where Kubla

Kahn decreed his stately pleasure

dome -

(with quotes in his voice)

"Where twice five miles of fertile

ground, with walls and towers were

girdled 'round."

(dropping the quotes)

Today, almost as legendary is Florida's

XANADU - world's largest private

pleasure ground. Here, on the deserts

of the Gulf Coast, a private mountain

was commissioned, successfully built

for its landlord. Here in a private

valley, as in the Coleridge poem,

"blossoms many an incense-bearing tree."

Verily, "a miracle of rare device."





U.S.A.

CHARLES FOSTER KANE



Opening shot of great desolate expanse of Florida coastline (1940 -

DAY)



DISSOLVE:



Series of shots showing various aspects of Xanadu, all as they might

be photographed by an ordinary newsreel cameraman - nicely

photographed, but not atmospheric to the extreme extent of the

Prologue (1940).



NARRATOR

(dropping the quotes)

Here, for Xanadu's landlord, will be

held 1940's biggest, strangest funeral;

here this week is laid to rest a potent

figure of our Century - America's Kubla

Kahn - Charles Foster Kane.

In journalism's history, other names

are honored more than Charles Foster

Kane's, more justly revered. Among

publishers, second only to James Gordon

Bennet the First: his dashing, expatriate

son; England's Northcliffe and Beaverbrook;

Chicago's Patterson and McCormick;



TITLE:



TO FORTY-FOUR MILLION U.S. NEWS BUYERS, MORE NEWSWORTHY THAN THE NAMES

IN HIS OWN HEADLINES, WAS KANE HIMSELF, GREATEST NEWSPAPER TYCOON OF

THIS OR ANY OTHER GENERATION.



Shot of a huge, screen-filling picture of Kane. Pull back to show

that it is a picture on the front page of the "Enquirer," surrounded

by the reversed rules of mourning, with masthead and headlines. (1940)



DISSOLVE:



A great number of headlines, set in different types and different

styles, obviously from different papers, all announcing Kane's death,

all appearing over photographs of Kane himself (perhaps a fifth of the

headlines are in foreign languages). An important item in connection

with the headlines is that many of them - positively not all - reveal

passionately conflicting opinions about Kane. Thus, they contain

variously the words "patriot," "democrat," "pacifist," "war-monger,"

"traitor," "idealist," "American," etc.



TITLE:



1895 TO 1940 - ALL OF THESE YEARS HE COVERED, MANY OF THESE YEARS HE

WAS.



Newsreel shots of San Francisco during and after the fire, followed by

shots of special trains with large streamers: "Kane Relief

Organization." Over these shots superimpose the date - 1906.



Artist's painting of Foch's railroad car and peace negotiators, if

actual newsreel shot unavailable. Over this shot sumperimpose the

date - 1918.



NARRATOR

Denver's Bonfils and Sommes; New York's

late, great Joseph Pulitzer; America's

emperor of the news syndicate, another

editorialist and landlord, the still

mighty and once mightier Hearst. Great

names all of them - but none of them so

loved, hated, feared, so often spoken -

as Charles Foster Kane.

The San Francisco earthquake. First with

the news were the Kane papers. First with

Relief of the Sufferers, First with the

news of their Relief of the Sufferers.

Kane papers scoop the world on the

Armistice - publish, eight hours before

competitors, complete details of the

Armistice teams granted the Germans by

Marshall Foch from his railroad car in the

Forest of Compeigne.

For forty years appeared in Kane newsprint

no public issue on which Kane papers took

no stand.

No public man whom Kane himself did not

support or denounce - often support, then

denounce.

Its humble beginnings, a dying dailey -



Shots with the date - 1898 (to be supplied)



Shots with the date - 1910 (to be supplied)



Shots with the date - 1922 (to be supplied)



Headlines, cartoons, contemporary newreels or stills of the following:



1. WOMAN SUFFRAGE

The celebrated newsreel shot of about 1914.



2. PROHIBITION

Breaking up of a speakeasy and such.



3. T.V.A.



4. LABOR RIOTS



Brief clips of old newreel shots of William Jennings Bryan, Theodore

Roosevelt, Stalin, Walter P. Thatcher, Al Smith, McKinley, Landon,

Franklin D. Roosevelt and such. Also, recent newsreels of the elderly

Kane with such Nazis as Hitler and Goering; and England's Chamberlain

and Churchill.



Shot of a ramshackle building with old-fashioned presses showing

through plate glass windows and the name "Enquirer" in old-fashioned

gold letters. (1892)



DISSOLVE:



NARRATOR

Kane's empire, in its glory, held

dominion over thirty-seven newpapers,

thirteen magazines, a radio network.

An empire upon an empire. The first

of grocery stores, paper mills,

apartment buildings, factories, forests,

ocean-liners -

An empire through which for fifty years

flowed, in an unending stream, the wealth

of the earth's third richest gold mine...

Famed in American legend is the origin

of the Kane fortune... How, to boarding

housekeeper Mary Kane, by a defaulting

boarder, in 1868 was left the supposedly

worthless deed to an abandoned mine shaft:

The Colorado Lode.



The magnificent Enquirer Building of today.



1891-1911 - a map of the USA, covering the entire screen, which in

animated diagram shows the Kane publications spreading from city to

city. Starting from New York, minature newboys speed madly to

Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington,

Atlanta, El Paso, etc., screaming "Wuxtry, Kane Papers, Wuxtry."



Shot of a large mine going full blast, chimneys belching smoke, trains

moving in and out, etc. A large sign reads "Colorado Lode Mining Co."

(1940) Sign reading; "Little Salem, CO - 25 MILES."



DISSOLVE:



An old still shot of Little Salem as it was 70 years ago (identified

by copper-plate caption beneath the still). (1870)



Shot of early tintype stills of Thomas Foster Kane and his wife, Mary,

on their wedding day. A similar picture of Mary Kane some four or

five years later with her little boy, Charles Foster Kane.



NARRATOR

Fifty-seven years later, before a

Congressional Investigation, Walter P.

Thatcher, grand old man of Wall Street,

for years chief target of Kane papers'

attack on "trusts," recalls a journey

he made as a youth...



Shot of Capitol, in Washington D.C.



Shot of Congressional Investigating Committee (reproduction of

existing J.P. Morgan newsreel). This runs silent under narration.

Walter P. Thatcher is on the stand. He is flanked by his son, Walter

P. Thatcher Jr., and other partners. He is being questioned by some

Merry Andrew congressmen. At this moment, a baby alligator has just

been placed in his lap, causing considerable confusion and

embarrassment.



Newsreel close-up of Thatcher, the soundtrack of which now fades in.



THATCHER

... because of that trivial incident...



INVESTIGATOR

It is a fact, however, is it not, that

in 1870, you did go to Colorado?



THATCHER

I did.



INVESTIGATOR

In connection with the Kane affairs?



THATCHER

Yes. My firm had been appointed

trustees by Mrs. Kane for the fortune,

which she had recently acquired. It

was her wish that I should take charge

of this boy, Charles Foster Kane.



NARRATOR

That same month in Union Square -



INVESTIGATOR

Is it not a fact that on that occasion,

the boy personally attacked you after

striking you in the stomach with a sled?



Loud laughter and confusion.



THATCHER

Mr. Chairman, I will read to this

committee a prepared statement I have

brought with me - and I will then refuse

to answer any further questions. Mr.

Johnson, please!



A young assistant hands him a sheet of paper from a briefcase.



THATCHER

(reading it)

"With full awareness of the meaning of

my words and the responsibility of what

I am about to say, it is my considered

belief that Mr. Charles Foster Kane, in

every essence of his social beliefs and

by the dangerous manner in which he has

persistently attacked the American

traditions of private property, initiative

and opportunity for advancement, is - in

fact - nothing more or less than a

Communist."



Newsreel of Union Square meeting, section of crowd carrying banners

urging the boycott of Kane papers. A speaker is on the platform above

the crowd.



SPEAKER

(fading in on soundtrack)

- till the words "Charles Foster Kane"

are a menace to every working man in

this land. He is today what he has

always been and always will be - A

FASCIST!



NARRATOR

And yet another opinion - Kane's own.



Silent newsreel on a windy platform, flag-draped, in front of the

magnificent Enquirer building. On platform, in full ceremonial dress,

is Charles Foster Kane. He orates silently.



TITLE:



"I AM, HAVE BEEN, AND WILL BE ONLY ONE THING - AN AMERICAN." CHARLES

FOSTER KANE.



Same locale, Kane shaking hands out of frame.



Another newsreel shot, much later, very brief, showing Kane, older and

much fatter, very tired-looking, seated with his second wife in a

nightclub. He looks lonely and unhappy in the midst of the gaiety.



NARRATOR

Twice married, twice divorced - first

to a president's niece, Emily Norton -

today, by her second marriage, chatelaine

of the oldest of England's stately homes.

Sixteen years after that - two weeks after

his divorce from Emily Norton - Kane

married Susan Alexander, singer, at the

Town Hall in Trenton, New Jersey.



TITLE:



FEW PRIVATE LIVES WERE MORE PUBLIC.



Period still of Emily Norton (1900).



DISSOLVE:



Reconstructed silent newsreel. Kane, Susan, and Bernstein emerging

from side doorway of City Hall into a ring of press photographers,

reporters, etc. Kane looks startled, recoils for an instance, then

charges down upon the photographers, laying about him with his stick,

smashing whatever he can hit.



NARRATOR

For wife two, one-time opera singing

Susan Alexander, Kane built Chicago's

Municipal Opera House. Cost: three

million dollars. Conceived for Susan

Alexander Kane, half-finished before

she divorced him, the still unfinished

Xanadu. Cost: no man can say.



Still of architect's sketch with typically glorified "rendering" of

the Chicago Municipal Opera House.



DISSOLVE:



A glamorous shot of the almost-finished Xanadu, a magnificent

fairy-tale estate built on a mountain. (1920)



Then shots of its preparation. (1917)



Shots of truck after truck, train after train, flashing by with

tremendous noise.



Shots of vast dredges, steamshovels.



Shot of ship standing offshore unloading its lighters.



In quick succession, shots follow each other, some reconstructed, some

in miniature, some real shots (maybe from the dam projects) of

building, digging, pouring concrete, etc.



NARRATOR

One hundred thousand trees, twenty

thousand tons of marble, are the

ingredients of Xanadu's mountain.

Xanadu's livestock: the fowl of the

air, the fish of the sea, the beast

of the field and jungle - two of each;

the biggest private zoo since Noah.

Contents of Kane's palace: paintings,

pictures, statues, the very stones of

many another palace, shipped to Florida

from every corner of the earth, from

other Kane houses, warehouses, where

they mouldered for years. Enough for

ten museums - the loot of the world.



More shots as before, only this time we see (in miniature) a large

mountain - at different periods in its development - rising out of the

sands.



Shots of elephants, apes, zebras, etc. being herded, unloaded,

shipped, etc. in various ways.



Shots of packing cases being unloaded from ships, from trains, from

trucks, with various kinds of lettering on them (Italian, Arabian,

Chinese, etc.) but all consigned to Charles Foster Kane, Xanadu,

Florida.



A reconstructed still of Xanadu - the main terrace. A group of

persons in clothes of the period of 1917. In their midst, clearly

recognizable, are Kane and Susan.



NARRATOR

Kane urged his country's entry into

one war, opposed participation in

another. Swung the election to one

American President at least, was

called another's assassin. Thus,

Kane's papers might never have

survived - had not the President.



TITLE:



FROM XANADU, FOR THE PAST TWENTY-FIVE YEARS, ALL KANE ENTERPRISES HAVE

BEEN DIRECTED, MANY OF THE NATIONS DESTINIES SHAPED.



Shots of various authentically worded headlines of American papers

since 1895.



Spanish-American War shots. (1898)



A graveyard in France of the World War and hundreds of crosses. (1919)



Old newsreels of a political campaign.



Insert of a particularly virulent headline and/or cartoon.



HEADLINE: "PRESIDENT SHOT"



NARRATOR

Kane, molder of mass opinion though he

was, in all his life was never granted

elective office by the voters of his

country.

Few U.S. news publishers have been.

Few, like one-time Congressman Hearst,

have ever run for any office - most know

better - conclude with other political

observers that one man's press has power

enough for himself. But Kane papers were

once strong indeed, and once the prize

seemed almost his. In 1910, as Independent

Candidate for governor, the best elements

of the state behind him - the White House

seemingly the next easy step in a lightning

political career -



Night shot of crowd burning Charles Foster Kane in effigy. The dummy

bears a grotesque, comic resemblance to Kane. It is tossed into the

flames, which burn up -



- and then down... (1910)



FADE OUT:



TITLE:



IN POLITICS - ALWAYS A BRIDESMAID, NEVER A BRIDE



Newsreel shots of great crowds streaming into a building - Madison

Square Garden - then shots inside the vast auditorium, at one end of

which is a huge picture of Kane. (1910)



Shot of box containing the first Mrs. Kane and young Howard Kane, age

five. They are acknowledging the cheers of the crowd. (Silent Shot)

(1910)



Newreel shot of dignitaries on platform, with Kane, alongside of

speaker's table, beaming, hand upraised to silence the crowd. (Silent

Shot) (1910)



NARRATOR

Then, suddenly - less than one week

before election - defeat! Shameful,

ignominious - defeat that set back

for twenty years the cause of reform

in the U.S., forever cancelled political

chances for Charles Foster Kane.

Then, in the third year of the Great

Depression... As to all publishers, it

sometimes must - to Bennett, to Munsey

and Hearst it did - a paper closes! For

Kane, in four short years: collapse!

Eleven Kane papers, four Kane magazines

merged, more sold, scrapped -



Newreel shot - closeup of Kane delivering a speech... (1910)



The front page of a contemporary paper - a screaming headline. Twin

phots of Kane and Susan. (1910)



Printed title about Depression.



Once more repeat the map of the USA 1932-1939. Suddenly, the cartoon

goes into reverse, the empire begins to shrink, illustrating the

narrator's words.



The door of a newspaper office with the signs: "Closed."



NARRATOR

Then four long years more - alone in

his never-finished, already decaying,

pleasure palace, aloof, seldom visited,

never photographed, Charles Foster Kane

continued to direct his falling empire

... vainly attempting to sway, as he

once did, the destinies of a nation that

has ceased to listen to him ... ceased

to trust him...



Shots of Xanadu. (1940)



Series of shots, entirely modern, but rather jumpy and obviously

bootlegged, showing Kane in a bath chair, swathed in summer rugs,

being perambulated through his rose garden, a desolate figure in the

sunshine. (1935)



NARRATOR

Last week, death came to sit upon the

throne of America's Kubla Khan - last

week, as it must to all men, death came

to Charles Foster Kane.



DISSOLVE:



Cabinent Photograph (Full Screen) of Kane as an old, old man. This

image remains constant on the screen (as camera pulls back, taking in

the interior of a dark projection room.



INT. PROJECTION ROOM - DAY - 1940



A fairly large one, with a long throw to the screen. It is dark.



The image of Kane as an old man remains constant on the screen as

camera pulls back, slowly taking in and registering Projection Room.

This action occurs, however, only after the first few lines of

encuring dialogue have been spoken. The shadows of the men speaking

appear as they rise from their chairs - black against the image of

Kane's face on the screen.



NOTE: These are the editors of a "News Digest" short, and of the

Rawlston magazines. All his enterprises are represented in the

projection room, and Rawlston himself, that great man, is present also

and will shortly speak up.



During the entire course of this scene, nobody's face is really seen.

Sections of their bodies are picked out by a table light, a silhouette

is thrown on the screen, and their faces and bodies are themselves

thrown into silhouette against the brilliant slanting rays of light

from the projection room.



A Third Man is on the telephone. We see a corner of his head and the

phone.



THIRD MAN

(at phone)

Stand by. I'll tell you if we want

to run it again.

(hangs up)



THOMPSON'S VOICE

Well?



A short pause.



A MAN'S VOICE

It's a tough thing to do in a newsreel.

Seventy years of a man's life -



Murmur of highly salaried assent at this. Rawlston walks toward

camera and out of the picture. Others are rising. Camera during all

of this, apparently does its best to follow action and pick up faces,

but fails. Actually, all set-ups are to be planned very carefully to

exclude the element of personality from this scene; which is expressed

entirely by voices, shadows, sillhouettes and the big, bright image of

Kane himself on the screen.



A VOICE

See what Arthur Ellis wrote about him

in the American review?



THIRD MAN

I read it.



THE VOICE

(its owner is already leaning

across the table, holding a

piece of paper under the desk

light and reading from it)

Listen: Kane is dead. He contributed

to the journalism of his day - the

talent of a mountebank, the morals of a

bootlegger, and the manners of a pasha.

He and his kind have almost succeeded in

transforming a once noble profession into

a seven percent security - no longer secure.



ANOTHER VOICE

That's what Arthur Ellis is writing now.

Thirty years ago, when Kane gave him his

chance to clean up Detroit and Chicago and

St. Louis, Kane was the greatest guy in the

world. If you ask me -



ANOTHER VOICE

Charles Foster Kane was a...



Then observations are made almost simultaneous.



RAWLSTON'S VOICE

Just a minute!



Camera moves to take in his bulk outlined against the glow from the

projection room.



RAWLSTON

What were Kane's last words?



A silence greets this.



RAWLSTON

What were the last words he said on

earth? Thompson, you've made us a

good short, but it needs character -



SOMEBODY'S VOICE

Motivation -



RAWLSTON

That's it - motivation. What made Kane

what he was? And, for that matter, what

was he? What we've just seen are the

outlines of a career - what's behind the

career? What's the man? Was he good or

bad? Strong or foolish? Tragic or silly?

Why did he do all those things? What was

he after?

(then, appreciating his point)

Maybe he told us on his death bed.



THOMPSON

Yes, and maybe he didn't.



RAWLSTON

Ask the question anyway, Thompson!

Build the picture around the question,

even if you can't answer it.



THOMPSON

I know, but -



RAWLSTON

(riding over him like any

other producer)

All we saw on that screen was a big

American -



A VOICE

One of the biggest.



RAWLSTON

(without pausing for this)

But how is he different from Ford?

Or Hearst for that matter? Or

Rockefeller - or John Doe?



A VOICE

I know people worked for Kane will tell

you - not only in the newspaper business

- look how he raised salaries. You don't

want to forget -



ANOTHER VOICE

You take his labor record alone, they

ought to hang him up like a dog.



RAWLSTON

I tell you, Thompson - a man's dying

words -



SOMEBODY'S VOICE

What were they?



Silence.



SOMEBODY'S VOICE

(hesitant)

Yes, Mr. Rawlston, what were Kane's

dying words?



RAWLSTON

(with disgust)

Rosebud!



A little ripple of laughter at this, which is promptly silenced by

Rawlston.



RAWLSTON

That's right.



A VOICE

Tough guy, huh?

(derisively)

Dies calling for Rosebud!



RAWLSTON

Here's a man who might have been

President. He's been loved and

hated and talked about as much as

any man in our time - but when he

comes to die, he's got something on

his mind called "Rosebud." What

does that mean?



ANOTHER VOICE

A racehorse he bet on once, probably,

that didn't come in - Rosebud!



RAWLSTON

All right. But what was the race?



There is a short silence.



RAWLSTON

Thompson!



THOMPSON

Yes, sir.



RAWLSTON

Hold this thing up for a week. Two

weeks if you have to...



THOMPSON

(feebly)

But don't you think if we release it

now - he's only been dead four days

- it might be better than if -



RAWLSTON

(decisively)

Nothing is ever better than finding

out what makes people tick. Go after

the people that knew Kane well. That

manager of his - the little guy,

Bernstein, those two wives, all the

people who knew him, had worked for

him, who loved him, who hated his guts -

(pauses)

I don't mean go through the City

Directory, of course -



The Third Man gives a hearty "yes-man" laugh.



THOMPSON

I'll get to it right away, Mr.

Rawlston.



RAWLSTON

(rising)

Good!



The camera from behind him, outlines his back against Kane's picture

on the screen.



RAWLSTON'S VOICE

(continued)

It'll probably turn out to be a very

simple thing...



FADE OUT:



NOTE: Now begins the story proper - the seach by Thompson for the

facts about Kane - his researches ... his interviews with the people

who knew Kane.



It is important to remember always that only at the very end of the

story is Thompson himself a personality. Until then, throughout the

picture, we photograph only Thompson's back, shoulders, or his shadow

- sometimes we only record his voice. He is not until the final scene

a "character". He is the personification of the search for the truth

about Charles Foster Kane. He is the investigator.





FADE IN:



EXT. CHEAP CABARET - "EL RANCHO" - ATLANTIC CITY - NIGHT - 1940

(MINIATURE) - RAIN



The first image to register is a sign:



"EL RANCHO"

FLOOR SHOW

SUSAN ALEXANDER KANE

TWICE NIGHTLY



These words, spelled out in neon, glow out of the darkness at the end

of the fade out. Then there is lightning which reveals a squalid

roof-top on which the sign stands. Thunder again, and faintly the

sound of music from within. A light glows from a skylight. The

camera moves to this and closes in. Through the splashes of rain, we

see through the skylight down into the interior of the cabaret.

Directly below us at a table sits the lone figure of a woman, drinking

by herself.



DISSOLVE:



INT. "EL RANCO" CABARET - NIGHT - 1940



Medium shot of the same woman as before, finishing the drink she

started to take above. It is Susie. The music, of course, is now

very loud. Thompson, his back to the camera, moves into the picture

in the close foreground. A Captain appears behind Susie, speaking

across her to Thompson.



THE CAPTAIN

(a Greek)

This is Mr. Thompson, Miss Alexander.



Susan looks up into Thompson's face. She is fifty, trying to look

much younger, cheaply blonded, in a cheap, enormously generous evening

dress. Blinking up into Thompson's face, she throws a crink into ther

mouth. Her eyes, which she thinks is keeping commandingly on his, are

bleared and watery.



SUSAN

(to the Captain)

I want another drink, John.



Low thunder from outside.



THE CAPTAIN

(seeing his chance)

Right away. Will you have something,

Mr. Thompson?



THOMPSON

(staring to sit down)

I'll have a highball.



SUSAN

(so insistently as to make

Thompson change his mind

and stand up again)

Who told you you could sit down here?



THOMPSON

Oh! I thought maybe we could have

a drink together?



SUSAN

Think again!



There is an awkward pause as Thompson looks from her to the Captain.



SUSAN

Why don't you people let me alone?

I'm minding my own business. You

mind yours.



THOMPSON

If you'd just let me talk to you

for a little while, Miss Alexander.

All I want to ask you...



SUSAN

Get out of here!

(almost hysterical)

Get out! Get out!



Thompson looks at the Captain, who shrugs his shoulders.



THOMPSON

I'm sorry. Maybe some other time -



If he thought he would get a response from Susan, who thinks she is

looking at him steelily, he realizes his error. He nods and walks

off, following the Captain out the door.



THE CAPTAIN

She's just not talking to anybody

from the newspapers, Mr. Thompson.



THOMPSON

I'm not from a newspaper exactly, I -



They have come upon a waiter standing in front of a booth.



THE CAPTAIN

(to the waiter)

Get her another highball.



THE WAITER

Another double?



THE CAPTAIN

(after a moment, pityingly)

Yes.



They walk to the door.



THOMPSON

She's plastered, isn't she?



THE CAPTAIN

She'll snap out of it. Why, until he

died, she'd just as soon talk about

Mr. Kane as about anybody. Sooner.



THOMPSON

I'll come down in a week or so and

see her again. Say, you might be able

to help me. When she used to talk

about Kane - did she ever happen to say

anything - about Rosebud?



THE CAPTAIN

Rosebud?



Thompson has just handed him a bill. The Captain pockets it.



THE CAPTAIN

Thank you, sir. As a matter of fact,

yesterday afternoon, when it was in

all the papers - I asked her. She

never heard of Rosebud.



FADE OUT:



FADE IN:



INT. THATCHER MEMORIAL LIBRARY - DAY - 1940



An excruciatingly noble interpretation of Mr. Thatcher himself

executed in expensive marble. He is shown seated on one of those

improbable Edwin Booth chairs and is looking down, his stone eyes

fixed on the camera.



We move down off of this, showing the impressive pedestal on which the

monument is founded. The words, "Walter Parks Thatcher" are

prominently and elegantly engraved thereon. Immediately below the

inscription we encounter, in a medium shot, the person of Bertha

Anderson, an elderly, manish spinnster, seated behind her desk.

Thompson, his hat in his hand, is standing before her. Bertha is on

the phone.



BERTHA

(into phone)

Yes. I'll take him in now.

(hangs up and looks at

Thompson)

The directors of the Thatcher Library

have asked me to remind you again of

the condition under which you may

inspect certain portions of Mr.

Thatcher's unpublished memoirs. Under

no circumstances are direct quotations

from his manuscript to be used by you.



THOMPSON

That's all right.



BERTHA

You may come with me.



Without watching whether he is following her or not, she rises and

starts towards a distant and imposingly framed door. Thompson, with a

bit of a sigh, follows.



DISSOLVE OUT:



DISSOLVE IN:



INT. THE VAULT ROOM - THATCHER MEMORIAL LIBRARY - DAY - 1940



A room with all the warmth and charm of Napolean's tomb.



As we dissolve in, the door opens in and we see past Thompson's

shoulders the length of the room. Everything very plain, very much

made out of marble and very gloomy. Illumination from a skylight

above adds to the general air of expensive and classical despair. The

floor is marble, and there is a gigantic, mahogany table in the center

of everything. Beyond this is to be seen, sunk in the marble wall at

the far end of the room, the safe from which a guard, in a khaki

uniform, with a revolver holster at his hip, is extracting the journal

of Walter P. Thatcher. He brings it to Bertha as if he were the

guardian of a bullion shipment. During this, Bertha has been

speaking.



BERTHA

(to the guard)

Pages eighty-three to one hundred

and forty-two, Jennings.



GUARD

Yes, Miss Anderson.



BERTHA

(to Thompson)

You will confine yourself, it is our

understanding, to the chapter dealing

with Mr. Kane.



THOMPSON

That's all I'm interested in.



The guard has, by this time, delivered the precious journal. Bertha

places it reverently on the table before Thompson.



BERTHA

You will be required to leave this

room at four-thirty promptly.



She leaves. Thompson starts to light a cigarette. The guard shakes

his head. With a sigh, Thompson bends over to read the manuscript.

Camera moves down over his shoulder onto page of manuscript.



Manuscript, neatly and precisely written:



"CHARLES FOSTER KANE



WHEN THESE LINES APPEAR IN PRINT, FIFTY YEARS AFTER MY DEATH, I AM

CONFIDENT THAT THE WHOLE WORLD WILL AGREE WITH MY OPINION OF CHARLES

FOSTER KANE, ASSUMING THAT HE IS NOT THEN COMPLETELY FORGOTTEN, WHICH

I REGARD AS EXTREMELY LIKELY. A GOOD DEAL OF NONSENSE HAS APPEARED

ABOUT MY FIRST MEETING WITH KANE, WHEN HE WAS SIX YEARS OLD... THE

FACTS ARE SIMPLE. IN THE WINTER OF 1870..."



The camera has not held on the entire page. It has been following the

words with the same action that the eye does the reading. On the last

words, the white page of the paper



DISSOLVES INTO:



EXT. MRS. KANE'S BOARDINGHOUSE - DAY - 1870



The white of a great field of snow, seen from the angle of a parlor

window.



In the same position of the last word in above Insert, appears the

tiny figure of Charles Foster Kane, aged five (almost like an animated

cartoon). He is in the act of throwing a snowball at the camera. It

sails toward us and over our heads, out of scene.



Reverse angle - on the house featuring a large sign reading:



MRS. KANE'S BOARDINGHOUSE

HIGH CLASS MEALS AND LODGING

INQUIRE WITHIN



Charles Kane's snowball hits the sign.



INT. PARLOR - MRS. KANE'S BOARDINGHOUSE - DAY - 1870



Camera is angling through the window, but the window-frame is not cut

into scene. We see only the field of snow again, same angle as in

previous scene. Charles is manufacturing another snowball. Now -



Camera pulls back, the frame of the window appearing, and we are

inside the parlor of the boardinghouse. Mrs. Kane, aged about 28, is

looking out towards her son. Just as we take her in she speaks:



MRS. KANE

(calling out)

Be careful, Charles!



THATCHER'S VOICE

Mrs. Kane -



MRS. KANE

(calling out the window

almost on top of this)

Pull your muffler around your neck,

Charles -



But Charles, deliriously happy in the snow, is oblivious to this and

is running away. Mrs. Kane turns into camera and we see her face - a

strong face, worn and kind.



THATCHER'S VOICE

I think we'll have to tell him now -



Camera now pulls back further, showing Thatcher standing before a

table on which is his stove-pipe hat and an imposing multiplicity of

official-looking documents. He is 26 and, as might be expected, a

very stuffy young man, already very expensive and conservative

looking, even in Colorado.



MRS. KANE

I'll sign those papers -



KANE SR.

You people seem to forget that I'm

the boy's father.



At the sound of Kane Sr.'s voice, both have turned to him and the

camera pulls back still further, taking him in.



Kane Sr., who is the assistant curator in a livery stable, has been

groomed as elegantly as is likely for this meeting ever since

daybreak.



From outside the window can be heard faintly the wild and cheerful

cries of the boy, blissfully cavorting in the snow.



MRS. KANE

It's going to be done exactly the

way I've told Mr. Thatcher -



KANE SR.

If I want to, I can go to court.

A father has a right to -



THATCHER

(annoyed)

Mr. Kane, the certificates that Mr.

Graves left here are made out to Mrs.

Kane, in her name. Hers to do with

as she pleases -



KANE SR.

Well, I don't hold with signing my

boy away to any bank as guardian

just because -



MRS. KANE

(quietly)

I want you to stop all this nonsense,

Jim.



THATCHER

The Bank's decision in all matters

concerning his education, his place of

residence and similar subjects will be

final.

(clears his throat)



KANE SR.

The idea of a bank being the guardian -



Mrs. Kane has met his eye. Her triumph over him finds expression in

his failure to finish his sentence.



MRS. KANE

(even more quietly)

I want you to stop all this nonsense,

Jim.



THATCHER

We will assume full management of the

Colorado Lode - of which you, Mrs. Kane,

are the sole owner.



Kane Sr. opens his mouth once or twice, as if to say something, but

chokes down his opinion.



MRS. KANE

(has been reading past

Thatcher's shoulder as he

talked)

Where do I sign, Mr. Thatcher?



THATCHER

Right here, Mrs. Kane.



KANE SR.

(sulkily)

Don't say I didn't warn you.



Mrs. Kane lifts the quill pen.



KANE SR.

Mary, I'm asking you for the last

time - anyon'd think I hadn't been

a good husband and a -



Mrs. Kane looks at him slowly. He stops his speech.



THATCHER

The sum of fifty thousand dollars a

year is to be paid to yourself and

Mr. Kane as long as you both live,

and thereafter the survivor -



Mrs. Kane puts pen to the paper and signs.



KANE SR.

Well, let's hope it's all for the best.



MRS. KANE

It is. Go on, Mr. Thatcher -



Mrs. Kane, listening to Thatcher, of course has had her other ear bent

in the direction of the boy's voice. Thatcher is aware both of the

boy's voice, which is counter to his own, and of Mrs. Kane's divided

attention. As he pauses, Kane Sr. genteelly walks over to close the

window.



EXT. MRS. KANE'S BOARDINGHOUSE - DAY - 1870



Kane Jr., seen from Kane Sr.'s position at the window. He is

advancing on the snowman, snowballs in his hands, dropping to one knee

the better to confound his adversary.



KANE

If the rebels want a fight boys,

let's give it to 'em!



He throws two snowballs, missing widely, and gets up and advances

another five feet before getting on his knees again.



KANE

The terms are underconditional

surrender. Up and at 'em! The

Union forever!



INT. PARLOR - MRS. KANE'S BOARDINGHOUSE - DAY - 1870



Kane Sr. closes the window.



THATCHER

(over the boy's voice)

Everything else - the principal as

well as all monies earned - is to be

administered by the bank in trust for

your son, Charles Foster Kane, until

his twenty-fifth birthday, at which

time he is to come into complete

possession.



Mrs. Kane rises and goes to the window.



MRS. KANE

Go on, Mr. Thatcher.



Thatcher continues as she opens the window. His voice, as before, is

heard with overtones of the boy's.



EXT. KANE'S BOARDINGHOUSE - DAY - 1870



Kane Jr., seen from Mrs. Kane's position at the window. He is now

within ten feet of the snowman, with one snowball left which he is

holding back in his right hand.



KANE

You can't lick Andy Jackson! Old

Hickory, that's me!



He fires his snowball, well wide of the mark and falls flat on his

stomach, starting to crawl carefully toward the snowman.



THATCHER'S VOICE

It's nearly five, Mrs. Kane, don't

you think I'd better meet the boy -



INT. PARLOR - MRS. KANE'S BOARDINGHOUSE - DAY - 1870



Mrs. Kane at the window. Thatcher is now standing at her side.



MRS. KANE

I've got his trunk all packed -

(she chokes a little)

I've it packed for a couple of weeks -



She can't say anymore. She starts for the hall day. Kane Sr., ill at

ease, has no idea of how to comfort her.



THATCHER

I've arranged for a tutor to meet

us in Chicago. I'd have brought

him along with me, but you were so

anxious to keep everything secret -



He stops as he realizes that Mrs. Kane has paid no attention to him

and, having opened the door, is already well into the hall that leads

to the side door of the house. He takes a look at Kane Sr., tightens

his lips and follows Mrs. Kane. Kane, shoulders thrown back like one

who bears defeat bravely, follows him.



EXT. MRS. KANE'S BOARDINGHOUSE - DAY - 1870



Kane, in the snow-covered field. With the snowman between him and the

house, he is holding the sled in his hand, just about to make the

little run that prefaces a belly-flop. The Kane house, in the

background, is a dilapidated, shabby, two-story frame building, with a

wooden outhouse. Kane looks up as he sees the single file procession,

Mrs. Kane at its head, coming toward him.



KANE

H'ya, Mom.



Mrs. Kane smiles.



KANE

(gesturing at the snowman)

See, Mom? I took the pipe out of

his mouth. If it keeps on snowin',

maybe I'll make some teeth and -



MRS. KANE

You better come inside, son. You

and I have got to get you all ready

for - for -



THATCHER

Charles, my name is Mr. Thatcher -



MRS. KANE

This is Mr. Thatcher, Charles.



THATCHER

How do you do, Charles?



KANE SR.

He comes from the east.



KANE

Hello. Hello, Pop.



KANE SR.

Hello, Charlie!



MRS. KANE

Mr. Thatcher is going to take you on

a trip with him tonight, Charles.

You'll be leaving on Number Ten.



KANE SR.

That's the train with all the lights.



KANE

You goin', Mom?



THATCHER

Your mother won't be going right away,

Charles -



KANE

Where'm I going?



KANE SR.

You're going to see Chicago and New

York - and Washington, maybe...

Isn't he, Mr. Thatcher?



THATCHER

(heartily)

He certainly is. I wish I were a

little boy and going to make a trip

like that for the first time.



KANE

Why aren't you comin' with us, Mom?



MRS. KANE

We have to stay here, Charles.



KANE SR.

You're going to live with Mr. Thatcher

from now on, Charlie! You're going to

be rich. Your Ma figures - that is,

er - she and I have decided that this

isn't the place for you to grow up in.

You'll probably be the richest man in

America someday and you ought to -



MRS. KANE

You won't be lonely, Charles...



THATCHER

We're going to have a lot of good times

together, Charles... Really we are.



Kane stares at him.



THATCHER

Come on, Charles. Let's shake hands.

(extends his hand. Charles

continues to look at him)

Now, now! I'm not as frightening as

all that! Let's shake, what do you

say?



He reaches out for Charles's hand. Without a word, Charles hits him

in the stomach with the sled. Thatcher stumbles back a few feet,

gasping.



THATCHER

(with a sickly grin)

You almost hurt me, Charles.

(moves towards him)

Sleds aren't to hit people with.

Sleds are to - to sleigh on. When

we get to New York, Charles, we'll

get you a sled that will -



He's near enough to try to put a hand on Kane's shoulder. As he does,

Kane kicks him in the ankle.



MRS. KANE

Charles!



He throws himself on her, his arms around her. Slowly Mrs. Kane puts

her arms around him.



KANE

(frightened)

Mom! Mom!



MRS. KANE

It's all right, Charles, it's all

right.



Thatcher is looking on indignantly, occasionally bending over to rub

his ankle.



KANE SR.

Sorry, Mr. Thatcher! What the kid

needs is a good thrashing!



MRS. KANE

That's what you think, is it, Jim?



KANE SR.

Yes.



Mrs. Kane looks slowly at Mr. Kane.



MRS. KANE

(slowly)

That's why he's going to be brought

up where you can't get at him.



DISSOLVE:



1870 - NIGHT (STOCK OR MINIATURE)



Old-fashioned railroad wheels underneath a sleeper, spinning along the

track.



DISSOLVE:



INT. TRAIN - OLD-FASHIONED DRAWING ROOM - NIGHT - 1870



Thatcher, with a look of mingled exasperation, annoyance, sympathy and

inability to handle the situation, is standing alongside a berth,

looking at Kane. Kane, his face in the pillow, is crying with

heartbreaking sobs.



KANE

Mom! Mom!



DISSOLVE OUT:



The white page of the Thatcher manuscript. We pick up the words:



"HE WAS, I REPEAT, A COMMON ADVENTURER, SPOILED, UNSCRUPULOUS,

IRRESPONSIBLE."



The words are followed by printed headline on "Enquirer" copy (as in

following scene).



INT. ENQUIRER CITY ROOM - DAY - 1898



Close-up on printed headline which reads:



"ENEMY ARMADA OFF JERSEY COAST"



Camera pulls back to reveal Thatcher holding the "Enquirer" copy, on

which we read the headline. He is standing near the editorial round

table around which a section of the staff, including Reilly, Leland

and Kane are eating lunch.



THATCHER

(coldly)

Is that really your idea of how to

run a newspaper?



KANE

I don't know how to run a newspaper,

Mr. Thatcher. I just try everything

I can think of.



THATCHER

(reading headline of paper

he is still holding)

"Enemy Armada Off Jersey Coast." You

know you haven't the slightest proof

that this - this armada - is off the

Jersey Coast.



KANE

Can you prove it isn't?



Bernstein has come into the picture. He has a cable in his hand. He

stops when he sees Thatcher.



KANE

Mr. Bernstein, Mr. Thatcher -



BERNSTEIN

How are you, Mr. Thatcher?



THATCHER

How do you do? -



BERNSTEIN

We just had a wire from Cuba, Mr. Kane -

(stops, embarrassed)



KANE

That's all right. We have no secrets

from our readers. Mr. Thatcher is

one of our most devoted readers, Mr.

Bernstein. He knows what's wrong with

every issue since I've taken charge.

What's the cable?



BERNSTEIN

(reading)

The food is marvelous in Cuba the

senoritas are beautiful stop I could

send you prose poems of palm trees and

sunrises and tropical colors blending in

far off landscapes but don't feel right

in spending your money for this stop

there's no war in Cuba regards Wheeler.



THATCHER

You see! There hasn't been a true word -



KANE

I think we'll have to send our friend

Wheeler a cable, Mr. Bernstein. Of

course, we'll have to make it shorter

than his, because he's working on an

expense account and we're not. Let

me see -

(snaps his fingers)

Mike!



MIKE

(a fairly tough customer

prepares to take dictation,

his mouth still full of food)

Go ahead, Mr. Kane.



KANE

Dear Wheeler -

(pauses a moment)

You provide the prose poems - I'll

provide the war.



Laughter from the boys and girls at the table.



BERNSTEIN

That's fine, Mr. Kane.



KANE

I rather like it myself. Send it

right away.



MIKE

Right away.



BERNSTEIN

Right away.



Mike and Bernstein leave. Kane looks up, grinning at Thatcher, who is

bursting with indignation but controls himself. After a moment of

indecision, he decides to make one last try.



THATCHER

I came to see you, Charles, about

your - about the Enquirer's campaign

against the Metropolitan Transfer

Company.



KANE

Won't you step into my office, Mr.

Thatcher?



They cross the City Room together.



THATCHER

I think I should remind you, Charles,

of a fact you seem to have forgotten.

You are yourself one of the largest

individual stockholders.



INT. KANE'S OFFICE - DAY - 1898



Kane holds the door open for Thatcher. They come in together.



KANE

Mr. Thatcher, isn't everything I've

been saying in the Enquirer about

the traction trust absolutely true?



THATCHER

(angrily)

They're all part of your general

attack - your senseless attack -

on everything and everybody who's

got more than ten cents in his pocket.

They're -



KANE

The trouble is, Mr. Thatcher, you

don't realize you're talking to

two people.



Kane moves around behind his desk. Thatcher doesn't understand, looks

at him.



KANE

As Charles Foster Kane, who has eighty-two

thousand, six hundred

and thirty-one shares of Metropolitan

Transfer - you see, I do have a rough

idea of my holdings - I sympathize

with you. Charles Foster Kane is a

dangerous scoundrel, his paper should

be run out of town and a committee

should be formed to boycott him. You

may, if you can form such a committee,

put me down for a contribution of one

thousand dollars.



THATCHER

(angrily)

Charles, my time is too valuable for

me -



KANE

On the other hand -

(his manner becomes serious)

I am the publisher of the Enquirer.

As such, it is my duty - I'll let you

in on a little secret, it is also my

pleasure - to see to it that decent,

hard-working people of this city are

not robbed blind by a group of money-

mad pirates because, God help them,

they have no one to look after their

interests! I'll let you in on another

little secret, Mr. Thatcher. I think

I'm the man to do it. You see, I have

money and property -



Thatcher doesn't understand him.



KANE

If I don't defend the interests of

the underprivileged, somebody else

will - maybe somebody without any

money or any property and that would

be too bad.



Thatcher glares at him, unable to answer. Kane starts to dance.



KANE

Do you know how to tap, Mr. Thatcher?

You ought to learn -

(humming quietly, he

continues to dance)



Thatcher puts on his hat.



THATCHER

I happened to see your consolidated

statement yesterday, Charles. Could

I not suggest to you that it is

unwise for you to continue this

philanthropic enterprise -

(sneeringly)

this Enquirer - that is costing you

one million dollars a year?



KANE

You're right. We did lose a million

dollars last year.



Thatcher thinks maybe the point has registered.



KANE

We expect to lost a million next

year, too. You know, Mr. Thatcher -

(starts tapping quietly)

at the rate of a million a year -

we'll have to close this place in

sixty years.



DISSOLVE:



INT. THE VAULT ROOM - THATCHER MEMORIAL LIBRARY - DAY



Thompson - at the desk. With a gesture of annoyance, he is closing

the manuscript.



Camera arcs quickly around from over his shoulder to hold on door

behind him, missing his face as he rises and turns to confront Miss

Anderson, who has come into the room to shoo him out. Very prominent

on this wall is an over-sized oil painting of Thatcher in the best

Union League Club renaissance style.



MISS ANDERSON

You have enjoyed a very rare

privilege, young man. Did you find

what you were looking for?



THOMPSON

No. Tell me something, Miss Anderson.

You're not Rosebud, are you?



MISS ANDERSON

What?



THOMPSON

I didn't think you were. Well, thanks

for the use of the hall.



He puts his hat on his head and starts out, lighting a cigarette as he

goes. Miss Anderson, scandalized, watches him.



FADE OUT:



FADE IN:



INT. BERNSTEIN'S OFFICE - ENQUIRER SKYSCRAPER - DAY - 1940



Closeup of a still of Kane, aged about sixty-five. Camera pulls back,

showing it is a framed photograph on the wall. Over the picture are

crossed American flags. Under it sits Bernstein, back of his desk.

Bernstein, always an undersized Jew, now seems even smaller than in

his youth. He is bald as an egg, spry, with remarkably intense eyes.

As camera continues to travel back, the back of Thompson's head and

his shoulders come into the picture.



BERNSTEIN

(wryly)

Who's a busy man? Me? I'm Chairman

of the Board. I got nothing but time

... What do you want to know?



THOMPSON

(still explaining)

Well, Mr. Bernstein, you were with Mr.

Kane from the very beginning -



BERNSTEIN

From before the beginning, young fellow.

And now it's after the end.

(turns to Thompson)

Anything you want to know about him -

about the paper -



THOMPSON

- We thought maybe, if we can find out

what he meant by that last word - as he

was dying -



BERNSTEIN

That Rosebud? Maybe some girl? There

were a lot of them back in the early

days, and -



THOMPSON

Not some girl he knew casually and

then remembered after fifty years,

on his death bed -



BERNSTEIN

You're pretty young, Mr. -

(remembers the name)

Mr. Thompson. A fellow will remember

things you wouldn't think he'd remember.

You take me. One day, back in 1896, I

was crossing over to Jersey on a ferry

and as we pulled out, there was another

ferry pulling in -

(slowly)

- and on it, there was a girl waiting

to get off. A white dress she had on

- and she was carrying a white pastrol

- and I only saw her for one second and

she didn't see me at all - but I'll bet

a month hasn't gone by since that I

haven't thought of that girl.

(triumphantly)

See what I mean?

(smiles)

Well, so what are you doing about this

"Rosebud," Mr. Thompson.



THOMPSON

I'm calling on people who knew Mr. Kane.

I'm calling on you.



BERNSTEIN

Who else you been to see?



THOMPSON

Well, I went down to Atlantic City -



BERNSTEIN

Susie? I called her myself the day

after he died. I thought maybe

somebody ought to...

(sadly)

She couldn't even come to the 'phone.



THOMPSON

You know why? She was so -



BERNSTEIN

Sure, sure.



THOMPSON

I'm going back there.



BERNSTEIN

Who else did you see?



THOMPSON

Nobody else, but I've been through

that stuff of Walter Thatcher's.

That journal of his -



BERNSTEIN

Thatcher! That man was the biggest

darn fool I ever met -



THOMPSON

He made an awful lot of money.



BERNSTEIN

It's not trick to make an awful lot

of money if all you want is to make

a lot of money.

(his eyes get reflective)

Thatcher!



Bernstein looks out of the window and keeps on looking, seeming to see

something as he talks.



BERNSTEIN

He never knew there was anything in

the world but money. That kind of

fellow you can fool every day in the

week - and twice on Sundays!

(reflectively)

The time he came to Rome for Mr. Kane's

twenty-fifth birthday... You know,

when Mr. Kane got control of his own

money... Such a fool like Thatcher -

I tell you, nobody's business!



DISSOLVE OUT:



DISSOLVE IN:



INT. BERNSTEIN'S OFFICE - DAY - 1940



Bernstein speaking to Thompson.



BERNSTEIN

He knew what he wanted, Mr. Kane did,

and he got it! Thatcher never did

figure him out. He was hard to figure

sometimes, even for me. Mr. Kane was

a genius like he said. He had that

funny sense of humor. Sometimes even

I didn't get the joke. Like that night

the opera house of his opened in

Chicago... You know, the opera house

he built for Susie, she should be an

opera singer...

(indicates with a little wave

of his hand what he thinks of

that; sighing)

That was years later, of course - 1914

it was. Mrs. Kane took the leading part

in the opera, and she was terrible. But

nobody had the nerve to say so - not even

the critics. Mr. Kane was a big man in

those days. But this one fellow, this

friend of his, Branford Leland -



He leaves the sentence up in the air, as we



DISSOLVE:



INT. CITY ROOM - CHICAGO ENQUIRER - NIGHT - 1914



It is late. The room is almost empty. Nobody is at work at the

desks. Bernstein, fifty, is waiting anxiously with a little group of

Kane's hirelings, most of them in evening dress with overcoats and

hats. Eveybody is tense and expectant.



CITY EDITOR

(turns to a young hireling;

quietly)

What about Branford Leland? Has he

got in his copy?



HIRELING

Not yet.



BERNSTEIN

Go in and ask him to hurry.



CITY EDITOR

Well, why don't you, Mr. Bernstein?

You know Mr. Leland.



BERNSTEIN

(looks at him for a moment;

then slowly)

I might make him nervous.



CITY EDITOR

(after a pause)

You and Leland and Mr. Kane - you were

great friends back in the old days, I

understand.



BERNSTEIN

(with a smile)

That's right. They called us the

"Three Musketeers."



Somebody behind Bernstein has trouble concealing his laughter. The

City Editor speaks quickly to cover the situation.



CITY EDITOR

He's a great guy - Leland.

(another little pause)

Why'd he ever leave New York?



BERNSTEIN

(he isn't saying)

That's a long story.



ANOTHER HIRELING

(a tactless one)

Wasn't there some sort of quarrel between -



BERNSTEIN

(quickly)

I had nothing to do with it.

(then, somberly)

It was Leland and Mr. Kane, and you

couldn't call it a quarrel exactly.

Better we should forget such things -

(turning to City Editor)

Leland is writing it up from the dramatic

angle?



CITY EDITOR

Yes. I thought it was a good idea.

We've covered it from the news end,

of course.



BERNSTEIN

And the social. How about the music

notice? You got that in?



CITY EDITOR

Oh, yes, it's already made up. Our

Mr. Mervin wrote a small review.



BERNSTEIN

Enthusiastic?



CITY EDITOR

Yes, very!

(quietly)

Naturally.



BERNSTEIN

Well, well - isn't that nice?



KANE'S VOICE

Mr. Bernstein -



Bernstein turns.



Medium long shot of Kane, now forty-nine, already quite stout. He is

in white tie, wearing his overcoat and carrying a folded opera hat.



BERNSTEIN

Hello, Mr. Kan

[Lully]

The Hirelings rush, with Bernstein, to Kane's side. Widespread,

half-suppressed sensation.



CITY EDITOR

Mr. Kane, this is a surprise!



KANE

We've got a nice plant here.



Everybody falls silent. There isn't anything to say.



KANE

Was the show covered by every department?



CITY EDITOR

Exactly according to your instructions,

Mr. Kane. We've got two spreads of

pictures.



KANE

(very, very casually)

And the notice?



CITY EDITOR

Yes - Mr. Kane.



KANE

(quietly)

Is it good?



CITY EDITOR

Yes, Mr. kane.



Kane looks at him for a minute.



CITY EDITOR

But there's another one still to come

- the dramatic notice.



KANE

(sharply)

It isn't finished?



CITY EDITOR

No, Mr. Kane.



KANE

That's Leland, isn't it?



CITY EDITOR

Yes, Mr. Kane.



KANE

Has he said when he'll finish?



CITY EDITOR

We haven't heard from him.



KANE

He used to work fast - didn't he,

Mr. Bernstein?



BERNSTEIN

He sure did, Mr. Kane.



KANE

Where is he?



ANOTHER HIRELING

Right in there, Mr. Kane.



The Hireling indicates the closed glass door of a little office at the

other end of the City Room. Kane takes it in.



BERNSTEIN

(helpless, but very concerned)

Mr. Kane -



KANE

That's all right, Mr. Bernstein.



Kane crosses the length of the long City Room to the glass door

indicated before by the Hireling. The City Editor looks at Bernstein.

Kane opens the door and goes into the office, closing the door behind

him.



BERNSTEIN

Leland and Mr. Kane - they haven't

spoke together for ten years.

(long pause; finally)

Excuse me.

(starts toward the door)



INT. LELAND'S OFFICE - CHICAGO ENQUIRER - NIGHT - 1914



Bernstein comes in. An empty bottle is standing on Leland's desk. He

has fallen over his typewriter, his face on the keys. A sheet of

paper is in the machine. A paragraph has been typed. Kane is

standing at the other side of the desk looking down on him. This is

the first time we see murder in Kane's face. Bernstein looks at Kane,

then crosses to Leland. He shakes him.



BERNSTEIN

Hey, Brad! Brad!

(he straightens, looks at

Kane; pause)

He ain't been drinking before, Mr. Kane.

Never. We would have heard.



KANE

(finally; after a pause)

What does it say there?



Bernstein stares at him.



KANE

What's he written?



Bernstein looks over nearsightedly, painfully reading the paragraph

written on the page.



BERNSTEIN

(reading)

"Miss Susan Alexander, a pretty but

hopelessly incompetent amateur -

(he waits for a minute to

catch his breath; he doesn't

like it)

- last night opened the new Chicago

Opera House in a performance of - of

-"

(looks up miserably)

I can't pronounce that name, Mr. Kane.



KANE

Thais.



Bernstein looks at Kane for a moment, then looks back, tortured.



BERNSTEIN

(reading again)

"Her singing, happily, is no concern

of this department. Of her acting,

it is absolutely impossible to..."

(he continues to stare at

the page)



KANE

(after a short silence)

Go on!



BERNSTEIN

(without looking up)

That's all there is.



Kane snatches the paper from the roller and reads it for himself.

Slowly, a queer look comes over his face. Then he speaks, very

quietly.



KANE

Of her acting, it is absolutely

impossible to say anything except

that it represents a new low...

(then sharply)

Have you got that, Mr. Bernstein?

In the opinion of this reviewer -



BERNSTEIN

(miserably)

I didn't see that.



KANE

It isn't here, Mr. Bernstein. I'm

dictating it.



BERNSTEIN

(looks at him)

I can't take shorthand.



KANE

Get me a typewriter. I'll finish

the notice.



Bernstein retreats from the room.



QUICK DISSOLVE OUT:



QUICK DISSOLVE IN:



INT. LELAND'S OFFICE - CHICAGO ENQUIRER - NIGHT - 1914



Long shot of Kane in his shirt sleeves, illuminated by a desk light,

typing furiously. As the camera starts to pull even farther away from

this, and as Bernstein - as narrator - begins to speak -



QUICK DISSOLVE:



INT. BERNSTEIN'S OFFICE - DAY - 1940



Bernstein speaking to Thompson.



BERNSTEIN

He finished it. He wrote the worst

notice I ever read about the girl he

loved. We ran it in every paper.



THOMPSON

(after a pause)

I guess Mr. Kane didn't think so well

of Susie's art anyway.



BERNSTEIN

(looks at him very soberly)

He thought she was great, Mr. Thompson.

He really believed that. He put all

his ambition on that girl. After she

came along, he never really cared for

himself like he used to. Oh, I don't

blame Susie -



THOMPSON

Well, then, how could he write that

roast? The notices in the Kane papers

were always very kind to her.



BERNSTEIN

Oh, yes. He saw to that. I tell you,

Mr. Thompson, he was a hard man to

figure out. He had that funny sense

of humor. And then, too, maybe he

thought by finishing that piece he

could show Leland he was an honest man.

You see, Leland didn't think so. I

guess he showed him all right. He's a

nice fellow, but he's a dreamer. They

were always together in those early days

when we just started the Enquirer.



On these last words, we



DISSOLVE:



INT. CITY ROOM - ENQUIRER BUILDING - DAY - 1891



The front half of the second floor constitutes one large City Room.

Despite the brilliant sunshine outside, very little of it is actually

getting into the room because the windows are small and narrow. There

are about a dozen tables and desks, of the old-fashioned type, not

flat, available for reporters. Two tables, on a raised platform at

the end of the room, obviously serve the city room executives. To the

left of the platform is an open door which leads into the Sanctrum.



As Kane and Leland enter the room, an elderly, stout gent on the

raised platform, strikes a bell and the other eight occupants of the

room - all men - rise and face the new arrivals. Carter, the elderly

gent, in formal clothes, rises and starts toward them.



CARTER

Welcome, Mr. Kane, to the "Enquirer."

I am Herbert Carter.



KANE

Thank you, Mr Carter. This is Mr.

Leland.



CARTER

(bowing)

How do you do, Mr. Leland?



KANE

(pointing to the standing

reporters)

Are they standing for me?



CARTER

I thought it would be a nice gesture

- the new publisher -



KANE

(grinning)

Ask them to sit down.



CARTER

You may resume your work, gentlemen.

(to Kane)

I didn't know your plans and so I was

unable to make any preparations.



KANE

I don't my plans myself.



They are following Carter to his raised platform.



KANE

As a matter of fact, I haven't got

any. Except to get out a newspaper.



There is a terrific crash at the doorway. They all turn to see

Bernstein sprawled at the entrance. A roll of bedding, a suitcase,

and two framed pictures were too much for him.



KANE

Oh, Mr. Bernstein!



Bernstein looks up.



KANE

If you would come here a moment,

please, Mr. Bernstein?



Bernstein rises and comes over, tidying himself as he comes.



KANE

Mr. Carter, this is Mr. Bernstein.

Mr. Bernstein is my general manager.



CARTER

(frigidly)

How do you do, Mr. Bernstein?



KANE

You've got a private office here,

haven't you?



The delivery wagon driver has now appeared in the entrance with parts

of the bedstead and other furniture. He is looking about, a bit

bewildered.



CARTER

(indicating open door to

left of platform)

My little sanctum is at your disposal.

But I don't think I understand -



KANE

I'm going to live right here.

(reflectively)

As long as I have to.



CARTER

But a morning newspaper, Mr. Kane.

After all, we're practically closed

twelve hours a day - except for the

business offices -



KANE

That's one of the things I think

must be changed, Mr. Carter. The

news goes on for twenty-four hours

a day.



DISSOLVE:



INT. KANE'S OFFICE - LATE DAY - 1891



Kane, in his shirt sleeves, at a roll-top desk in the Sanctum, is

working feverishly on copy and eating a very sizeable meal at the same

time. Carter, still formally coated, is seated alongside him.

Leland, seated in a corner, is looking on, detached, amused. The

furniture has been pushed around and Kane's effects are somewhat in

place. On a corner of the desk, Bernstein is writing down figures.

No one pays any attention to him.



KANE

I'm not criticizing, Mr. Carter,

but here's what I mean. There's a

front page story in the "Chronicle,"

(points to it)

and a picture - of a woman in Brooklyn

who is missing. Probably murdered.

(looks to make sure of the name)

A Mrs. Harry Silverstone. Why didn't

the "Enquirer" have that this morning?



CARTER

(stiffly)

Because we're running a newspaper, Mr.

Kane, not a scandal sheet.



Kane has finished eating. He pushes away his plates.



KANE

I'm still hungry, Brad. Let's go

to Rector's and get something decent.

(pointing to the "Chronicle"

before him)

The "Chronicle" has a two-column

headline, Mr. Carter. Why haven't we?



CARTER

There is no news big enough.



KANE

If the headline is big enough, it

makes the new big enough. The murder

of Mrs. Harry Silverstone -



CARTER

(hotly)

As a matter of fact, we sent a man

to the Silverstone home yesterday

afternoon.

(triumphantly)

Our man even arrived before the

"Chronicle" reporter. And there's no



proof that the woman was murdered -

or even that she's dead.



KANE

(smiling a bit)

The "Chronicle" doesn't say she's

murdered, Mr. Carter. It says the

neighbors are getting suspicious.



CARTER

(stiffly)

It's not our function to report the

gossip of housewives. If we were

interested in that kind of thing,

Mr. Kane, we could fill the paper

twice over daily -



KANE

(gently)

That's the kind of thing we are

going to be interested in from now

on, Mr. Carter. Right now, I wish

you'd send your best man up to see

Mr. Silverstone. Have him tell Mr.

Silverstone if he doesn't produce his

wife at once, the "Enquirer" will

have him arrested.

(he gets an idea)

Have him tell Mr. Silverstone he's a

detective from the Central Office.

If Mr. Silverstone asks to see his

badge, your man is to get indignant

and call Mr. Silverstone an anarchist.

Loudly, so that the neighbors can hear.



CARTER

Really, Mr. Kane, I can't see the

function of a respectable newspaper -



Kane isn't listening to him.



KANE

Oh, Mr. Bernstein!



Bernstein looks up from his figures.



KANE

I've just made a shocking discovery.

The "Enquirer" is without a telephone.

Have two installed at once!



BERNSTEIN

I ordered six already this morning!

Got a discount!



Kane looks at Leland with a fond nod of his head at Bernstein. Leland

grins back. Mr. Carter, meantime, has risen stiffly.



CARTER

But, Mr. Kane -



KANE

That'll be all today, Mr. Carter.

You've been most understanding.

Good day, Mr. Carter!



Carter, with a look that runs just short of apoplexy, leaves the room,

closing the door behind him.



LELAND

Poor Mr. Carter!



KANE

(shakes his head)

What makes those fellows think that

a newspaper is something rigid,

something inflexible, that people

are supposed to pay two cents for -



BERNSTEIN

(without looking up)

Three cents.



KANE

(calmly)

Two cents.



Bernstein lifts his head and looks at Kane. Kane gazes back at him.



BERNSTEIN

(tapping on the paper)

This is all figured at three cents

a copy.



KANE

Re-figure it, Mr. Bernstein, at

two cents.



BERNSTEIN

(sighs and puts papers

in his pocket)

All right, but I'll keep these figures,

too, just in case.



KANE

Ready for dinner, Brad?



BERNSTEIN

Mr. Leland, if Mr. Kane, he should

decide to drop the price to one cent,

or maybe even he should make up his

mind to give the paper away with a

half-pound of tea - you'll just hold

him until I get back, won't you?



LELAND

I'm not guaranteeing a thing, Mr.

Bernstein. You people work too fast

for me! Talk about new brooms!



BERNSTEIN

Who said anything about brooms?



KANE

It's a saying, Mr. Bernstein. A new

broom sweeps clean.



BERNSTEIN

Oh!



DISSOLVE:



INT.PRIMITIVE COMPOSING AND PRESSROOM - NEW YORK ENQUIRER - NIGHT -

1891



The ground floor witht he windows on the street - of the "Enquirer."

It is almost midnight by an old-fashioned clock on the wall. Grouped

around a large table, on which are several locked forms of type, very

old-fashioned of course, but true to the period - are Kane and Leland

in elegant evening clothes, Bernstein, unchanged from the afternoon,

and Smathers, the composing room foreman, nervous and harassed.



SMATHERS

But it's impossible, Mr. Kane. We

can't remake these pages.



KANE

These pages aren't made up as I want

them, Mr. Smathers. We go to press

in five minutes.



CARTER

(about to crack up)

The "Enquirer" has an old and honored

tradition, Mr. Kane... The "Enquirer"

is not in competition with those other

rags.



BERNSTEIN

We should be publishing such rags,

that's all I wish. Why, the "Enquirer" -

I wouldn't wrap up the liver for the

cat in the "Enquirer" -



CARTER

(enraged)

Mr. Kane, I must ask you to see to

it that this - this person learns to

control his tongue.



Kane looks up.



CARTER

I've been a newspaperman my whole life

and I don't intend -

(he starts to sputter)

- if it's your intention that I should

continue to be harassed by this - this -

(he's really sore)

I warn you, Mr. Kane, it would go against

my grain to desert you when you need me

so badly - but I would feel obliged to

ask that my resignation be accepted.



KANE

It is accepted, Mr. Carter, with

assurances of my deepest regard.



CARTER

But Mr. Kane, I meant -



Kane turns his back on him, speaks again to the composing room

foreman.



KANE

(quietly)

Let's remake these pages, Mr. Smathers.

We'll have to publish a half hour late,

that's all.



SMATHERS

(as though Kane were

talking Greek)

We can't remake them, Mr. Kane. We

go to press in five minutes.



Kane sighs, unperturbed, as he reaches out his hand and shoves the

forms off the table onto the floor, where they scatter into hundreds

of bits.



KANE

You can remake them now, can't you,

Mr. Smathers?



Smather's mouth opens wider and wider. Bradford and Bernstein are

grinning.



KANE

After the types 've been reset and

the pages have been remade according

to the way I told you before, Mr.

Smathers, kindly have proofs pulled

and bring them to me. Then, if I

can't find any way to improve them

again -

(almost as if reluctantly)

- I suppose we'll have to go to press.



He starts out of the room, followed by Leland.



BERNSTEIN

(to Smathers)

In case you don't understand, Mr.

Smathers - he's a new broom.



DISSOLVE OUT:



DISSOLVE IN:



EXT. NEW YORK STREET - VERY EARLY DAWN - 1891



The picture is mainly occupied by a large building, on the roof of

which the lights spell out the word "Enquirer" against the sunrise.

We do not see the street or the first few stories of this building,

the windows of which would be certainly illuminated. What we do see

is the floor on which is located the City Room. Over this scene,

newboys are heard selling the Chronicle, their voices growing in

volume.



As the dissolve complete itself, camera moves toward the one lighted

window - the window of the Sanctrum.



DISSOLVE:



INT. KANE'S OFFICE - VERY EARLY DAWN - 1891



The newsboys are still heard from the street below - fainter but very

insistent.



Kane's office is gas-lit, of course, as is the rest of the Enquirer

building.



Kane, in his shirt sleeves, stands at the open window looking out.

The bed is already made up. On it is seated Bernstein, smoking the

end of a cigar. Leland is in a chair.



NEWSBOYS' VOICES

CHRONICLE! CHRONICLE! H'YA - THE

CHRONICLE - GET YA! CHRONICLE!



Kane, taking a deep breath of the morning air, closes the window and

turns to the others. The voices of the newsboys, naturally, are very

much fainter after this.



LELAND

We'll be on the street soon, Charlie

- another ten minutes.



BERNSTEIN

(looking at his watch)

It's three hours and fifty minutes

late - but we did it -



Leland rises from the chair, stretching painfully.



KANE

Tired?



LELAND

It's been a tough day.



KANE

A wasted day.



BERNSTEIN

(looking up)

Wasted?



LELAND

(incredulously)

Charlie?!



BERNSTEIN

You just made the paper over four

times today, Mr. Kane. That's all -



KANE

I've changed the front page a little,

Mr. Bernstein. That's not enough -

There's something I've got to get into

this paper besides pictures and print

- I've got to make the "New York

Enquirer" as important to New York as

the gas in that light.



LELAND

(quietly)

What're you going to do, Charlie?



Kane looks at him for a minute with a queer smile of happy

concentration.



KANE

My Declaration of Principles -

(he says it with quotes

around it)

Don't smile, Brad -

(getting the idea)

Take dictation, Mr. Bernstein -



BERNSTEIN

I can't take shorthand, Mr. Kane -



KANE

I'll write it myself.



Kane grabs a piece of rough paper and a grease crayon. Sitting down

on the bed next to Bernstein, he starts to write.



BERNSTEIN

(looking over his shoulder)

You don't wanta make any promises,

Mr. Kane, you don't wanta keep.



KANE

(as he writes)

These'll be kept.

(stops for a minute and

reads what he has written;

reading)

I'll provide the people of this city

with a daily paper that will tell

all the news honestly.

(starts to write again;

reading as he writes)

I will also provide them -



LELAND

That's the second sentence you've

started with "I" -



KANE

(looking up)

People are going to know who's

responsible. And they're going to

get the news - the true news -

quickly and simply and entertainingly.

(he speaks with real

conviction)

And no special interests will be

allowed to interfere with the truth

of that news.



He looks at Leland for a minute and goes back to his writing, reading

as he writes.



Bernstein has risen and crossed to one side of Kane. They both stand

looking out. Leland joins him on the other side. Their three heads

are silhouetted against the sky. Leland's head is seen to turn

slightly as he looks into Kane's face - camera very close on this -

Kane turns to him and we know their eyes have met, although their

faces are almost in sillhouette. Bernstein is still smoking a cigar.



DISSOLVE:



Front page of the "Enquirer" shows big boxed editorial with heading:



MY PRINCIPLES - A DECLARATION

BY CHARLES FOSTER KANE



Camera continues pulling back and shows newspaper to be on the top of

a pile of newspapers. As we draw further back, we see four piles, and

as camera contines to pull back, we see six piles and go on back until

we see a big field of "Enquirers" - piles of "Enquirers" - all 26,000

copies ready for distribution.



A wagon with a huge sign on its side reading



"ENQUIRER - CIRCULATION 26,000"



passes through foreground, and we wipe to:



A pile of "Enquirers" for sale on a broken down wooden box on a street

corner, obviously a poor district. A couple of coins fall on the

pile.



The stoop of a period door with old-fashioned enamel milk can and a

bag of rolls. Across the sidewalk before this, moves the shadow of an

old-fashioned bicycle with an enormous front wheel. A copy of the

"Enquirer" is tossed on the stoop.



A breakfast table - beautiful linen and beautiful silver - everything

very expensive, gleaming in the sunshine. Into a silver newspaper

rack there is slipped a copy of the "Enquirer". Here, as before, the

boxed editorial reading MY PRINCIPLES - A DECLARATION BY CHARLES

FOSTER KANE, is very prominent on the front page.



The wooden floor of a railroad station, flashing light and dark as a

train behind the camera rushes by. On the floor, there is tossed a

bound bundle of the "New York Enquirer" - the Declaration of

Principles still prominent.



Rural Delivery - a copy of the "Enquirer"s being put into bins,

showing state distribution.



The railroad platform again. We stay here for four images. On each

image, the speed of the train is faster and the piles of the

"Enquirer" are larger. On the first image, we move in to hold on the

words "CIRCULATION - 31,000." We are this close for the next pile

which reads 40,000; the next one which reads 55,000, and the last

which is 62,000. In each instance, the bundles of newspapers are

thicker and the speed of the moving train behind the camera is

increased.



The entire montage above indicated is accompanied by a descriptive

complement of sound - the traffic noises of New York in the 1890's;

wheels on cobblestones and horses' hooves; bicycle bells; the mooning

of cattle and the crowing of roosters (in the RFD shot), and in all

cases where the railroad platform is used - the mounting sound of the

railroad train.



The last figure "62,000" opposite the word "CIRCULATION" on the

"Enquirer" masthead changes to:



EXT. STREET AND CHRONICLE BUIDING - DAY - 1895



Angle up to wall of building - a painter on a cradle is putting the

last zero to the figure "62,000" on an enormous sign advertising the

"Enquirer." It reads:



THE ENQUIRER

THE PEOPLE'S NEWSPAPER

CIRCULATION 62,000



Camera travels down side of building - takes in another building on

which there is a sign which reads:



READ THE ENQUIRER

AMERICA'S FINEST

CIRCULATION 62,000



Camera continues to travel down to sidewalk in front of the Chronicle

office. The Chronicle office has a plateglass window in which is

reflected traffic moving up and down the street, also the figures of

Kane, Leland and Bernstein, who are munching peanuts.



Inside the window, almost filling it, is a large photograph of the

"Chronicle" staff, with Reilly prominently seated in the center. A

sign over the photo reads: EDITORIAL AND EXECUTIVE STAFF OF THE NEW

YORK CHRONICLE. A sign beneath it reads: GREATEST NEWSPAPER STAFF IN

THE WORLD. The sign also includes the "Chronicle" circulation figure.

There are nine men in the photo.



BERNSTEIN

(looking up at the sign -

happily)

Sixty-two thousand -



LELAND

That looks pretty nice.



KANE

(indicating the Chronicle

Building)

Let's hope they like it there.



BERNSTEIN

From the Chronicle Building that sign

is the biggest thing you can see -

every floor guaranteed - let's hope

it bothers them - it cost us enough.



KANE

(pointing to the sign over

the photograph in the

window)

Look at that.



LELAND

The "Chronicle" is a good newspaper.



KANE

It's a good idea for a newspaper.

(reading the figures)

Four hundred sixy thousand.



BERNSTEIN

Say, with them fellows -

(referring to the photo)

- it's no trick to get circulation.



KANE

You're right, Mr. Bernstein.



BERNSTEIN

(sighs)

You know how long it took the "Chronicle"

to get that staff together? Twenty years.



KANE

I know.



Kane, smiling, lights a cigarette, at the same time looking into the

window. Camera moves in to hold on the photograph of nine men, still

holding the reflection of Kane's smiling face.



DISSOLVE:



INT. CITY ROOM - THE ENQUIRER - NIGHT - 1895



Nine men, arrayed as in the photograph, but with Kane beaming in the

center of the first row. The men, variously with mustaches, beards,

bald heads, etc. are easily identified as being the same men, Reilly

prominent amongst them.



As camera pulls back, it is revealed that they are being photographed

- by an old-type professional photographer, big box, black hood and

all - in a corner of the room. It is 1:30 at night. Desks, etc. have

been pushed against the wall. Running down the center of the room is

a long banquet table, at which twenty diners have finished their

meals. The eleven remaining at their seats - these include Bernstein

and Leland - are amusedly watching the photographic ceremonies.



PHOTOGRAPHER

That's all. Thank you.



The photographic subjects rise.



KANE

(a sudden thought)

Make up an extra copy and mail it

to the "Chronicle."



Chuckling and beaming, he makes his way to his place at the head of

the table. The others have already sat down. Kane gets his guests'

attention by rapping on the table with a knife.



KANE

Gentlemen of the "Enquirer"! This

has, I think, been a fitting welcome

to those distinguished journalists -

(indicates the eight men)

Mr. Reilly in particular - who are

the latest additions to our ranks.

It will make them happy to learn that

the "Enquirer's" circulation this

morning passed the two hundred thousand

mark.



BERNSTEIN

Two hundred and one thousand, six

hundred and forty-seven.



General applause.



KANE

All of you - new and old - You're

all getting the best salaries in

town. Not one of you has been hired

because of his loyalty. It's your

talent I'm interested in. That talent

that's going to make the "Enquirer"

the kind of paper I want - the best

newspaper in the world!



Applause.



KANE

However, I think you'll agree we've

heard enough about newspapers and

the newspaper business for one night.

There are other subjects in the world.



He puts his two fingers in his mouth and lets out a shrill whistle.

This is a signal. A band strikes up a lively ditty of the period and

enters in advance a regiment of very magnificent maidens, as daringly

arrayed as possible in the chorus costumes of the day. The rest of

this episode will be planned and staged later. Its essence is that

Kane is just a healthy and happy young man having a wonderful time.



As some of the girls are detached from the line and made into partners

for individual dancing -



DISSOLVE OUT:



DISSOLVE IN:



The "Enquirer" sign:



THE ENQUIRER

AMERICA'S FINEST

CIRCULATION

274,321



Dissolve just completes itself - the image of Kane dancing with a girl

on each arm just disappears as camera pans down off the Temple Bldg.

in the same action as the previous street scene. There is a new sign

on the side of the building below. It reads:



READ THE ENQUIRER

GREATEST STAFF IN THE WORLD



Camera continues panning as we



DISSOLVE:



A montage of various scenes, between the years 1891-1900.



The scenes indicate the growth of the "Enquirer" under the impulse of

Kane's personal drive. Kane is shown, thus, at various activities:



Move down from the sign:



READ THE ENQUIRER

GREATEST STAFF IN THE WORLD



to street in front of saloon with parade passing (boys going off to

the Spanish-American War)- A torchlight parade with the torches

reflected in the glass window of the saloon - the sound of brass band

playing "It's a Hot Time." In the window of the saloon is a large

sign or poster



"REMEMBER THE MAINE"



INSERT: Remington drawing of American boys, similar to the parade

above, in which "Our Boys" in the expeditionary hats are seen marching

off to war.



Back of observation car. Shot of Kane congratulating Teddy Roosevelt

(the same shot as in the News Digest - without flickering).



The wooden floor of the railroad platform again - a bundle of

"Enquirers" - this time an enormous bundle - is thrown down, and the

moving shadows of the train behind the camera indicate that it is

going like a bat out of hell. A reproduction of Kane and Teddy

shaking hands as above is very prominent in the frame and almost hogs

the entire front page. The headline indicates the surrender of Cuba.



INT. ENQUIRER OFFICE



Cartoon, highly dramatic and very involved as to content - lousy with

captions, labels, and symbolic figures, the most gruesome and

recognizable - "Capitalistic Greed." This cartoon is almost finished

and is on a drawing board before which stand Kane and the artist

himself. Kane is grinning over some suggestion he has made.



DISSOLVE:



The cartoon finished and reproduced on the editorial page of the

"Enquirer" - in quite close, with an editorial and several faces of

caps shown underneath. The entire newspaper is crushed with an angry

gesture and thrown down into an expensive-looking wastebasket (which

is primarily for ticker tape) tape is pouring.



INT. ENQUIRER OFFICE



Cartoonist and Kane working on comic strip of "Johnny the Monk."



DISSOLVE:



Floor of room - Two kids on floor, with newspaper spread out, looking

at the same comic strip.



Kane's photographic gallery with photographers, stooges, and Kane

himself in attendance on a very hot-looking item of the period. A sob

sister is interviewing this hot number and Kane is arranging her dress

to look more seductive.



DISSOLVE OUT:



DISSOLVE IN:



The hot number reproduced and prominently displayed and covering

almost half a page of the "Enquirer." It is being read in a barber

shop and is seen in an over-shoulder shot of the man who is reading

it. He is getting a shine, a manicure, and a haircut. The sob-sister

caption over the photograph reveals: "I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT I WAS DOING,

SAYS DANCER. EVERYTHING WENT RED." An oval photograph of the gun is

included in the lay-out of the pretty lady with a headline which says:

"DEATH GUN."



STREET - SHOT OF BUCKET BRIGADE



Shot of Kane, in evening clothes, in obvious position of danger,

grabbing camera from photographer. Before him rages a terrific

tenement fire.



DISSOLVE:



INSERT: Headline about inadequacy of present fire equipment.



DISSOLVE:



Final shot of a new horse-drawn steam engine roaring around a street

corner (Stock).



DISSOLVE:



A black pattern of iron bars. We are in a prison cell. The door is

opened and a condemned man, with priest, warden and the usual

attendants, moves into foreground and starts up the hall past a group

which includes phtographers, Kane's sob-sister, and Kane. The

photographers take pictures with a mighty flash of old-fashioned flash

powder. The condemned man in the foreground (in silhouette) is

startled by this.



DISSOLVE:



A copy of the "Enquirer" spread out on a table. A big lay-out of the

execution story includes the killer as photographed by Kane's

photographers, and nearby on the other page there is a large picture

of the new steam fire engine (made from the stock shot) with a

headline indicating that the "Enquirer" has won its campaign for

better equipment. A cup of coffee and a doughnut are on the

newspaper, and a servant girl - over whose shoulder we see the paper -

is stirring the coffee.



The Beaux Art Ball. A number of elderly swells are jammed into a

hallway. Servants suddenly divest them of their furs, overcoats and

wraps, revealing them to be in fancy dress costume, pink fleshings,

etc., the effect to be very surprising, very lavish and very very

ridiculous. We see, among others, Mr. Thatcher himself (as Ben Hur)

ribbon around, his bald head and all. At the conclusion of this

tableau, the image freezes and we pull back to show it reproduced on

the society page of the "New York Enquirer."



Over the "Enquirer"'s pictorial version of the Beaux Art Ball is

thrown a huge fish - then coffee grounds - altogether a pretty

repulsive sight.



The whole thing is bundled up and thrown into a garbage can.



Extreme close-up of the words: "OCCUPATION - JOUNALIST."



Camera pulls back to show passport open to the photograph page which

shows Kane, registering birth, race, and nationality. Passport cover

is closed, showing it to be an American passport.



EXT. CUNARD DOCKS - GANGPLANK AND DECK OF BOAT - NIGHT - 1900



As camera pulls back over shoulder of official, taking in Kane,

Leland, and Bernstein, we see the bustle and noise of departing ocean

liner. Behind the principles can be seen an enormous plain sign which

reads: "FIRST CLASS." From offstage can be heard the steward's cry,

indispensable in any Mercury production, the old familiar cry, "All

Ashore That's Going Ashore!" - gongs, also blasts of the great whistle

and all the rest of it.



THE OFFICIAL

There you are, Mr. Kane. Everything

in order.



KANE

Thank you.



Kane and Leland and Bernstein start up the gangplank.



THE OFFICIAL

(calling)

Have a good rest, Mr. Kane.



KANE

Thanks.



BERNSTEIN

But please, Mr. Kane, don't buy any

more paintings. Nine Venuses already

we got, twenty-six Virgins - two

whole warehouses full of stuff -



KANE

I promise not to bring any more

Venuses and not to worry - and not

to try to get in touch with any of

the papers -



STEWARD'S VOICE

All ashore!



KANE

- and to forget about the new feature

sections - and not to try to think

up and ideas for comic sections.



STEWARD'S VOICE

All ashore that's going ashore!



Kane leaves Leland and Bernstein midway up gangplank, as he rushes up

to it, calling back with a wave:



KANE

Goodbye, gents!

(at the top of the gangplank,

he turns and calls down)

Hey!



KANE

(calling down to them)

You don't expect me to keep any

of those promises, do you?



A band on deck strikes up "Auld Lang Syne." Bernstein and Leland turn

to each other.



BERNSTEIN

Do you, Mr. Leland?



LELAND

(smiling)

Certainly not.



They start down the gangplank together.



DISSOLVE:



LONG SHOT OF THE ENQUIRER BUILDING - NIGHT



The pattern of telegraph wires, dripping with rain, through which we

see the same old building but now rendered fairly remarkable by

tremendous outline sign in gold which reads "THE NEW YORK DAILY

ENQUIRER." A couple of lights show in the building. We start toward

the window where the lights show, as we -



DISSOLVE:



EXT. OUTSIDE THE WINDOW AT BERNSTEIN'S DESK - NIGHT



The light in the window in the former shot was showing behind the

letter "E" of the Enquirer sign. Now the letter "E" is even larger

than the frame of the camera. Rain drips disconsolately off the

middle part of the figure. We see through this and through the

drizzle of the window to Bernstein's desk where he sits working under

a blue shaded light.



DISSOLVE OUT:



DISSOLVE IN:



Same setup as before except that it is now late afternoon and late in

the winter of the year. The outline "E" is hung with icicles which

are melting, dripping despairingly between us and Mr. Bernstein, still

seated at his desk - still working.



DISSOLVE:



Same setup as before except that it is spring. Instead of the sad

sounds of dripping rain or dripping icicles, we hear the melancholy

cry of a hurdy-gurdy in the street below. It is spring and through

the letter "E" we can see Bernstein working at his desk. Pigeons are

gathering on the "E" and on the sill. Bernstein looks up and sees

them. He takes some crumbs from his little homemade lunch which is

spread out on the desk before him, carries them to the windows and

feeds the pigeons, looking moodily out on the prospect of spring on

Park Row. The birds eat the crumbs - the hurdy-gurdy continues to

play.



DISSOLVE:



The same setup again, it is now summer. The window was half-open

before .. now it's open all the way and Bernstein has gone so far as

to take off his coat. His shirt and his celluloid collar are wringing

wet. Camera moves toward the window to tighten on Bernstein and to

take in the City Room behind him, which is absolutely deserted. It is

clear that there is almost nothing more for Bernstein to do. The

hurdy-gurdy in the street is playing as before, but a new tune.



DISSOLVE:



A beach on Coney Island.



Bernstein in a rented period bathing suit sits alone in the sand,

reading a copy of the "Enquirer."



DISSOLVE OUT:



DISSOLVE IN:



INT. CITY ROOM - ENQUIRER BUILDING - DAY - 1900



The whole floor is now a City Room. It is twice its former size, yet

not too large for all the desks and the people using them. The

windows have been enlarged, providing a good deal more light and air.

A wall calendar says September 9th.



Kane and Bernstein enter and stand in the entrance a moment. Kane,

who really did look a bit peaked before, is now clear-eyed and tanned.

He is wearing new English clothes. As they come into the room,

Bernstein practically walking sideways, is doing nothing but beaming

and admiring Kane, quelling like a mother at the Carnegie Hall debut

of her son. Seeing and recognizing Kane, the entire staff rises to

its feet.



KANE

(referring to the staff;

with a smile)

Ask them to sit down, Mr. Bernstein.



BERNSTEIN

Sit down, everybody - for heaven's

sake!



The order is immediately obeyed, everybody going into business of

feverish activity.



BERNSTEIN

So then, tonight, we go over everything

thoroughly, eh? Especially the new

papers -



KANE

We certainly do. Vacation's over -

starting right after dinner. But

right now - that lady over there -

(he indicates a woman

at the desk)

- that's the new society editor, I

take it? You think I could interrupt

her a moment, Mr. Bernstein?



BERNSTEIN

Huh? Oh, I forgot - you've been

away so long I forgot about your

joking -



He trails after Kane as he approaches the Society Editor's desk. The

Society Editor, a middle-aged spinster, sees him approaching and

starts to quake all over, but tries to pretend she isn't aware of him.

An envelope in her hand shakes violently. Kane and Bernstein stop at

her desk.



BERNSTEIN

Miss Townsend -



Miss Townsend looks up and is so surprised to see Bernstein with a

stranger.



MISS TOWNSEND

Good afternoon, Mr. Bernstein.



BERNSTEIN

This is Mr. Kane, Miss Townsend.



Miss Townsend can't stick to her plan. She starts to rise, but her

legs are none too good under her. She knocks over a tray of copy

paper as she rises, and bends to pick it up.



KANE

(very hesitatingly and

very softly)

Miss Townsend -



At the sound of his voice, she straightens up. She is very close to

death from excitement.



KANE

I've been away for several months,

and I don't know exactly how these

things are handled now. But one

thing I wanted to be sure of is that

you won't treat this little

announcement any differently than

you would any other similar

announcement.



He hands her an envelope. She has difficulty in holding on to it.



KANE

(gently)

Read it, Miss Townsend. And remember

- just the regular treatment!

See you at nine o'clock, Mr. Bernstein!



Kane leaves. Bernstein looks after him, then at the paper. Miss

Townsend finally manages to open the envelope. A piece of flimsy

paper, with a few written lines, is her reward.



MISS TOWNSEND

(reading)

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Moore Norton

announce the engagement of their

daughter, Emily Monroe Norton, to Mr.

Charles Foster Kane.



BERNSTEIN

(starts to read it)

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Moore Norton

announce -



MISS TOWNSEND

(fluttering - on top of him)

She's - she's the niece of - of the

President of the United States -



BERNSTEIN

(nodding proudly)

I know. Come on, Miss Townsend -

From the window, maybe we can get a

look.



He takes her by the hand and leads her off.



Angle toward open window. Bernstein and Miss Townsend, backs to

camera, rushing to the window.



EXT. STREET OUTSIDE ENQUIRER BUILDING - DAY - 1900



High angle downward - what Bernstein and Miss Townsend see from the

window.



Kane is just stepping into an elegant barouch, drawn up at the curb,

in which sits Miss Emily Norton. He kisses her full on the lips

before he sits down. She acts a bit taken aback, because of the

public nature of the scene, but she isn't really annoyed. As the

barouche starts off, she is looking at him adoringly. He, however,

has turned his head and is looking adoringly at the "Enquirer." He

apparently sees Bernstein and Miss Townsed and waves his hand.



INT. CITY ROOM - ENQUIRER - DAY - 1900



Bernstein and Miss Townsend at window.



BERNSTEIN

A girl like that, believe me, she's

lucky! Presiden't niece, huh! Say,

before he's through, she'll be a

Presiden't wife.



Miss Townsend is now dewey-eyed. She looks at Bernstein, who has

turned away, gazing down at the departing couple.



DISSOLVE:



Front page of the "Enquirer." Large picture of the young couple -

Kane and Emily - occupying four columns - very happy.



DISSOLVE:



INT. BERNSTEIN'S OFFICE - ENQUIRER - DAY - 1940



Bernstein and Thompson. As the dissolve comes, Bernstein's voice is

heard.



BERNSTEIN

The way things turned out, I don't

need to tell you - Miss Emily Norton

was no rosebud!



THOMPSON

It didn't end very well, did it?



BERNSTEIN

(shaking his head)

It ended -

(a slight pause)

Then there was Susie - that ended, too.

(shrugs, a pause; then

looking up into Thompson's

eyes)

I guess he didn't make her very happy -

(a pause)

You know, I was thinking - that Rosebud

you're trying to find out about -



THOMPSON

Yes -



BERNSTEIN

Maybe that was something he lost.

Mr. Kane was a man that lost - almost

everything he had -

(a pause)

You ought to talk to Bradford Leland.

He could tell you a lot. I wish I

could tell you where Leland is, but I

don't know myself. He may be out of

town somewhere - he may be dead.



THOMPSON

In case you'd like to know, Mr.

Bernstein, he's at the Huntington

Memorial Hospital on 180th Street.



BERNSTEIN

You don't say! Why I had no idea -



THOMPSON

Nothing particular the matter with

him, they tell me. Just -

(controls himself)



BERNSTEIN

Just old age.

(smiles sadly)

It's the only disease, Mr. Thompson,

you don't look forward to being cured

of.

(pauses)

You ought to see Mr. Leland. There's

a whole lot of things he could tell

you - if he wanted to.



FADE OUT:



FADE IN:



EXT. HOSPITAL ROOF - DAY - 1940



Close shot - Thompson. He is tilted back in a chair which seems to

be, and is, leaning against a chimney. Leland's voice is heard for a

few moments before Leland is seen.



LELAND'S VOICE

When you get to my age, young man,

you don't miss anything. Unless

maybe it's a good drink of bourbon.

Even that doesn't make much difference,

if you remember there hasn't been

any good bourbon in this country for

twenty years.



Camera has pulled back, during above speech, revealing that Leland,

wrapped in a blanket, is in a wheel chair, talking to Thompson. They

are on the flat roof of a hospital. Other people in wheel chairs can

be seen in the background, along with a nurse or two. They are all

sunning themselves.



THOMPSON

Mr. Leland, you were -



LELAND

You don't happen to have a cigar,

do you? I've got a young physician

- must remember to ask to see his

license - the odds are a hundred to

one he hasn't got one - who thinks

I'm going to stop smoking... I

changed the subject, didn't I? Dear,

dear! What a disagreeable old man

I've become. You want to know what I

think of Charlie Kane? Well - I suppose

he has some private sort of greatness.

But he kept it to himself.

(grinning)

He never - gave himself away - He

never gave anything away. He just -

left you a tip. He had a generous

mind. I don't suppose anybody ever had

so many opinions. That was because

he had the power to express them, and

Charlie lived on power and the excitement

of using it - But he didn't believe in

anything except Charlie Kane. He never

had a conviction in his life. I guess

he died without one - That must have

been pretty unpleasant. Of course, a

lot of us check out with no special

conviction about death. But we do know

what we're leaving ... we believe in

something.

(looks sharply at Thompson)

You're absolutely sure you haven't got

a cigar?



THOMPSON

Sorry, Mr. Leland.



LELAND

Never mind - Bernstein told you about

the first days at the office, didn't

he? Well, Charlie was a bad newspaper

man even then. He entertained his

readers, but he never told them the

truth.



THOMPSON

Maybe you could remember something

that -



LELAND

I can remember everything. That's

my curse, young man. It's the

greatest curse that's ever been

inflicted on the human race. Memory

- I was his oldest friend.

(slowly)

As far as I was concerned, he

behaved like swine. Maybe I wasnt'

his friend. If I wasn't, he never

had one. Maybe I was what nowadays

you call a stooge -



DISSOLVE OUT:



DISSOLVE IN:



INT. CITY ROOM - THE ENQUIRER - NIGHT - 1895



The party (previously shown in the Bernstein sequence).



We start this sequence toward the end of the former one, but from a

fresh angle, holding on Leland, who is at the end of the table. Kane

is heard off, making a speech.



KANE'S VOICE

Not one of you has been hired

because of his loyalty. It's your

talent I'm interested in. That talent

that's going to make the "Enquirer"

the kind of paper I want - the best

newspaper in the world!



Applause. During above, Bernstein has come to Leland's side.



BERNSTEIN

Isn't it wonderful? Such a party!



LELAND

Yes.



His tone causes Bernstein to look at him.



KANE'S VOICE

However, I think you'll agree we've

heard enough about newspapers and

the newspaper business for one night.



The above speeches are heard under the following dialogue.



BERNSTEIN

(to Leland)

What's the matter?



LELAND

Mr. Bernstein, these men who are now

with the "Enquirer" - who were with

the "Chronicle" until yesterday -

weren't they just as devoted to the

"Chronicle" kind of paper as they

are now to - our kind of paper?



BERNSTEIN

Sure. They're like anybody else.

They got work to do. They do it.

(proudly)

Only they happen to be the best men

in the business.



KANE

(finishing his speech)

There are other subjects in the world -



Kane whistles. The band and the chorus girls enter and hell breaks

loose all around Leland and Bernstein.



LELAND

(after a minute)

Do we stand for the same things

that the "Chronicle" stands for,

Mr. Bernstein?



BERNSTEIN

(indignantly)

Certainly not. So what's that got

to do with it? Mr. Kane, he'll

have them changed to his kind of

newspapermen in a week.



LELAND

Probably. There's always a chance,

of course, that they'll change Mr.

Kane - without his knowing it.



Kane has come up to Leland and Bernstein. He sits down next to them,

lighting a cigarette.



KANE

Well, gentlemen, are we going to

war?



LELAND

Our readers are, anyway, I don't

know about the rest of the country.



KANE

(enthusiastically)

It'll be our first foreign war in

fifty years, Brad. We'll cover it

the way the "Hickville Gazette" covers

the church social! The names of

everybody there; what they wore; what

they ate; who won the prizes; who

gave the prizes -

(gets excited)

I tell you, Brad, I envy you.

(quoting)

By Bradford Leland, the "Enquirer's"

Special Correspondent at the Front.

I'm almost tempted -



LELAND

But there is no Front, Charlie.

There's a very doubtful civil war.

Besides, I don't want the job.



KANE

All right, Brad, all right - you

don't have to be a war correspondent

unless you want to - I'd want to.

(looking up)

Hello, Georgie.



Georgie, a very handsome madam has walked into the picture, stands

behind him. She leans over and speaks quietly in his ear.



GEORGIE

Is everything the way you want it,

dear?



KANE

(looking around)

If everybody's having fun, that's

the way I want it.



GEORGIE

I've got some other little girls

coming over -



LELAND

(interrupting)

Charles, I tell you there is no war!

There's a condition that should be

remedied - but between that and a -



KANE

(seriously)

How would the "Enquirer" look with

no news about this non-existent war

- with Benton, Pulitzer and Heart

devoting twenty columns a day to it?



LELAND

They do it only because you do!



KANE

(grins)

And I do it because they do it, and

they do it - it's a vicious circle,

isn't it?

(rises)

I'm going over to Georgie's, Brad -

you know, Georgie, don't you?



Leland nods.



GEORGIE

(over Kane's next lines)

Glad to meet you, Brad.



Leland shudders.



KANE

I told you about Brad, Georgie.

He needs to relax.



Brad doesn't answer.



KANE

Some ships with wonderful wines

have managed to slip through the

enemy fleet that's blockading New

York harbor -

(grins)

Georgie knows a young lady whom I'm

sure you'd adore - wouldn't he,

Georgie? Why only the other evening

I said to myself, if Brad were only

here to adore this young lady - this -

(snaps his fingers)

What's her name again?



DISSOLVE OUT:



DISSOLVE IN:



INT. GEORGIE'S PLACE - NIGHT - 1895



Georgie is introducing a young lady to Branford Leland. On sound

track we hear piano music.



GEORGIE

(right on cue from

preceding scene)

Ethel - this gentlemen has been

very anxious to meet you - This

is Ethel.



ETHEL

Hello, Mr. Leland.



Camera pans to include Kane, seated at piano, with girls gathered

around him.



ONE OF THE GIRLS

Charlie! Play the song about you.



ANOTHER GIRL

Is there a song about Charlie?



Kane has broken into "Oh, Mr. Kane!" and Charlie and the girls start

to sing. Ethel leads the unhappy Leland over to the group. Kane,

seeing Leland and taking his eye, motions to the professor who has

been standing next to him to take over. The professor does so. The

singing continues. Kane rises and crosses to Leland.



KANE

Say, Brad.

(draws him slightly aside)

I've got an idea.



LELAND

Yes?



KANE

I mean I've got a job for you.



LELAND

Good.



KANE

You don't want to be a war

correspondent - how about being a

dramatic critic?



LELAND

(sincerely, but not

gushing; seriously)

I'd like that.



Kane starts quietly to dance in time to the music. Leland smiles at

him.



KANE

You start tomorrow night. Richard

Carl in "The Spring Chicken."

(or supply show)

I'll get us some girls. You get

tickets. A drama critic gets them

free, you know.

(grins)

Rector's at seven?



LELAND

Charlie -



KANE

Yes?



LELAND

(still smiling)

It doesn't make any difference about

me, but one of these days you're

going to find out that all this

charm of yours won't be enough -



KANE

(has stopped dancing)

You're wrong. It does make a

difference to you - Rector's,

Brad?

(starts to dance again)

Come to think of it, I don't blame

you for not wanting to be a war

correspondent. You won't miss

anything. It isn't much of a war.

Besides, they tell me there isn't

a decent restaurant on the whole

island.



DISSOLVE OUT:



DISSOLVE IN:



INT. RECTOR'S - NIGHT - 1898



Leland, Kane, two young ladies at Rector's. Popular music is heard

over the soundtrack. Everybody is laughing very, very hard at

something Kane has said. The girls are hysterical. Kane can hardly

breathe. As Leland's laughter becomes more and more hearty, it only

increases the laughter of the others.



DISSOLVE:



EXT. CUNARD LOCKS - GANGPLANK AND DECK OF BOAT - NIGHT - 1900



As told by Bernstein. Kane is calling down to Leland and Bernstein

(as before).



KANE

You don't expect me to keep any

of those promises, do you?



A band on deck strikes up "Auld Lang Syne" and further ship-to-shore

conversation is rendered unfeasible.



Bernstein and Leland on deck.



BERNSTEIN

(turns to Leland)

Do you, Mr. Leland?



LELAND

(smiling)

Certainly not.



Slight pause. They continue on their way.



BERNSTEIN

Mr. Leland, why didn't you go to

Europe with him? He wanted you

to. He said to me just yesterday -



LELAND

I wanted him to have fun - and with

me along -



This stops Bernstein. Bernstein looks at him.



LELAND

Mr. Bernstein, I wish you'd let me

ask you a few questions, and answer

me truthfully.



BERNSTEIN

Don't I always? Most of the time?



LELAND

Mr. Bernstein, am I a stuffed shirt?

Am I a horse-faced hypocrite? Am I

a New England school-marm?



BERNSTEIN

Yes.



Leland is surprised.



BERNSTEIN

If you thought I'd answer different

from what Mr. Kane tells you - well,

I wouldn't.



LELAND

(good naturedly)

You're in a conspiracy against me,

you two. You always have been.



BERNSTEIN

Against me there should be such a

conspiracy some time!



He pauses. "Auld Lang Syne" can still be heard from the deck of the

department steamer.



BERNSTEIN

(with a hopeful look in

his eyes)

Well, he'll be coming back in September.

The Majestic. I got the reservations.

It gets in on the ninth.



LELAND

September the ninth?



Leland puts his hand in his pocket, pulls out a pencil and small

engagement book, opens the book and starts to write.



Leland's pencil writing on a page in the engagement book open to

September 9: "Rector's - 8:30 p.m."



DISSOLVE:



Front page "Enquirer." Large picture of the young couple - Kane and

Emily - occupying four columns - very happy.



EXT. HOSPITAL ROOF - DAY - 1940



Leland and Thompson. Leland is speaking as we dissolve.



LELAND

I used to go to dancing school with

her.



Thompson had handed Leland a paper.



LELAND

What's this?



THOMPSON

It's a letter from her lawyers.



LELAND

(reading aloud from

the letter)

David, Grobleski & Davis - My

dear Rawlston -

(looks up)



THOMPSON

Rawlston is my boss.



LELAND

Oh, yes. I know about Mr. Rawlston.



THOMPSON

He knows the first Mrs. Kane socially

- That's the answer we got.



LELAND

(reading)

I am in receipt of your favor of

yesterday. I beg you to do me the

courtesy of accepting my assurance

that Mrs. Whitehall cannot be induced

to contribute any more information

on the career of Charles Foster Kane.

She has authorized me to state on

previous occasions that she regards

their brief marriage as a distateful

episode in her life that she prefers

to forget. With assurances of the

highest esteem -



Leland hands the paper back to Thompson.



LELAND

Brief marriage! Ten years!

(sighs)



THOMPSON

Was he in love?



LELAND

He married for love -

(a little laugh)

That's why he did everything. That's

why he went into politics. It seems

we weren't enough. He wanted all the

voters to love him, too. All he

really wanted out of life was love.

That's Charlie's story - it's the

story of how he lost it. You see, he

just didn't have any to give. He

loved Charlie Kane, of course, very

dearly - and his mother, I guess he

always loved her. As for Emily -

well, all I can tell you is Emily's

story as she told it to me, which

probably isn't fair - there's supposed

to be two sides to every story - and

I guess there are. I guess there's

more than two sides -



DISSOLVE OUT:



DISSOLVE IN:



Newspaper - Kane's marriage to Emily with still of group on White

House lawn, same setup as early newsreel in News Digest.



DISSOLVE:



Screaming headline:



OIL SCANDAL!



DISSOLVE:



Headline reading:



KANE TO SEE PRESIDENT



DISSOLVE:



Big headline on "Enquirer" front page which reads:



KANE TO SEE PRESIDENT



Under this, one of those big box signed editorials, typical of Kane,

illustrated, on subject of the power of the president, expressed in

about nine different cases of type, and illustrated by a cartoon of

the White House, on which camera tightens, as we -



DISSOLVE OUT:



DISSOLVE IN:



INT. THE WHITE HOUSE - THE PRESIDENT'S EXECUTIVE OFFICE - DAY - 1900



This scene is shot so as never to show the President - or at least

never his face. There is present the President's Secretary, sitting

on one side of the desk, intently taking notes. Kane is on his feet,

in front of the desk, tense and glaring.



THE PRESIDENT

It is the unanimous opinion of my

Cabinent - in which I concur - that

the proposed leases are in the best

interests of the Governement and the

people.

(pauses)

You are not, I hope, suggesting that

these interests are not indentical?



KANE

I'm not suggesting anything, Mr.

President! I've come here to tell

you that, unless some action is taken

promptly - and you are the only one

who can take it - the oil that is the

property of the people of this country

will be turned over for a song to a

gang of high-pressure crooks!



THE PRESIDENT

(calmly)

I must refuse to allow you to continue

in this vein, Mr. Kane.



KANE

(screaming)

It's the only vein I know. I tell

the facts the way I see them. And

any man that knows that facts -



THE PRESIDENT

I know the facts, Mr. Kane. And I

happen to have the incredible insolence

to differ with you as to what they

mean.

(pause)

You're a man of great talents, Mr. Kane.



KANE

Thanks.



THE PRESIDENT

I understand that you have political

ambitions. Unfortunately, you seem

incapable of allowing any other opinion

but your own -



KANE

(building to a frenzy)

I'm much obliged, Mr. President, for

your concern about me. However, I

happen to be concerned at this moment

with the matter of extensive oil

lands belonging to the people of the

United States, and I say that if this

lease goes through, the property of

the people of the United States goes

into the hands of -



THE PRESIDENT

(interrupting)

You've made your point perfectly clear,

Mr. Kane. Good day.



The Secretary rises. Kane, with every bit of will power remotely at

his disposal to control what might become an hysterical outburst,

manages to bow.



KANE

Mr. President.



He starts out of the office.



DISSOLVE:



INT. COMPOSING ROOM - ENQUIRER - NIGHT - 1902



Kane, Reilly, Leland and a composing room Foreman, in working clothes,

bending over a table with several forms of type. They are looking, at

this moment, at a made-up headline - but Kane's back is in the way ...

so we can't read it.



FOREMAN

How about it, Mr. Kane?



Reilly glances at his wrist watch and makes a face. Kane smiles as he

notices this.



KANE

All right. Let her slide!



He turns away, and we can now read the headline.



Insert of the headline, which reads:



"OIL THEFT BECOMES LAW AS

PRESIDENT WITHOLDS VETO"



DISSOLVE:



Here follows a quick montage (presently to be worked out) of no more

than four or five images in which the President, by means of cartoons,

editorials, headlines (all faithfully reproduced from period yellow

journalism) is violently attacked. The montage ends on the word

TREASON. The music cuts.



A hand reaches in a side pocket which contains a newspaper -

recognizably the "Enquirer." The hand removes a gun. The gun is

shot. Many arms seize the hand which is pulled up - gun still firing.

As the arm is raised in the air, we see that the other arms holding

the arm and struggling with it are uniformed, and we see the White

House beyond.



DISSOLVE:



News ticker which

[Lully]

News ticker which is spelling out the words:



"ASSASSINATED 7:45 P.M."



NOTE: Under the following - a down shot, below the "Enquirer," shows

a crowd forming, looking angrily up toward the camera. Crowd noises

on the soundtrack under music.



A hand snatches the ticker tape away and as the image of the crowd

dissolves out, we pull back to show:



INT. OF KANE'S OFFICE - NIGHT - 1902



The ticker tape is in Reilly's hand. Reilly has a phone to his ear.



REILLY

Looks bad for us, Mr. Kane. How

shall we handle it?



DISSOLVE OUT:



DISSOLVE IN:



INT. GEORGIE'S PLACE - 1902



Kane in shirtsleeves at phone.



KANE

It's a news story! Get it on

the street!



DISSOLVE:



Headline under "Enquirer" masthead which reads:



"PRESIDENT ASSASSINATED"



A newsboy is crying the headline at the same time. We pull back to

show him and -



DISSOLVE:



INT. THEATRE - NIGHT



The camera is in tight on a box which contains Emily and distinguished

elderly ladies and gentlemen, obviously family and friends. On the

soundtrack, very limpid opera music. Another elderly gent, in white

tie but still wearing an overcoat, comes into the box and whispers to

Emily. He has a copy of the "Enquirer" in his hand. Emily rises. He

shows the paper to her.



DISSOLVE:



EXT. STREET OUTSIDE ENQUIRER BUILDING - NIGHT - 1902



An angry crowd seen from the window of Kane's office. They make a

deep threatening sound which is audible during the following scene.

Across the heads of the crowd are two great squares of light from the

windows above them. One of these disappears as the blind is pulled.

As the dissolve completes itself, the second square of light commences

to reduce in size, and then the entire street is cut off by a blind

which Leland pulls down, covering the entire frame.



INT. KANE'S OFFICE - ENQUIRER - NIGHT - 1902



The staff standing around, worried to death, in their shirtsleeves.



KANE

(to Reilly)

Take dictation - Front page

editorial - "This afternoon a

great man was assassinated. He

was the President of the United

States -"



LELAND

Charlie -



KANE

Yes?



LELAND

Do you think you're the one who

should call him a great man?



KANE

Why not?



LELAND

Why not? Well - nobody's a great

man in your estimation until he's

dead.



REILLY

(quickly)

Maybe we'd better wait for more

word on the President's condition.



KANE

(still looking at Leland)

What do you mean by that?



LELAND

(quietly)

Competition.



REILLY

He may recover -



KANE

(still holding on Leland)

What do you mean by that?



LELAND

(steadily)

Yesterday morning you called the

President a traitor. What do you

think that crowd is doing down

there? They think you murdered him.



KANE

Because the crackpot who did it

had a copy of the "Enquirer" in his

pocket?



LELAND

- and that copy of the "Enquirer"

said the President should be killed.



KANE

I said treason was a capital offense

punishable by death -



LELAND

You've said a lot of things about

the President in the last few months.



KANE

They're true! Everything I said!

Witholding that veto was treason!



LELAND

(interrupting)

Charlie!



KANE

(riding over him)

Oil belonging to the people of the

United States was leased out for a

song to a gang of high-pressure

crooks - Nobody can blame me because -



LELAND

Look out that window.



Kane stops - looks at him.



LELAND

There are the people of the United

States, and they are blaming you -

Oh, I know it doesn't make any sense,

but at least you can learn a lesson

from it.



KANE

(snarling)

What lesson? Not to expose fraud

when I see it? Not to fight for the

right of the people to own their own

property?

(he turns to Reilly)

Run it the way I said, Reilly - "This

afternoon a great man was assassinated -"



LELAND

Charlie! Now you're not making sense.



KANE

(sharply)

I don't have to. I run a newspaper

with half a million readers and

they're getting a martyred president

this morning with their breakfast.

I can't help that. Besides, they all

know I'm married to his niece. I've

got to think of her.



LELAND

What?



KANE

I've got to think of Emily -



LELAND

(after a silence)

I'd like to talk to you about that.



KANE

Go ahead.



Leland looks back at Kane, is conscious of the boys standing around.



LELAND

Finish your editorial.



Leland walks out in to the City Room. More staff members in shirt

sleeves in a state of panic. Leland goes to his desk, takes out a

bottle, pours himself a very stiff drink. A door opens. A Policeman

enters with Bernstein. Bernstein is badly battered. The boys crowd

around.



LELAND

(worried)

What's happened?



BERNSTEIN

(smiling)

I'm all right, Mr. Leland. Only

there was some fellows out front

that thought they ought to take

things up with me. I learned 'em!

Didn't I, officer?



THE COP

(grinning)

You sure did - Say, the Commissioner

said I was to stand by and protect

Mr. Kane until further orders, no

matter how he felt about it. Where

is he?



LELAND

(finishing his drink)

In there.



BERNSTEIN

If you hadn't come along and

protected me when you did, I'd have

killed them fellows.



LELAND

(pouring himself another

drink)

Go and get yourself washed up, Mr.

Bernstein.

(he looks his face over

thoroughly)

There doesn't seem to be an serious

injury.



BERNSTEIN

Not to me. But you will let that

cop go home with Mr. Kane, won't you?



LELAND

Yes, Mr. Bernstein.



Bernstein leaves the picture with sympathetic attendance. Leland

finishes his second drink.



DISSOLVE:



INT. KANE'S OFFICE - NIGHT - 1902



The bottle is finished. The door in the Sanctrum opens. Reilly and

the others leave.



REILLY

(as they go)

Goodnight, Mr. Kane.



Kane stands in the door, waiting for Leland. Leland gets up and moves

toward the office - goes in, sits down across from Kane at the desk.

An uncomfortable pause. Then Kane smiles ingratiatingly. Leland

tries to cope with this.



LELAND

First of all -

(he can't go on)



KANE

(not cruelly -

genuinely kind)

What's wrong, Brad?



LELAND

I'm drunk.



KANE

I'll get you some coffee.



He rises and goes to the door.



LELAND

First of all, I will not write a

good review of a play because

somebody paid a thousand dollars

for an advertisement in the

"Enquirer."



KANE

(gently - opening the

door)

That's just a little promotion scheme.

Nobody expects you -

(calling)

Mike, will you try and get Mr. Leland

some coffee?



MIKE'S VOICE

Sure thing, Mr. Kane.



Kane turns back to Leland. Leland doesn't look up at him.



LELAND

Charlie, it's just no go. We

can't agree anymore. I wish you'd

let me go to Chicago.



KANE

Why, Brad?



LELAND

I want to be transferred to the new

paper. You've been saying yourself

you wish you had somebody to -

(he is heartsick, inarticulate)

That's not what I wanted to talk

about.



Kane goes around behind the desk and sits down.



KANE

I'll tell you what I'll do, Brad -

I'll get drunk, too - maybe that'll

help.



LELAND

No, that won't help. Besides, you

never get drunk. I wanted to talk

about you and Emily.



Kane looks at Leland sharply before he speaks.



KANE

(quietly)

All right.



LELAND

(without looking at him)

She's going to leave you -



KANE

I don't think so, Brad. We've

just had word that the President

is out of danger.

(ruefully)

It seems I didn't kill him after all.



LELAND

(takes his eye)

She was going to leave you anyway -



Kane takes this in.



LELAND

Emily's going south next week with

the child. As far as anybody's to

know, it's a holiday. When they get

back -

[Lully]

KANE

(sharply)

Brad, you are drunk.



LELAND

Sure I am. She wants full custody

of the child no matter what happens.

If you won't agree to that, she'll

apply for a divorce regardless of

the President's wishes. I can't tell

her she's wrong, because she isn't

wrong -



KANE

Why is she leaving me?



LELAND

(it's very hard for him

to say all this)

She hasn't any friends left sine

you started this oil business, and

she never sees you.



KANE

Do you think the "Enquirer" shouldn't

have campaigned against the oil leases?



LELAND

(hesitating)

You might have made the whole thing

less personal!



No answer from Kane.



LELAND

It isn't just that the President

was her uncle - everyone she knows,

all the people she's been brought

up with, everything she's ever been

taught to believe is important -



Still no answer from Kane.



LELAND

There's no reason why this - this

savage personal note -



KANE

The personal note is all there is

to it. It's all there ever is to

it. It's all there every is to

anything! Stupidity in our government,

complacency and self-satisfaction

and unwillingness to believe that

anything done by a certain class of

people can be wrong - you can't

fight those things impersonally.

They're not impersonal crimes against

people. They're being done by actual

persons - with actual names and

positions and - the right of the

American people to own their own

country is not an academic issue, Brad,

that you debate - and then the judges

retire to return a verdict and the

winners give a dinner for the losers.



LELAND

You almost convince me.

(rising)

I'm just drunk enough to tell you the

truth. I have to be a little drunk

for that because I'm a coward. You

know that. That's why you keep me

around.

(smiles)

You only associate with your inferiors,

Charlie. I guess that's why you ran

away from Emily. Because you can't

stand the company of your equals. You

don't like to admit they exist - the

other big people in your world are dead.

I told you that.



Kane looks at Leland, but Leland can't be stopped now. He speaks very

quietly - no poison in his voice - no personal indignation - as though

he were explaining the nature of a disease.



LELAND

You talk about the people of the

United States as though they

belonged to you. When you find

out they don't think they are,

you'll lose interest. You talk about

giving them their rights as though

you could make a present of liberty.

Remember the working man? You used

to defend him quite a good deal.

Well, he's turning into something

called organized labor and you don't

like that at all. And listen, when

your precious underprivileged really

get together - that's going to add

up to something bigger than - than

your privilege and then I don't know

what you'll do - sail away to a desert

island, probably, and lord it over the

monkeys.



KANE

Are you finished?



LELAND

Yes.

(looking down)

Now, will you let me go to Chicago?



KANE

(with a little smile)

You're not going to like it in

Chicago. They wind comes howling

in from the lake. And there's

practically no opera season at all -

and the Lord only knows whether

they've ever heard of Lobster Newburg -



LELAND

That's all right.

(he won't be charmed

out of his duty)

What are you going to do about Emily?



KANE

(his face hardning a

little)

Nothing - if she dosen't love me -



Leland has risen. He speaks as he turns away, starting towards the

door.



LELAND

You want love on your own terms,

don't you, Charlie -

(he stops - his back

turned to Kane)

Love according to your own rules.

And if anything goes wrong and

you're hurt - then the game stops,

and you've got to be soothed and

nursed, no matter what else is

happening - and no matter who else

is hurt!



KANE

It's simpler than that, Brad. A

society girl can't stand the gaff,

that's all. Other things are

important to her - social position,

what they're saying on the front

porches at Southampton, is it going

to be embarrassing to meet somebody

or the other at dinner -



Leland has turned, taking his eye again. Now Kane stops and smiles.



KANE

She can leave me. As a matter of

fact, I've already left her. Don't

worry, Brad - I'll live.



LELAND

I know you will.



KANE

(with all his charm)

Hey, Brad! I've been analyzed an

awful lot tonight - let's have

another brandy.



Leland shakes his head. Kane lifts his glass.



KANE

To love on my terms. Those are

the only terms anybody knows ...

his own.



DISSOLVE:



EXT. ENQUIRER BUILDING - NIGHT - 1902



Kane, Leland, and a couple of policemen make their way out of the

front toward a hansom cab.



A VOICE FROM

THE CROWD

You moiderer!



A rock is thrown. It hits Leland on the face. A little blood flows.

Kane doesn't see it at first. Then when he's in the hansom cab, he

turns and notices it.



KANE

Are you hurt?



Leland has a handkerchief to his face.



LELAND

No. I wish you'd go home to Emily.

She'll be pretty upset by all this -

She still loves you -



The crowd, pushed by the cops, retreats in the background, but still

hard by.



KANE

You still want to be transferred

to the other paper?



LELAND

Yes.



KANE

(leaning out of the

hansom cab)

Well, you've been getting a pretty

low salary here in New York. It

seems to me that the new dramatic

critic of our Chicago paper should

get what he's worth.

(almost as a question)



LELAND

(with handkerchief still

attached to his face)

I couldn't possibly live on as

little as that, Charlie. We'll let

the salary stay where it is.



The hansom cab starts up. We hold on Leland's face as we



DISSOLVE OUT:



DISSOLVE IN:



INT. KANE'S NEW YORK HOME - KANE'S BEDROOM - EARLY MORNING - 1902



Emily is in bed, a damp cloth over her temples. Kane is standing at

the foot of the bed. The baby's bed is in a corner of the room. The

baby's nurse is standing near the crib, a nurse for Emily is near her.

Kane is looking fixedly on Emily, who is staring tiredly at the

ceiling.

[Lully]

KANE

(to the nurse)

Excuse us a moment, please.



The nurse looks at Emily.



KANE

(peremptorily)

I said, excuse us a moment.



The nurse, unwilling, leaves.



KANE

I've been talking to Leland. Emily -

You can't leave me now - not now -



Silence.



KANE

It isn't what it would do to my

changes in politics, Emily - That

isn't it - They were talking of

running me for governor, but now,

of course, we'll have to wait -

It isn't that, Emily - It's just -

the president is your uncle and

they're saying I killed him.



Still silence.



KANE

That story about the murderer having

a copy of the "Enquirer" in his

pocket - the "Chronicle" made that up

out of whole cloth - Emily, please -

He's going to be all right, you know,

he's going to recover -

(bitterly)

If it will make you any happier, we

had nine pages of advertising

cancelled in the first mail this

morning. Bernstein is afraid to open

any more letters. He -



He stops. He sees that he's getting no place with Emily.



KANE

(exasperated)

What do you expect me to do? What

in the world -



EMILY

(weakly)

Charles.



He waits for her to continue.



EMILY

Do you really think -

(she can't continue)

Those threatening letters, can

they really -



She sits up and looks at the crib. She almost continues to look at

the crib, with almost unseeing eyes.



KANE

(uncomfortably)

They won't do anything to Junior,

darling.

(contemptuously)

Anonymous letter writers - I've

got guards in front of the house,

and I'm going to arrange -



EMILY

(turning her face

toward him)

Please don't talk any more, Charles.



Kane is about to say something, but bites his lips instead. Emily

keeps staring at him.



EMILY

Have they heard from father yet?

Has he seen -



KANE

I've tried to tell you, Emily.

The President's going to be all

right. He had a comfortable night.

There's no danger of any kind.



Emily nods several times. There is an uncomforable silence. Suddenly

there is a cry from the crib. Emily leaps from the bed and rushes to

him. She bends over the crib.



EMILY

(murmuring)

Here I am, darling... Darling!...

Darling, it's all right... Mother's

here.



KANE

Emily - you musn't leave me now -

you can't do that to me.



EMILY

They won't hurt you, darling.

Mother's with you! Mother's looking

after you!



Kane, unwanted, ignored, looks on. Tightening his lips, he walks out.



DISSOLVE OUT:



DISSOLVE IN:



INT. KANE'S OFFICE - NIGHT



By the desk light, Kane is seen working with his usual intensity,

Reilly standing beside him at the desk.



KANE

We'll withdraw support completely.

Anything else?



REILLY

Mr. Leland sent back that check.



KANE

What check?



REILLY

You made it out to him last week

after he left for Chicago.



KANE

Oh, yes, the bonus.



REILLY

It was for twenty-five thousand

dollars.



Kane is perplexed and worried, but we can see in a moment his mind

will be on something else.



REILLY

He sent it back torn up - all

torn up into little bits, and

he enclosed something else - I

can't make it out.



Kane doesn't answer. Reilly goes on. He has brought out a piece of

paper and is reading it.



REILLY

It says here, "A Declaration of

Principles" -

(he still reads)

"I will provide the people of this

city with a daily paper that will

tell all the news honestly" -



Kane has looked up sharply. Reilly, sensing his look, stops reading

and meets his eye. Slowly, Kane reaches out his hand. Reilly hands

him the piece of paper. Without reading it, Kane tears it up, throws

it into the wastebasket at his side.



DISSOLVE:



INT. MADISON SQUARE GARDEN - NIGHT - 1910



The evening of the final great rally. These shots remind us of and

are identical with and supplementary to the "News Digest" scenes

earlier. The vast auditorium with a huge picture of Kane, cheering

crowds, etc. Emily and Junior are to be seen in the front of a box.

Emily is tired and wears a forced smile on her face. Junior, now aged

nine and a half, is eager, bright-eyed and excited. Kane is just

finishing his speech.



KANE

It is no secret that I entered

upon this campaign with no thought

that I could be elected Governor of

this state! It is now no secret that

every straw vote, every independent

pole, shows that I will be elected.

And I repeat to you - my first official

act as Governor will be to appoint a

special District Attorney to arrange

for the indictment, prosecution and

conviction of Boss Edward G. Rogers!



Terrific screaming and cheering from the audience.



DISSOLVE OUT:



INT. MADISON SQUARE GARDEN - NIGHT - 1910



The Speaker's Platform. Numerous officials and civic leaders are

crowding around Kane. Cameramen take flash photographs with

old-fashioined flash powder.



FIRST CIVIC LEADER

Great speech, Mr. Kane.



SECOND LEADER

(pompous)

One of the most notable public

utterances ever made by a candidate

in this state -



KANE

Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you.



He looks up and notices that the box in which Emily and the boy were

sitting is now empty. He starts toward the rear of the platform,

through the press of people, Reilly approaches him.



REILLY

A wonderful speech, Mr. Kane.



Kane pats him on the shoulder as he walks along.



REILLY

I just got word from Buffalo, Mr.

Kane. They're going to throw you

the organization vote - and take a

chance maybe you'll give them a

break -



This is said almost inquiringly, as if he were hoping that Kane would

give him some assurance that McDonald is not making a mistake. There

is no answer from Kane.



REILLY

On an independent ticket there's

never been anything like it! If

the election were held today, you'd

be elected by a hundred thousand

votes - and every day between now

and November 7th is just going to

add to your majority.



Kane is very pleased. He continues with Reilly slowly through the

crowd - a band playing off. Bernstein joins him.



KANE

It does seem too good to be true,

doesn't it, Mr. Bernstein?



REILLY

Rogers isn't even pretending. He

isn't just scared anymore. He's

sick. Frank Norris told me last

night he hasn't known Rogers to be

that worried in twenty-five years.



KANE

I think it's beginning to dawn on

Mr. Rogers that I mean what I say.

With Mr. Rogers out of the way, Reilly,

I think we may really begin to hope

for a good government in this state.

(stopping)

Well, Mr. Bernstein?



BERNSTEIN

(clearly not meaning it)

It's wonderful, Mr. Kane. Wonderful.

Wonderful.



KANE

You don't really think so?



BERNSTEIN

I do. I do. I mean, since you're

running for Governor - and you want

to be elected - I think it's wonderful

you're going to be elected. Only -

(interrupts himself)

- Can I say something?



KANE

Please, Mr. Bernstein.



BERNSTEIN

Well, the way I look at it -

(comes out with it)

- You want to know what I really

think would be wonderful?



Kane indicates he is to proceed.



BERNSTEIN

Well, you're running for Governor

and going to be elected - my idea

is how wonderful it would be if you

don't run at all and don't get

elected.



DISSOLVE:



EXT. ONE OF THE EXITS - MADISON SQUARE GARDEN - NIGHT - 1910



Emily and Junior are standing, waiting for Kane.



JUNIOR

Is Pop Governor yet, Mom?



Just then, Kane appears, with Reilly and several other men. Kane

rushes toward Emily and Junior, as the men politely greet Emily.



KANE

Hello, Butch! Did you like your

old man's speech?



JUNIOR

Hello, Pop! I was in a box. I

could hear every word.



KANE

I saw you!

(he has his arm around

Junior's shoulder)

Good night, gentlemen.



There are good nights. Kane's car is at the curb and he starts to

walk toward it with Junior and Emily.



EMILY

I'm sending Junior home in the

car, Charles - with Oliver -



KANE

But I'd arranged to go home with

you myself.



EMILY

There's a call I want you to

make with me, Charles.



KANE

It can wait.



EMILY

No, it can't.

(she bends down and

kisses Junior)

Good night, darling.



JUNIOR

Good night, Mom.



The driver is holding the rear door open as Emily guides Junior in.



KANE

(as car starts to

drive off)

What's this all about, Emily? I've

had a very tiring day and -



EMILY

It may not be about anything at all.



A cab has pulled up.



THE DRIVER

Cab?



Emily nods to him.



EMILY

I intend to find out.



KANE

I insist on being told exactly what

you have in mind.



EMILY

I'm going to -

(she looks at a slip

of paper in her hand)

- 185 West 74th Street.



Kane's reaction indicates that the address definitely means something

to him.



EMILY

If you wish, you can come with me...



Kane nods.



KANE

I'll go with you.



He opens the door and she enters the cab. He follows her.



DISSOLVE:



INT. CAB - NIGHT - 1910



Kane and Emily. He looks at her, in search of some kind of

enlightenment. Her face is set and impassive.



DISSOLVE:



EXT. AND INT. APARTMENT HOUSE HALLWAY - NIGHT - 1910



Kane and Emily, in front of an apartment door. Emily is pressing the

bell.



KANE

I had no idea you had this flair

for melodrama, Emiliy.



Emily does not answer. The door is opened by a maid, who recognizes

Kane.



THE MAID

Come in, Mr. Kane, come in.



They enter, Emily first.



INT. SUSAN'S APARTMENT - NIGHT - 1910



There is first a tiny reception room, through which an open door shows

the living room. Kane and Emily enter from the hallway and cross to

the living room. As they enter, Susan rises from a chair. The other

person in the room - a big, heavyset man, a little past middle age -

stays where he is, leaning back in his chair, regarding Kane intently.



SUSAN

It wasn't my fault, Charlie. He

made me send your wife a note.

He said I'd - oh, he's been saying

the most terrible things, I didn't

know what to do... I -

(she catches sight of Emily)



ROGERS

Good evening, Mr. Kane.

(he rises)

I don't suppose anybody would

introduce us. Mrs. Kane, I am

Edward Rogers.



EMILY

How do you do?

(pauses)

I came here - and I made Mr. Kane

come with me...

(she consults the note

in her hand without

reading it again)

because I recieved this note -



ROGERS

I made Miss - Miss Alexander send

you the note. She was a little

unwilling at first -

(he smiles grimly)

but she did it.



SUSAN

I can't tell you the things he

said, Charlie. You haven't got

any idea -



KANE

(turning on Rogers)

Rogers, I don't think I will

postpone doing something about

you until I'm elected.

(he starts toward him)

To start with, I'll break your neck.



ROGERS

(not giving way an inch)

Maybe you can do it and maybe you

can't, Mr. Kane.



EMILY

Charles!

(he stops to look at her)

Your - your breaking this man's

neck -

(she is clearly disgusted)

would scarcely explain this note -

(glancing at the note)

Serious consequences for Mr. Kane -

(slowly)

for myself, and for my son. What

does this note mean, Miss -



SUSAN

(stiffly)

I'm Susan Alexander.

(pauses)

I know what you think, Mrs. Kane,

but -



EMILY

(ignoring this)

What does this note mean, Miss

Alexander?



ROGERS

She doesn't know, Mrs. Kane. She

just sent it - because I made her

see it wouldn't be smart for her

not to send it.



KANE

In case you don't know, Emily,

this - this gentleman -

(he puts a world of

scorn into the word)

is -

[Lully]

ROGERS

I'm not a gentleman, Mrs. Kane,

and your husband is just trying

to be funny calling me one. I don't

even know what a gentleman is.

(tensely, with all the

hatred and venom in the

world)

You see, my idea of a gentleman, Mrs.

Kane - well, if I owned a newspaper

and if I didn't like the way somebody

else was doing things - some politican,

say - I'd fight them with everything

I had. Only I wouldn't show him in

a convict suit, with stripes - so his

children could see the picture in the

paper. Or his mother.

(he has to control himself

from hurling himself at Kane)

It's pretty clear - I'm not a gentleman.



EMILY

Oh!!



KANE

You're a cheap, crooked grafter -

and your concern for your children

and your mother -



ROGERS

Anything you say, Mr. Kane. Only

we're talking now about what you

are. That's what the note is about,

Mrs. Kane. Now I'm going to lay

all my cards on the table. I'm

fighting for my life. Not just my

political life. My life. If your

husband is elected governor -



KANE

I'm going to be elected governor.

And the first thing I'm going to

do -



EMILY

Let him finish, Charles.



ROGERS

I'm protecting myself every way I

know how, Mrs. Kane. This last

week, I finally found out how I can

stop your husband from being elected.

If the people of this state learn what

I found out this week, he wouldn't have

a chance to - he couldn't be elected

Dog Catcher. Well, what I'm interested

in is seeing that he's not elected. I

don't care whether they know what I

know about him. Let him keep right on

being the Great, Noble, Moral -

(he stresses the world)

Champeen of the people. Just as long

as -



EMILY

I think I understand, Mr. Rogers, but

I wonder if -

(she leaves her sentence

unfinished)



KANE

You can't blackmail me, Rogers, you

can't -



SUSAN

(excitedly)

Charlie, he said, unless you withdrew

your name -



ROGERS

That's the chance I'm willing to

give you, Mr. Kane. More of a

chance than you'd give me. Unless

you make up your mind by tomorrow

that you're so sick that you've got

to go away for a year or two - Monday

morning every paper in this State

will carry the story I'm going to give

them.



Kane starts to stare at him intently.



EMILY

What story, Mr. Rogers?



ROGERS

The story about him and Miss Alexander,

Mrs. Kane.



Emily looks at Kane.



SUSAN

There is no story. It's all lies.

Mr. Kane is just -



ROGERS

(to Susan)

Shut up!

(to Kane)

I've had a dozen men doing nothing

but run this thing down - we've got

evidence enough to - well, the

evidence would stand up in any court

of law. You want me to give you the

evidence, Mr. Kane?



KANE

You do anything you want to do.

The people of this state can decide

which one of us to trust. If you

want to know, they've already decided.

The election Tuesday'll be only -



ROGERS

Mrs. Kane, I'm not asking you to

believe me. I'd like to show you -



EMILY

You don't have to show me anything,

Mr. Rogers. I believe you.



ROGERS

I'd rather Mr. Kane withdrew without

having to get the story published.

Not that I care about him. But I'd

be better off that way -

(he pauses)

- and so would you, Mrs. Kane.



SUSAN

What about me?

(to Kane)

He said my name'd be dragged through

the mud. He said everywhere I'd go

from now on -



EMILY

There seems to be only one decision

you can make, Charles. I'd say that

it has been made for you.

(pauses)

I suppose the details can be arranged

tomorrow, Mr. Rogers. About the

statements by the doctors -



KANE

Have you gone completely mad, Emily?



Emily looks at him.



KANE

You don't think I'm going to let

this blackmailer intimidate me,

do you?



EMILY

I don't see what else you can do,

Charles. If he's right - and the

papers publish this story he has -



KANE

Oh, they'll publish it all right.

But that's not going to stop me -



EMILY

Charles, this - this story - doesn't

concern only you. I'll be in it,

too, won't I?

(quickly)

And Junior?



KANE

(squirming a bit)

I suppose so, but - I'm not afraid

of the story. You can't tell me

that the voters of this state -



EMILY

I'm not interested in the voters

of this state right now. I am

interested in - well, Junior, for

one thing.



SUSAN

Charlie! If they publish this

story -



EMILY

They won't. Goodnight, Mr. Rogers.

(she starts out)

There's nothing more to be said,

Charles.



KANE

Oh yes, there is.



EMILY

I don't think so. Are you coming,

Charles?



KANE

No.



She looks at him. He starts to work himself into a rage.



KANE

There's only one person in the

world to decide what I'm going

to do - and that's me. And if

you think - if any of you think -



EMILY

You decided what you were going

to do, Charles - some time ago.

(she looks at Susan)

You can't always have it your own

way, regardless of anything else

that may have happened.

(she sighs)

Come on, Charles.



KANE

Go on! Get out! I can fight this

thing all alone!



ROGERS

You're making a bigger fool of

yourself than I thought you would,

Mr. Kane. You're licked. Why don't

you -



KANE

(turning on him)

Get out! I've got nothing to talk

to you about. If you want to see

me, have the Warden write me a letter.



ROGERS

I see!

(he starts toward the door)



SUSAN

(starting to cry)

Charlie, you're just excited. You

don't realize -



KANE

I know exactly what I'm doing.

(he is screaming)

Get out!



EMILY

(quietly)

Charles, if you don't listen to

reason, it may be too late -



KANE

Too late for what? Too late for

you and this -

(he can't find the adjective)

this public thief to take the love

of the people of this state away

from me? Well, you won't do it,

I tell you. You won't do it!



SUSAN

Charlie, there are other things

to think of.

(a sly look comes into

her eyes)

Your son - you don't want him to

read in the papers -



EMILY

It is too late now, Charles.



KANE

(rushes to the door

and opens it)

Get out, both of you!



SUSAN

(rushes to him)

Charlie, please don't -



KANE

What are you waiting here for?

Why don't you go?



EMILY

Goodnight, Charles.



She walks out. Rogers stops as he gets directly in front of Kane.



ROGERS

You're the greatest fool I've

ever known, Kane. If it was

anybody else, I'd say what's

going to happen to you would be

a lesson to you. Only you're

going to need more than one lesson.

And you're going to get more than

one lesson.

(he walks past Kane)



KANE

Don't you worry about me. I'm

Charles Foster Kane. I'm no cheap,

crooked politician, trying to save

himself from the consequences of

his crimes -



INT. APARTMENT HOUSE HALLWAY - NIGHT - 1910



Camera angling toward Kane from other end of the hall. Rogers and

Emily are already down the hall, moving toward foreground. Kane in

apartment doorway background.



KANE

(screams louder)

I'm going to send you to Sing

Sing, Rogers. Sing Sing!



Kane is trembling with rage as he shakes his fist at Rogers's back.

Susan, quieter now, has snuggled into the hollow of his shoulder as

they stand in the doorway.



DISSOLVE:



The "Chronicle" front page with photograph (as in the "News Digest")

revealing Kane's relations with Susan.



DISSOLVE OUT:



DISSOLVE IN:



Front page of "Chronicle" - Headline which reads:



ROGERS ELECTED



DISSOLVE:



Front page of "Enquirer" - Headline which reads:



FRAUD AT POLLS



DISSOLVE:



INT. LIVING ROOM - NIGHT - 1910



Emily is opening the door for Leland.



EMILY

Hello, Brad -



LELAND

Emily -



He pauses. Leland comes in. Emily closes the door.



EMILY

I'm sorry I sent for you, Brad -

I didn't -



LELAND

Chicago is pretty close to New

York nowadays - only twenty hours -



She doesn't have anything to say.



LELAND

I'm glad to see you.



She smiles at him and we know that there isn't anybody else in the

world for her to smile at. She's too grateful to talk.



EMILY

Are all the returns in?



Leland puts his hat unconsciously on his coat by the newspaper.



EMILY

Let me see it.



Leland takes the newspaper out of his pocket and hands it to her. She

takes it. We see the headline, not an insert, but it registers. It

reads: "Fraud at Polls." Emily is looking at the paper with unseeing

eyes, and a little smile.



LELAND

(after a pause)

Almost two to one -



EMILY

I'm surprised he got the votes he

did.



LELAND

Emily!



EMILY

Why should anyone vote for him?

He's made it quite clear to the

people what he thinks of them.

Children - to be told one thing

one day, something else the next,

as the whim seizes him. And they're

supposed to be grateful and love

and adore him - because he sees to

it that they get cheap ice and only

pay a nickel in the street cars.



LELAND

Emily, you're being - a little

unfair - You know what I think of

Charles' behavior - about your

personal lives -



EMILY

There aren't any personal lives

for people like us. He made that

very clear to me nine years ago -

If I'd thought of my life with

Charles as a personal life, I'd

have left him then -



LELAND

I know that, Emily -



EMILY

(on top of Leland)

Maybe I should have - the first

time he showed me what a mad dog

he really was.



LELAND

(on the cue "dog")

Emily, you -



EMILY

Brad, I'm - I'm not an old woman

yet -



LELAND

It's - all over -



He stops himself.



EMILY

(after a pause)

I know it is, Brad -



LELAND

He's paying for it, Emily. Those

returns tonight - he's finished.

Politically -

(he thinks)

- socially, everywhere, I guess.

I don't know about the papers, but -



EMILY

If you're asking me to sympathize

with him, Brad, you're wasting

your time.

(pauses)

There's only one person I'm sorry

for, as a matter of fact. That -

that shabby little girl. I'm really

sorry for her, Brad.



DISSOLVE:



Front page Chicago "Enquirer," with photograph proclaiming that Susan

Alexander opens at new Chicago Opera House in "Thais," as in "News

Digest."



On soundtrack during above we hear the big, expectant murmur of an

opening night audience and the noodling of the orchestra.



DISSOLVE:



INT. CHICAGO OPERA HOUSE - NIGHT - SET FOR "THAIS" - 1914



The camera is just inside the curtain, angling upstage. We see the

set for "Thais" - the principals in place - stage managers, stage

hands, etc., and in the center of all this, in an elaborate costume,

looking very small and very lost, is Susan. She is almost hysterical

with fright. Maids, singing teacher, and the rest are in attendance.

Her throat is sprayed. Applause is heard at the opening of the shot,

and now the orchestra starts thunderously. The curtain starts to rise

- the camera with it - the blinding glare of the foots moves up

Susan's body and hits her face. She squints and starts to sing.

Camera continues on up with the curtain, up past Susan, up the full

height of the proscenium arch and then on up into the gridiron into a

world of ropes, brick walls and hanging canvas - Susan's voice still

heard - but faintly. The camera stops at the top of the gridiron as

the curtain stops. Two typical stage hands fill the frame. They are

looking down on the stage below. Some of the reflected light gleams

on their faces. They look at each other. One of them puts his hand

to his nose.



DISSOLVE OUT:



DISSOLVE IN:



INT. LELAND'S OFFICE - CHICAGO ENQUIRER - NIGHT - 1914



Leland, as in the same scene in the Bernstein sequence, is sprawled

across his typewriter, his head on the keys. The paper is gone from

the roller. Leland stirs and looks up drunkenly, his eyes

encountering Bernstein, who stands beside him (also as in the previous

scene).



BERNSTEIN

Hello, Mr. Leland.



LELAND

Hello, Bernstein.



Leland makes a terrific effort to pull himself together. He

straightens and reaches for the keys - then sees the paper is gone

from the machine.



LELAND

Where is it - where's my notice?

I've got to finish it!



BERNSTEIN

(quietly)

Mr. Kane is finishing it.



LELAND

Kane? Charlie?

(painfully, he rises

to his feet)

Where is he?



During all this, the sound of a typewriter has been heard off - a busy

typewriter. Leland's eyes follow the sound. Slowly he registers Kane

in the City Room beyond. This is almost the same shot as in the

previous Bernstein story.



INT. CITY ROOM - CHICAGO ENQUIRER - NIGHT - 1914



Kane, in white tie and shirt sleeves, is typing away at a machine, his

fingers working briskly and efficiently, his face, seen by the desk

light before him, set in a strange half-smile.



Leland stands in the door of his office, staring across at him.



LELAND

I suppose he's fixing it up - I

know I'd never get that through.



BERNSTEIN

(moving to his side)

Mr. Kane is finishing your piece

the way you started it.



Leland turns incredulously to Bernstein.



BERNSTEIN

He's writing a roast like you wanted

it to be -

(then suddnely - with a

kind of quiet passion

rather than a triumph)

- I guess that'll show you.



Leland picks his way across the City Room to Kane's side. Kane goes

on typing, without looking up. After a pause, Kane speaks.



KANE

Hello, Brad.



LELAND

Hello, Charlie -

(another pause)

I didn't know we were speaking.



Kane stops typing, but doesn't turn.



KANE

Sure, we're speaking, Brad -

you're fired.



He starts typing again, the expression on his face doesn't change.



DISSOLVE OUT:



DISSOLVE IN:



EXT. HOSPITAL ROOF - DAY - 1940



Thompson and Leland on the roof, which is now deserted. It is getting

late. The sun has just about gone down.



LELAND

Well, that's about all there is -

and I'm getting chills. Hey, nurse!

(pause)

Five years ago, he wrote from that

place of his down South -

(as if trying to think)

- you know. Shangri-la? El Dorado?

(pauses)

Sloppy Joe's? What's the name of

that place? You know... All right.

Xanadu. I knew what it was all the

time. You caught on, didn't you?



THOMPSON

Yes.



LELAND

I guess maybe I'm not as hard to

see through as I think. Anyway, I

never even answered his letter.

Maybe I should have. I guess he was

pretty lonely down there those last

years. He hadn't finished it when

she left him - he never finished it -

he never finished anything. Of course,

he built it for her -



THOMPSON

That must have been love.



LELAND

I don't know. He was disappointed in

the world. So he built one of his

own - An absolute monarchy - It was

something bigger than an opera house

anyway -

(calls)

Nurse!

(lowers his voice)

Say, I'll tell you one thing you can

do for me, young fellow.



THOMPSON

Sure.



LELAND

On your way out, stop at a cigar

store, will you, and send me up a

couple of cigars?



THOMPSON

Sure, Mr. Leland. I'll be glad to.



LELAND

Hey, Nurse!



A Nurse appears.



NURSE

Hello, Mr. Leland.



LELAND

I'm ready to go in now. You know

when I was a young man, there was

an impression around that nurses

were pretty. It was no truer then

than it is now.



NURSE

Here, let me take your arm, Mr. Leland.



LELAND

(testily)

All right, all right.

(he has begun to move

forward on the Nurse's

arm; turning to Thompson)

You won't forget, will you, about

the cigars? And tell them to wrap

them up to look like toothpaste,

or something, or they'll stop them

at the desk. That young doctor I

was telling you about, he's got an

idea he wants to keep me alive.



DISSOLVE:



EXT. "EL RANCHO" CABARET IN ATLANTIC CITY - EARLY DAWN - 1940



Neon sign on the roof:



"EL RANCHO"

FLOOR SHOW

SUSAN ALEXANDER KANE

TWICE NIGHTLY



glows on the dark screen as in the previous sequence earlier in the

script. Behind the lights and through them, we see a nasty early

morning. Camera as before, moves through the lights of the sign and

down on the skylight, through which is seen Susan at her regular

table, Thompson seated across from her.



Very faintly during this, idle piano music playing.



DISSOLVE:



INT. "EL RANCHO" CABARET - EARLY DAWN - 1940



Susan and Thompson are facing each other. The place is almost

deserted. Susan is sober. On the other side of the room, somebody is

playing a piano.



SUSAN

How do you want to handle the whole

thing - ask questions?



THOMPSON

I'd rather you just talked. Anything

that comes into your mind - about

yourself and Mr. Kane.



SUSAN

You wouldn't want to hear a lot of

what comes into my mind about myself

and Mr. Charlie Kane.



Susan is thinking.



THOMPSON

How did you meet him?



SUSAN

I had a toothache.



Thompson looks at her.



SUSAN

That was thiry years ago - and I

still remember that toothache.

Boy! That toothache was just

driving me crazy...



DISSOLVE OUT:



DISSOLVE IN:



EXT. CORNER DRUG STORE AND STREET ON THE WEST SIDE OF NEW YORK - NIGHT

- 1909



Susan, aged twenty, neatly but cheaply dressed in the style of the

period, is leaving the drug store. It's about 8 o'clock at night.

With a large, man-sized handkerchief pressed to her cheek, she is in

considerable pain. The street is wet - after a recent rain.



She walks a few steps towards the middle of the block, and can stand

it no longer. She stops, opens a bottle of Oil of Cloves that she has

in her hand, applies some to her finger, and rubs her gums.



She walks on, the pain only a bit better. Four or five houses farther

along, she comes to what is clearly her own doorway - a shabby, old

four-story apartment house. She turns toward the doorway, which is up

a tiny stoop, about three steps.



As she does so, Kane, coming from the opposite direction, almost bumps

into her and turns to his left to avoid her. His shoulder bumps hers

and she turns. As she does so, Kane, forced to change his course,

steps on the loose end of a plank which covers a puddle in the bad

sidewalk. The plank rises up and cracks him on the knee, also

covering him with mud.



KANE

(hopping up and down

and rubbing his knee)

Ow!



Susan, taking her handkerchief from her jaw, roars with laughter.



KANE

It's not funny.



He bites his lip and rubs his knee again. Susan tries to control her

laughter, but not very successfully. Kane glares at her.



SUSAN

I'm sorry, mister - but you do

look awful funny.



Suddenly, the pain returns and she claps her hand to her jaw.



SUSAN

Ow!



KANE

What's the matter with you?



SUSAN

Toothache.



KANE

Hmm!



He has been rubbing his clothes with his handkerchief.



SUSAN

You've got some on your face.



KANE

If these sidewalks were kept in

condition - instead of the money

going to some cheap grafter -



Susan starts to laugh again.



KANE

What's funny now?



SUSAN

You are. You look like you've

been making mud pies.



In the middle of her smile, the pain returns.



SUSAN

Oh!



KANE

You're no Venus de Milo.



SUSAN

(points to the downstair

window)

If you want to come in and wash

your face - I can get you some

hot water to get that dirt off

your trousers -



KANE

Thanks.



Susan starts, with Kane following her.



DISSOLVE:



INT. SUSAN'S ROOM - NIGHT - 1909



It's in moderate disorder. The Mansbach gas lights are on. It's not

really a classy room, but it's exactly what you're entitled to in

1910, for $5.00 a week including breakfast.



There is a bed, a couple of chairs, a chiffonier, and a few personal

belongings on the chiffonier. These include a photograph of a gent

and lady, obviously Susan's parents, and a few objets d'art. One, "At

the Japanese Rolling Ball Game at Coney Island," and - perhaps this is

part of the Japanese loot - the glass globe with the snow scene Kane

was holding in his hand in the first sequence.



Susan comes into the room, carrying a basin, with towels over her arm.

Kane is waiting for her. She doesn't close the door.



SUSAN

(by way of explanation)

My landlady prefers me to keep

this door open when I have a

gentleman caller.

(starts to put the basin down)

She's a very decent woman.

(making a face)

Ow!



Kane rushes to take the basin from her, putting it on the chiffonier.

To do this, he has to shove the photograph to one side of the basin.

Susan grabs the photograph as it is about to fall over.



SUSAN

Hey, you should be more careful.

That's my ma and pa.



KANE

I'm sorry. They live here, too?



SUSAN

No. They've passed on.



Again she puts her hand to her jaw.



KANE

Where's the soap?



SUSAN

In the water.



Kane fishes the soap out of the water. It is slippery, however, and

slips out of his hand, hitting him in the chest before it falls to the

floor. Susan laughs as he bends over.



KANE

(starting to wash

his hands)

You're very easily amused.



SUSAN

I always like to see the funny

side of things. No sense crying

when you don't have to. And you're

so funny. Looking at you, I forget

all about my toothache.



Her face distorts in pain again.



SUSAN

Oh!



KANE

I can't stay here all night chasing

your pain away.



SUSAN

(laughs)

I know... But you do look so silly.



Kane, with soaped hands, has rubbed his face and now cannot open his

eyes, for fear of getting soap in them.



KANE

Where's the towel?



SUSAN

On the chiffonier. Here.



KANE

(rubs his face dry)

Thanks.



SUSAN

(on her way to closet)

I've got a brush in the closet. As

soon as the mud on your trousers is

all dry - you just brush it off.



KANE

I'll get these streets fixed, if

it's the last thing I do.



Susan comes out of the closet. She holds out the brush with her left

hand, her right hand to her jaw in real distress.



KANE

(takes the brush)

You are in pain, aren't you, you

poor kid?



Susan can't stand it anymore and sits down in a chair, bent over,

whimpering a bit.



KANE

(brushing himself)

I wish there was something I could -



He stops and thinks. Susan, her face averted, is still trying hard

not to cry.



KANE

I've got an idea, young lady.

(there is no response)

Turn around and look at me.

(there is still no response)

I said, turn around and look at

me, young lady.



Slowly, Susan turns.



KANE

Did you ever see anybody wiggle

both his ears at the same time?



It takes a second for Susan to adapt herself to this.



KANE

Watch closely!

(he wiggles his ears)

It took me two solid years at the

finest boys' school in the world

to learn that trick. The fellow

who taught me is President of

Venezuela now.



He's still wiggling his ears as Susan starts to smile.



KANE

That's it! Smile!



Susan smiles, very broadly.



DISSOLVE:



INT. SUSAN'S ROOM - NIGHT - 1910



Closeup of a duck, camera pulls back showing it to be a shadowgraph on

the wall, made by Kane, who is now in his shirt sleeves. It is about

an hour later than preceding sequence.



SUSAN

(hesitatingly)

A chicken?



KANE

No. But you're close.



SUSAN

A rooster?



KANE

You're getting farther away all

the time. It's a duck.



SUSAN

Excuse me, Mr. Kane. I know this

takes a lot of nerve, but - who are

you? I mean - I'm pretty ignorant,

I guess you caught on to that -



KANE

(looks squarely at her)

You really don't know who I am?



SUSAN

No. That is, I bet it turns out

I've heard your name a million times,

only you know how it is -



KANE

But you like me, don't you? Even

though you don't know who I am?



SUSAN

You've been wonderful! I can't tell

you how glad I am you're here, I don't

know many people and -

(she stops)



KANE

And I know too many people. Obviously,

we're both lonely.

(he smiles)

Would you like to know where I was

going tonight - when you ran into me

and ruined my Sunday clothes?



SUSAN

I didn't run into you and I bet

they're not your Sunday clothes.

You've probably got a lot of clothes.



KANE

(as if defending himself

from a terrible onslaught)

I was only joking!

(pauses)

This evening I was on my way to

the Western Manhattan Warehouses -

in search of my youth.



Susan is bewildered.



KANE

You see, my mother died, too - a

long time ago. Her things were

put into storage out west because

I had no place to put them then.

I still haven't. But now I've sent

for them just the same. And tonight

I'd planned to make a sort of

sentimental journey -

(slowly)

- to the scenes of my youth - my

childhood, I suppose - to look again

at -

(he changes mood slightly)

- and now -



Kane doesn't finish. He looks at Susan. Silence.



KANE

Who am I? Well, let's see. Charles

Foster Kane was born in New Salem,

Colorado in eighteen six -

(he stops on the word

"sixty" - obviously a

little embarrassed)

I run a couple of newspapers. How

about you?



SUSAN

Oh, me -



KANE

How old did you say you were?



SUSAN

(very bright)

I didn't say.



KANE

I didn't think you did. If you

had, I wouldn't have asked you

again, because I'd have remembered.

How old?



SUSAN

Pretty old. I'll be twenty-two in

August.



KANE

(looks at her silently

for a moment)

That's a ripe old age - What do

you do?



SUSAN

I work at Seligman's.



KANE

Is that what you want to do?



SUSAN

I want to be a singer.

(she thinks for a moment)

I mean, I didn't. Mother did for

me.



KANE

(sympathetically)

What happened to the singing?

You're not in a show, are you?



SUSAN

Oh, no! Nothing like that. Mother

always thought - she used to talk

about Grand Opera for me. Imagine!

An American girl, for one thing -

and then my voice isn't really that

kind anyway, it's just that Mother -

you know what mothers are like.



A sudden look comes over Kane's face.



KANE

Yes -



SUSAN

As a matter of fact, I do sing a

little.



KANE

(points to the piano)

Would you sing for me?



SUSAN

(bashful)

Oh, you wouldn't want to hear

me sing.



KANE

Yes, I would. That's why I asked.



SUSAN

Well, I -



KANE

Don't tell me your toothache is

bothering you again?



SUSAN

Oh, no, that's all gone.



KANE

Then you have no alibi at all.

Please sing.



Susan, with a tiny ladylike hesitancy, goes to the piano and sings a

polite song. Sweetly, nicely, she sings with a small, untrained

voice. Kane listens. He is relaxed, at ease with the world.

[Lully]

DISSOLVE:



INT. "EL RANCHO" CABARET - EARLY DAWN - 1940



Susan tosses down a drink, then goes on with her story.



SUSAN

I did a lot of singing after that.

I sang for Charlie - I sang for

teachers at a hundred bucks an

hour - the teachers got that, I

didn't -



THOMPSON

What did you get?



SUSAN

(glares at him balefully)

What do you mean?



Thompson doesn't answer.



SUSAN

I didn't get a thing. Just the

music lessons. That's all there

was to it.



THOMPSON

He married you, didn't he?



SUSAN

He was in love with me. But he

never told me so until after it

all came out in the papers about

us - and he lost the election and

that Norton woman divorced him.



THOMPSON

What about that apartment?



SUSAN

He wanted me to be comfortable -

Oh, why should I bother? You don't

believe me, but it's true. It just

happens to be true. He was really

interested in my voice.

(sharply)

What are you smiling for? What do

you think he built that opera house

for? I didn't want it. I didn't

want to sing. It was his idea -

everything was his idea - except my

leaving him.



DISSOLVE:



INT. LIVING ROOM OF KANE'S HOUSE IN NEW YORK - DAY - 1913



Susan is singing. Matisti, her voice teacher, is playing the piano.

Kane is seated nearby. Matisti stops.



MATISTI

Impossible! Impossible!



KANE

Your job isn't to give Mrs. Kane

your opinion of her talents.

You're supposed to train her voice.

Nothing more.



MATISTI

(sweating)

But, it is impossible. I will be

the laughingstock of the musical

world! People will say -



KANE

If you're interested in what people

say, Signor Matisti, I may be able

to enlighten you a bit. The

newspapers, for instance. I'm an

authority on what the papers will

say, Signor Matisti, because I own

eight of them between here and San

Francisco... It's all right, dear.

Signor Matisti is going to listen to

reason. Aren't you, maestro?

(he looks him square

in the eyes)



MATISTI

Mr. Kane, how can I persuade you -



KANE

You can't.



There is a silence. Matisti rises.



KANE

I knew you'd see it my way.



DISSOLVE:



INT. CHICAGO OPERA HOUSE - NIGHT - 1914



It is the same opening night - it is the same moment as before -

except taht the camera is now upstage angling toward the audience.

The curtain is down. We see the same tableau as before - the

terrified and trembling Susan, the apprehensive principals, the maids

and singing teachers, the stage hands. As the dissolve commences,

there is the sound of applause (exactly as before) and now as the

dissolve completes itself, the orchestra breaks frighteningly into

opening chords of the music - the stage is cleared - Susan is left

alone, terribly alone. The curtain rises. The glare of the

footlights jump into the image. The curtain is now out of the picture

and Susan starts to sing. Beyond her, we see the prompter's box,

containing the anxious face of the prompter. Beyond that, out in the

darkness - an apprehensive conductor struggles with his task of

coordinating an orchestra and an incompetent singer. Beyond that -

dimly white shirt fronts and glistening bosoms for a couple of rows,

and then deep and terrible darkness.



Closeup of Kane's face - seated in the audience - listening.



A sudden but perfectly correct lull in the music reveals a voice from

the audience - a few words from a sentence - the kind of thing that

often happens in a theatre -



THE VOICE

- really pathetic.



Music crashes in and drowns out the rest of the sentence, but hundreds

of people around the voice have heard it (as well as Kane) and there

are titters which grow in volume.



Closeup of Susan's face - singing.



Closeup of Kane's face - listening.



There is the ghastly sound of three thousand people applauding as

little as possible. Kane still looks. Then, near the camera, there

is the sound of about a dozen people applauding very, very loudly.

Camera moves back, revealing Bernstein and Reilly and other Kane

stooges, seated around him, beating their palms together. The curtain

is falling - as we can see by the light which shutters down off their

faces.



The stage from Kane's angle.



The curtain is down - the lights glowing on it. Still, the polite

applause dying fast. Nobody comes out for a bow.



Closeup of Kane - breathing heavily. Suddenly he starts to applaud

furiously.



The stage from the audience again.



Susan appears for her bow. She can hardly walk. There is a little

polite crescendo of applause, but it is sickly.



Closeup of Kane - still applauding very, very hard, his eyes on Susan.



The stage again.



Susan, finishing her bow, goes out through the curtains. The light on

the curtain goes out and the houselights go on.



Closeup of Kane - still applauding very, very hard.



DISSOLVE:



INT. STUDY - KANE'S NEW YORK HOME - DAY - 1914



Some weeks later. Susan, in a negligee, is at the window. There are

the remains of her breakfast tray on a little table.



SUSAN

You don't propose to have yourself

made ridiculous? What about me?

I'm the one that has to do the singing.

I'm the one that gets the razzberries.

(pauses)

Last week, when I was shopping, one

of the salesgirls did an imitation of

me for another girl. She thought I

didn't see her, but - Charlie, you

might as well make up your mind to it.

This is one thing you're not going to

have your own way about. I can't sing

and you know it - Why can't you just -



Kane rises and walks toward her. There is cold menace in his walk.

Susan shrinks a little as he draws closer to her.



KANE

My reasons satisfy me, Susan. You

seem unable to understand them. I

will not tell them to you again.

(he is very close to her)

You will continue with your singing.



His eyes are relentlessly upon her. She sees something in them that

frightens her. She nods her head slowly, indicating surrender.



DISSOLVE OUT:



DISSOLVE IN:



Front page of the "San Francisco Enquirer" containing a large portrait

of Susan as Thais (as before). It is announced that Susan will open

an independent season in San Francisco in "Thais." The picture

remains constant but the names of the papers change from New York to

St. Louis, to Los Angeles to Cleveland, to Denver to Philadelphia -

all "Enquirers."



During all this, on the soundtrack, Susan's voice is heard singing her

aria very faintly and far away, her voice cracking a little.



At the conclusion of this above, Susan has finished her song, and

there is the same mild applause as before - over the sound of this,

one man loudly applauding. This fades out as we -



DISSOLVE:



INT. SUSAN'S BEDROOM - KANE'S NEW YORK HOME - LATE NIGHT - 1916



The camera angles across the bed and Susan's form towards the door,

from the other side of which voices can be heard.



KANE'S VOICE

Let's have your keys, Raymond.



RAYMOND'S VOICE

Yes, sir.



KANE'S VOICE

The key must be in the other side.

(pause)

We'll knock the door down, Raymond.



RAYMOND'S VOICE

(calling)

Mrs. Kane -



KANE'S VOICE

Do what I say.



The door crashes open, light floods in the room, revealing Susan,

fully dressed, stretched out on the bed, one arm dangling over the

side. Kane rushes to her.



KANE

Get Dr. Corey.



RAYMOND

Yes, sir.



He rushes out. Susan is breathing, but heavily. Kane loosens the

lace collar at her throat.



DISSOLVE:



INT. SUSAN'S ROOM - LATE NIGHT - 1916



A little later. All the lights are lit. Susan, in a nightgown, is in

bed, asleep. Raymond and a nurse are just leaving the room, Raymond

closing the door quietly behind him. Dr. Corey rises.



DR. COREY

She'll be perfectly all right

in a day or two, Mr. Kane.



Kane nods. He has a smal bottle in his hand.



DR. COREY

The nurse has complete instructions,

but if you care to talk to me at any

time, I should be only too glad - I

shall be here in the morning.



KANE

Thank you. I can't imagine how

Mrs. Kane came to make such a silly

mistake. The sedative Dr. Wagner

gave her is in a somewhat larger

bottle - I suppose the strain of

preparing for her trip has excited

and confused her.



DR. COREY

I'm sure that's it.

(he starts out)



KANE

There are no objections to my

staying here with her, are there?



DR. COREY

Not at all. I'd like the nurse

to be here, too.



KANE

Of course.



Dr. Corey leaves. Kane settles himself in a chair next to the bed,

looking at Susan. In a moment, the nurse enters, goes to a chair in

the corner of the room, and sits down.



DISSOLVE:



INT. SUSAN'S ROOM - DAY - 1916



Susan, utterly spent, is lying flat on her back in her bed. Kane is

in the chair beside her. The nurse is out of the room.



SUSAN

(in a voice that comes

from far away)

I couldn't make you see how I felt,

Charlie. I just couldn't - I

couldn't go threw with singing again.

You don't know what it means to feel -

to know that people - that an audience

don't want you. That if you haven't

got what they want - a real voice -

they just don't care about you. Even

when they're polite - and they don't

laugh or get restless or - you know...

They don't want you. They just 0



KANE

(angrily)

That's when you've got to fight them.

That's when you've got to make them.

That's -



Susan's head turns and she looks at him silently with pathetic eyes.



KANE

I'm sorry.

(he leans over to

pat her hand)

You won't have to fight them anymore.

(he smiles a little)

It's their loss.



Gratefully, Susan, with difficulty, brings her other hand over to

cover his.



DISSOLVE:



EXT. ESTABLISHING SHOT OF XANADU - HALF BUILT



INT. THE GRAND HALL IN XANADU - 1925



Closeup of an enormous jigsaw puzzle. A hand is putting in the last

piece. Camera moves back to reveal jigsaw puzzle spread out on the

floor.



Susan is on the floor before her jigsaw puzzle. Kane is in an easy

chair. Behind them towers the massive Renaissance fireplace. It is

night and Baroque candelabra illuminates the scene.



SUSAN

(with a sigh)

What time is it?



There is no answer.



SUSAN

Charlie! I said, what time is it?



KANE

(looks up - consults

his watch)

Half past eleven.



SUSAN

I mean in New York.



KANE

Half past eleven.



SUSAN

At night?



KANE

Yes. The bulldog's just gone to

press.



SUSAN

(sarcastically)

Hurray for the bulldog!

(sighs)

Half past eleven! The shows have

just let out. People are going to

night clubs and restaurants. Of

course, we're different. We live in

a palace - at the end of the world.



KANE

You always said you wanted to live

in a palace.



SUSAN

Can't we go back, Charlie?



Kane looks at her smilingly and turns back to his work.



SUSAN

Charlie -



There is no answer.



SUSAN

If I promise to be a good girl!

Not to drink - and to entertain

all the governors and the senators

with dignity -

(she puts a slur into the word)

Charlie -



There is still no answer.



DISSOLVE OUT:



DISSOLVE IN:



Another picture puzzle - Susan's hands fitting in a missing piece.



DISSOLVE:



Another picture puzzle - Susan's hands fitting in a missing piece.



DISSOLVE:



INT. XANADU - LIVING ROOM - DAY - 1928



Another picture puzzle.



Camera pulls back to show Kane and Susan in much the same positions as

before, except that they are older.



KANE

One thing I've never been able

to understand, Susan. How do

you know you haven't done them

before?



Susan shoots him an angry glance. She isn't amused.



SUSAN

It makes a whole lot more sense

than collecting Venuses.



KANE

You may be right - I sometimes

wonder - but you get into the

habit -



SUSAN

(snapping)

It's not a habit. I do it because

I like it.



KANE

I was referring to myself.

(pauses)

I thought we might have a picnic

tomorrow - it might be a nice

change after the Wild West party

tonight. Invite everybody to go

to the Everglades -



SUSAN

(throws down a piece of the

jigsaw puzzle and rises)

Invite everybody! Order everybody,

you mean, and make them sleep in

tents! Who wants to sleep in tents

when they have a nice room of their

own - with their own bath, where they

know where everything is?



Kane has looked at her steadily, not hostilely.



KANE

I thought we might invite everybody

to go on a picnic tomorrow. Stay

at Everglades overnight.

(he pats her lightly on

the shoulder)

Please see that the arrangements are

made, Susan.



Kane turns away - to Bernstein.



KANE

You remember my son, Mr. Bernstein.



On the soundtrack we hear the following lines of dialogue:



BERNSTEIN'S

VOICE

(embarrased)

Oh, yes. How do you do, Mr. Kane?



CHARLIE JR.'S

VOICE

Hello.



During this, camera holds on closeup of Susan's face. She is very

angry.



DISSOLVE:



EXT. THE EVERGLADES CAMP - NIGHT - 1928



Long shot - of a number of classy tents.



DISSOLVE OUT:



DISSOLVE IN:



INT. LARGE TENT - EVERGLADES CAMP - NIGHT - 1928



Two real beds have been set up on each side of the tent. A rather

classy dressing table is in the rear, at which Susan is preparing for

bed. Kane, in his shirt-sleeves, is in an easy chair, reading. Susan

is very sullen.



SUSAN

I'm not going to put up with it.



Kane turns to look at her.



SUSAN

I mean it.

(she catches a slight

flicker on Kane's face)

Oh, I know I always say I mean it,

and then I don't - or you get me so

I don't do what I say I'm going to -

but -



KANE

(interrupting)

You're in a tent, darling. You're

not at home. And I can hear you

very well if you just talk in a

normal tone of voice.



SUSAN

I'm not going to have my guests

insulted, just because you think -

(in a rage)

- if people want to bring a drink

or two along on a picnic, that's

their business. You've got no right -



KANE

(quickly)

I've got more than a right as far

as you're concerned, Susan.



SUSAN

Oh, I'm sick and tired of you

telling me what I must and what I

musn't do!



KANE

(gently)

You're my wife, Susan, and -



SUSAN

I'm not just your wife, I'm a

person all by myself - or I ought

to be. I was once. Sometimes you

get me to believing I never was.



KANE

We can discuss all this some other

time, Susan. Right now -



SUSAN

I'll discuss what's on my mind when

I want to. You're not going to keep

on running my life the way you want it.



KANE

As far as you're concerned, Susan,

I've never wanted anything - I don't

want anything now - except what you

want.



SUSAN

What you want me to want, you mean.

What you've decided I ought to have

- what you'd want if you were me.

But you've never given me anything

that -



KANE

Susan, I really think -



SUSAN

Oh, I don't mean the things you've

given me - that don't mean anything

to you. What's the difference

between giving me a bracelet or

giving somebody else a hundred thousand

dollars for a statue you're going to

keep crated up and never look at? It's

only money. It doesn't mean anything.

You're not really giving anything that

belongs to you, that you care about.



KANE

(he has risen)

Susan, I want you to stop this.

And right now!



SUSAN

Well, I'm not going to stop it. I'm

going to say exactly what I think.

(she screams)

You've never given me anything. You've

tried to buy me into giving you

something. You're -

(a sudden notion)

- it's like you were bribing me! That's

what it's been from the first moment I

met you. No matter how much it cost

you - your time, your money - that's

what you've done with everybody you've

ever known. Tried to bribe them!



KANE

Susan!



She looks at him, with no lessening of her passion.



KANE

You're talking an incredible amount

of nonsense, Susan.

(quietly)

Whatever I do - I do - because I

love you.



SUSAN

Love! You don't love anybody! Me

or anybody else! You want to be

loved - that's all you want! I'm

Charles Foster Kane. Whatever you

want - just name it and it's yours!

Only love me! Don't expect me to

love you -



Without a word, Kane slaps her across the face. They look at each

other.



SUSAN

You - you hit me.



Kane continues to look at her.



SUSAN

You'll never have another chance to

hit me again.

(pauses)

I never knew till this minute -



KANE

Susan, it seems to me -



SUSAN

Don't tell me you're sorry.



KANE

I'm not sorry.



SUSAN

I'm going to leave you.



KANE

No, you're not.



SUSAN

(nods)

Yes.



They look at each other, fixedly, but she doesn't give way. In fact,

the camera on Kane's face shows the beginning of a startled look, as

of one who sees something unfamiliar and unbelievable.



DISSOLVE:



INT. KANE'S STUDY - XANADU - DAY - 1929



Kane is a the window looking out. He turns as he hears Raymond enter.



RAYMOND

Mrs. Kane would like to see you,

Mr. Kane.



KANE

All right.



Raymond waits as Kane hesitates.



KANE

Is Mrs. Kane -

(he can't finish)



RAYMOND

Marie has been packing since morning,

Mr. Kane.



Kane impetuously walks past him out of the room.



INT. SUSAN'S ROOM - XANADU - DAY - 1929



Packed suitcases are on the floor, Susan is completely dressed for

travelling. Kane bursts into the room.



SUSAN

Tell Arnold I'm ready, Marie. He

can get the bags.



MARIE

Yes, Mrs. Kane.



She leaves. Kane closes the door behind her.



KANE

Have you gone completely crazy?



Susan looks at him.



KANE

Don't you realize that everybody

here is going to know about this?

That you've packed your bags and

ordered the car and -



SUSAN

- And left? Of course they'll

hear. I'm not saying goodbye -

except to you - but I never

imagined that people wouldn't know.



Kane is standing against the door as if physically barring her way.



KANE

I won't let you go.



SUSAN

You can't stop me.



Kane keeps looking at her. Susan reaches out her hand.



SUSAN

Goodbye, Charlie.



KANE

(suddenly)

Don't go, Susan.



SUSAN

Let's not start all over again,

Charlie. We've said everything

that can be said.



KANE

Susan, don't go! Susan, please!



He has lost all pride. Susan stops. She is affected by this.



KANE

You mustn't go, Susan. Everything'll

be exactly the way you want it. Not

the way I think you want it - by your

way. Please, Susan - Susan!



She is staring at him. She might weaken.



KANE

Don't go, Susan! You mustn't go!

(almost blubbering)

You - you can't do this to me,

Susan -



It's as if he had thrown ice water into her face. She freezes.



SUSAN

I see - it's you that this is

being done to! It's not me at

all. Not how I feel. Not what

it means to me.

(she laughs)

I can't do this to you!

(she looks at him)

Oh, yes I can.



She walks out, past Kane, who turns to watch her go, like a very tired

old man.



DISSOLVE OUT:



DISSOLVE IN:



INT. "EL RANCHO" CABARET - NIGHT - 1940



Susan and Thompson at a table. There is silence between them for a

moment.



SUSAN

In case you've never heard of how

I lost all my money - and it was

plenty, believe me -



THOMPSON

The last ten years have been tough

on a lot of people.



SUSAN

They haven't been tough on me. I

just lost my money. But when I

compare these last ten years with

the twenty I spent with him -



THOMPSON

I feel kind of sorry for him, all

the same -



SUSAN

(harshly)

Don't you think I do?

(pause)

You say you're going down to Xanadu?



THOMPSON

Monday, with some of the boys from

the office. Mr. Rawlston wants the

whole place photographed carefully -

all that art stuff. We run a picture

magazine, you know -



SUSAN

I know. If you're smart, you'll

talk to Raymond. That's the butler.

You can learn a lot from him. He

knows where the bodies are buried.

[Lully]

She shivers. The dawn light from the skylight above has grown

brighter, making the artificial light in the night club look

particularly ghastly, revealing mercilessly every year of Susan's age.



SUSAN

Well, what do you know? It's morning

already.

(looks at him)

You must come around and tell me the

story of your life sometime.



FADE OUT:



FADE IN:



INT. GREAT HALL - XANADU - NIGHT - 1940



An open door shows the pantry, which is dark. Thompson and Raymond

are at a table. There is a pitcher of beer and a plate of sandwiches

before them. Raymond drinks a glass of beer and settles back.



RAYMOND

Yes, sir - yes, sir, I knew how to

handle the old man. He was kind of

queer, but I knew how to handle him.



THOMPSON

Queer?



RAYMOND

Yeah. I guess he wasn't very happy

those last years - he didn't have

much reason to be -



DISSOLVE:



INT. CORRIDOR AND TELEGRAPH OFFICE - XANADU - NIGHT - 1929



Raymond walking rapidly along corridor. He pushes open a door. At a

desk in a fairly elaborate telegraph office sits a wireless operator

named Fred. Near him at a telephone switchboard sits a female

operator named Katherine (not that it matters).



RAYMOND

(reading)

Mr. Charles Foster Kane announced

today that Mrs. Charles Foster Kane

has left Xanadu, his Florida home,

under the terms of a peaceful and

friendly agreement with the intention

of filing suit for divorce at an

early date. Mrs. Kane said that she

does not intend to return to the

operatic career which she gave up a

few years after her marriage, at Mr.

Kane's request. Signed, Charles Foster

Kane.



Fred finishes typing and then looks up.



RAYMOND

Exclusive for immediate transmission.

Urgent priority all Kane papers.



FRED

Okay.



There is the sound of the buzzer on the switchboard. Katherine puts

in a plug and answers the call.



KATHERINE

Yes ... yes... Mrs. Tinsdall -

Very well.

(turns to Raymond)

It's the housekeeper.



RAYMOND

Yes?



KATHERINE

She says there's some sort of

disturbance up in Mrs. Alexander's

room. She's afraid to go in.



DISSOLVE:



INT. CORRIDOR OUTSIDE SUSAN'S BEDROOM - XANADU - NIGHT - 1929



The housekeeper, Mrs. Tinsdall, and a couple of maids are near the

door but are too afraid to be in front of it. From inside can be

heard a terrible banging and crashing. Raymond hurries into scene,

opens the door and goes in.



INT. SUSAN'S BEDROOM - XANADU - 1929



Kane, in a truly terrible and absolutely silent rage, is literally

breaking up the room - yanking pictures, hooks and all off the wall,

smashing them to bits - ugly, gaudy pictures - Susie's pictures in

Susie's bad taste. Off of occasional tables, bureaus, he sweeps

Susie's whorish accumulation of bric-a-brac.



Raymond stands in the doorway watching him. Kane says nothing. He

continues with tremendous speed and surprising strength, still

wordlessly, tearing the room to bits. The curtains (too frilly -

overly pretty) are pulled off the windows in a single gesture, and

from the bookshelves he pulls down double armloads of cheap novels -

discovers a half-empty bottle of liquor and dashes it across the room.

Finally he stops. Susie's cozy little chamber is an incredible

shambles all around him.



He stands for a minute breathing heavily, and his eye lights on a

hanging what-not in a corner which had escaped his notice. Prominent

on its center shelf is the little glass ball with the snowstorm in it.

He yanks it down. Something made of china breaks, but not the glass

ball. It bounces on the carpet and rolls to his feet, the snow in a

flurry. His eye follows it. He stoops to pick it up - can't make it.

Raymond picks it up for him; hands it to him. Kane takes it

sheepishly - looks at it - moves painfully out of the room into the

corridor.



INT. CORRIDOR OUTSIDE SUSAN'S BEDROOM - XANADU - 1929



Kane comes out of the door. Mrs. Tinsdall has been joined now by a

fairly sizable turnout of servants. They move back away from Kane,

staring at him. Raymond is in the doorway behind Kane. Kane looks at

the glass ball.



KANE

(without turning)

Close the door, Raymond.



RAYMOND

Yes, sir.

(he closes it)



KANE

Lock it - and keep it locked.



Raymond locks the door and comes to his side. There is a long pause -

servants staring in silence. Kane gives the glass ball a gentle shake

and starts another snowstorm.



KANE

Raymond -

(he is almost in a trance)



RAYMOND

Yes, sir -



One of the younger servants giggles and is hushed up. Kane shakes the

ball again. Another flurry of snow. He watches the flakes settle -

then looks up. Finally, taking in the pack of servants and something

of the situations, he puts the glass ball in his coat pocket. He

speaks very quietly to Raymond, so quietly it only seems he's talking

to himself.



KANE

Keep it locked.



He slowly walks off down the corridor, the servants giving way to let

him pass, and watching him as he goes. He is an old, old man!



DISSOLVE:



INT. KANE'S CHAPEL - XANADU - LATE AFTERNOON - 1939



As the dissolve completes itself, camera is travellling across the

floor of the chapel past the crypts of Kane's father and mother -

(marked: James Kane - 18- TO 19-; Mary Kane - 18- TO 19-;) - past a

blank crypt, and then holding on the burial of Kane's son. A group of

ordinary workmen in ordinary clothes are lowering a very

expensive-looking coffin into its crypt. Kane stands nearby with

Raymond, looking on. The men strain and grunt as the coffin bangs on

the stone floor. The men now place over it a long marble slab on

which is cut the words:



CHARLES FOSTER KANE II.

1907 - 1938







ONE OF THE

WORKMEN

Sorry, Mr. Kane, we won't be able

to cement it till tommorrow. We -



Kane looks right through him. Raymond cuts him short.



RAYMOND

Okay.



The men tip their hats and shuffle out of the chapel. Kane raises his

head, looks at the inscription on the wall. It is a little to one

side of Junior's grave, directly over the blank place which will be

occupied by Kane himself.



KANE

Do you like poetry, Raymond?



RAYMOND

Can't say, sir.



KANE

Mrs. Kane liked poetry -



Raymond is now convinced that the old master is very far gone indeed -

not to say off his trolley.



RAYMOND

Yes, Mr. Kane.



KANE

Not my wife - not either of them.



He looks at the grave next to his son's - the grave marked "MARY

KANE."



RAYMOND

(catching on)

Oh, yes, sir.



KANE

(looking back up

at the wall)

Do you know what that is?



RAYMOND

(more his keeper than

his butler now)

It's a wall you bought in China,

Mr. Kane.



KANE

Persia. It belonged to a king.



RAYMOND

How did you get him to part with

it, Mr. Kane?



KANE

He was dead... That's a poem. Do

you know what it means?



RAYMOND

No, I don't, Mr. Kane.



KANE

I didn't used to be afraid of it.



A short pause. His eyes still on the wall, but looking through it,

Kane quotes the translation.



KANE

The drunkeness of youth has passed like a fever,

And yet I saw many things,

Seeing my glory in the days of my glory,

I thought my power eternal

And the days of my life

Fixed surely in the years

But a whisper came to me

From Him who dies not.

I called my tributary kings together

And those who were proud rulers under me,

I opened the boxes of my treasure to them, saying:

"Take hills of gold, moutains of silver,

And give me only one more day upon the earth."

But they stood silent,

Looking upon the ground;

So that I died

And Death came to sit upon my throne.



O sons of men

You see a stranger upon the road,

You call to him and he does not step.

He is your life

Walking towards time,

Hurrying to meet the kings of India and China.

(quoting)

O sons of men

You are caught in the web of the world

And the spider Nothing waits behind it.

Where are the men with towering hopes?

They have changed places with owls,

Owls who have lived in tombs

And now inhabit a palace.



Kane still stares at the wall, through it, and way beyond it. Raymond

looks at him.



DISSOLVE OUT:



DISSOLVE IN:



INT. GREAT HALL - XANADU - NIGHT - 1940



Thompson and Raymond. Raymond has finished his beer.



RAYMOND

(callously)

That's the whole works, right up

to date.



THOMPSON

Sentimental fellow, aren't you?



RAYMOND

Yes and no.



THOMPSON

(getting to his feet)

Well, thanks a lot.



RAYMOND

See what I mean? He was a little

gone in the head - the last couple

of years, anyway - but I knew how

to handle him.

(rises)

That "Rosebud" - that don't mean

anything. I heard him say it.

He just said "Rosebud" and then he

dropped that glass ball and it broke

on the floor. He didn't say anything

about that, so I knew he was dead -

He said all kind of things I couldn't

make out. But I knew how to take care

of him.



Thompson doesn't answer.



RAYMOND

You can go on asking questions if

you want to.



THOMPSON

(coldly)

We're leaving tonight. As soon

as they're through photographing

the stuff -



Thompson has risen. Raymond gets to his feet and goes to the door,

opening it for him.



RAYMOND

Allow yourself plenty of time. The

train stops at the Junction On signal

- but they don't like to wait. Not

now. I can remember when they'd wait

all day ... if Mr. Kane said so.



Raymond ushes Thompson into



INT. THE GREAT HALL - XANADU - NIGHT - 1940



The magnificent tapestries, candelabra, etc., are still there, but now

several large packing cases are piled against the walls, some broken

open, some shut and a number of objects, great and small, are piled

pell mell all over the place. Furniture, statues, paintings,

bric-a-brac - things of obviously enormous value are standing beside a

kitchen stove, an old rocking chair and other junk, among which is

also an old sled, the self-same story. Somewhere in the back, one of

the vast Gothic windows of the hall is open and a light wind blows

through the scene, rustling the papers.



In the center of the hall, a Photographer and his Assistant are busy

photographing the sundry objects. The floor is littered with

burnt-out flash bulbs. They continue their work throughout the early

part of the scene so that now and then a flash bulb goes off. In

addition to the Photographer and his Assistant, there are a Girl and

Two Newspaperment - the Second and Third Men of the projection room

scene - also Thompson and Raymond.



The Girl and the Second Man, who wears a hat, are dancing somewhere in

the back of the hall to the music of a phonograph. A flash bulb goes

off. The Photographer has just photographed a picture, obviously of

great value, an Italian primitive. The Assistant consults a label on

the back of it.



ASSISTANT NO. 9182



The Third Newspaperman starts to jot this information down.



ASSISTANT

"Nativity" - attributed to Donatello,

acquired Florence 1921, cost 45,000

lira. Got that?



THIRD NEWSPAPERMAN

Yeah.



PHOTOGRAPHER

All right! Next! Better get that

statue over there.



ASSISTANT

Okay.



The Photographer and his Assitant start to move off with their

equipment towards a large sculpture in another part of the hall.



RAYMOND

What do you think all that is

worth, Mr. Thompson?



THOMPSON

Millions - if anybody wants it.



RAYMOND

The banks are out of luck, eh?



THOMPSON

Oh, I don't know. They'll clear

all right.



ASSISTANT

"Venus," Fourth Century. Acquired

1911. Cost twenty-three thousand.

Got it?



THIRD NEWSPAPERMAN

Okay.



ASSISTANT

(patting the statue

on the fanny)

That's a lot of money to pay for a

dame without a head.



SECOND ASSISTANT

(reading a label)

No. 483. One desk from the estate

of Mary Kane, Little Salem, Colorado.

Value $6.00.



THIRD NEWSPAPERMAN

Okay.



A flashlight bulb goes off.



SECOND ASSISTANT

We're all set to get everything. The

junk as well as the art.



Thompson has opened a box and is idly playing with a handful of little

pieces of cardboard.



THIRD NEWSPAPERMAN

What's that?



RAYMOND

It's a jigsaw puzzle.



THIRD NEWSPAPERMAN

We got a lot of those. There's a

Burmese Temple and three Spanish

ceilings down the hall.



Raymond laughs.



PHOTOGRAPHER

Yeah, all in crates.



THIRD NEWSPAPERMAN

There's a part of a Scotch castle

over there, but we haven't bothered

to unwrap it.



PHOTOGRAPHER

I wonder how they put all those

pieces together?



ASSISTANT

(reading a label)

Iron stove. Estate of Mary Kane.

Value $2.00.



PHOTOGRAPHER

Put it over by that statue. It'll

make a good setup.



GIRL

(calling out)

Who is she anyway?



SECOND NEWSPAPERMAN

Venus. She always is.



THIRD NEWSPAPERMAN

He sure liked to collect things,

didn't he?



RAYMOND

He went right on buying - right up

to the end.



PHOTOGRAPHER

Anything and everything - he was a

regular crow.



THIRD NEWSPAPERMAN

I wonder - You put all this together -

the palaces and the paintings and the

toys and everything - what would it spell?



Thompson has turned around. He is facing the camera for the first

time.



THOMPSON

Charles Foster Kane.



Another flash bulb goes off. The Photographer turns to Thompson with

a grin.



PHOTOGRAPHER

Or Rosebud? How about it, Jerry?



THIRD NEWSPAPERMAN

(to the dancers)

Turn that thing off, will you? It's

driving me nuts! What's Rosebud?



PHOTOGRAPHER

Kane's last words, aren't they, Jerry?

(to the Third Newspaperman)

That was Jerry's angle, wasn't it, Jerry?

Did you ever find out what it means, Jerry?



THOMPSON

No, I didn't.



The music has stopped. The dancers have come over to Thompson.



SECOND NEWSPAPERMAN

Say, what did you find out about him,

anyway, Jerry?



THOMPSON

Not much.



SECOND NEWSPAPERMAN

Well, what have you been doing?



THOMPSON

Playing with a jigsaw puzzle - I

talked to a lot of people who knew him.



GIRL

What do they say?



THOMPSON

Well - it's become a very clear picture.

He was the most honest man who ever

lived, with a streak of crookedness

a yard wide. He was a liberal and a

reactionary; he was tolerant - "Live

and Let Live" - that was his motto.

But he had no use for anybody who

disagreed with him on any point, no

matter how small it was. He was a

loving husband and a good father -

and both his wives left him and his

son got himself killed about as

shabbily as you can do it. He had a

gift for friendship such as few men

have - he broke his oldest friend's

heart like you'd throw away a cigarette

you were through with. Outside of that -



THIRD NEWSPAPERMAN

Okay, okay.



GIRL

What about Rosebud? Don't you

think that explains anything?



THOMPSON

No, I don't. Not much anway. Charles

Foster Kane was a man who got everything

he wanted, and then lost it. Maybe

Rosebud was something he couldn't get

or lost. No, I don't think it explains

anything. I don't think any word explains

a man's life. No - I guess Rosebud is

just a piece in a jigsaw puzzle - a

missing piece.



He drops the jigsaw pieces back into the box, looking at his watch.



THOMPSON

We'd better get along. We'll miss

the train.



He picks up his overcoat - it has been resting on a little sled - the

little sled young Charles Foster Kane hit Thatcher with at the opening

of the picture. Camera doesn't close in on this. It just registers

the sled as the newspaper people, picking up their clothes and

equipment, move out of the great hall.



DISSOLVE:



INT. CELLAR - XANADU - NIGHT - 1940



A large furnace, with an open door, dominates the scene. Two

laborers, with shovels, are shovelling things into the furnace.

Raymond is about ten feet away.



RAYMOND

Throw that junk in, too.



Camera travels to the pile that he has indicated. It is mostly bits

of broken packing cases, excelsior, etc. The sled is on top of the

pile. As camera comes close, it shows the faded rosebud and, though

the letters are faded, unmistakably the word "ROSEBUD" across it. The

laborer drops his shovel, takes the sled in his hand and throws it

into the furnace. The flames start to devour it.



EXT. XANADU - NIGHT - 1940



No lights are to be seen. Smoke is coming from a chimney.



Camera reverses the path it took at the beginning of the picture,

perhaps omitting some of the stages. It moves finally through the

gates, which close behind it. As camera pauses for a moment, the

letter "K" is prominent in the moonlight.



Just before we fade out, there comes again into the picture the

pattern of barbed wire and cyclone fencing. On the fence is a sign

which reads:



"PRIVATE - NO TRESPASSING"



FADE OUT:





All movie scripts and screenplays on this site are intended for educational purposes only.

Source: http://sfy.iv.ru/

[georgique]

Que faut-il entendre par "dissolve"? Fondu?
et "dissolve out" et "dissolve in"? Fondu enchaîné? out, par une chose qui n'a rien à voir avec la précédente et in, qq chose qui a à voir avec celle présentée?
Ou bien est-ce tout autre chose?

Merci.

[Thorn]

[georgique]

merci Thorn pour cette photo, s'apparentant à ce film. Et un autre merci aussi, car grâce à elle, le terme de dissolve m'apparait, c'est drôle, très clairement. Du moins un certain sens et pas forcément celui du langage cinématographique du scenario anglais. Finalement, après m'être rendue compte que j'avais posé une question n'ayant aucun rapport avec le thème du post, mais allant plutôt dans la section scenario et qu'ainsi aucune personne du site ne pouvait répondre, la réponse est.