"CITIZEN KANE" (1941)

CITIZEN KANE

Written by

Herman J. Mankiewicz

&

Orson Welles

PROLOGUE

FADE IN:

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 silhouette 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, giraffes.)

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:

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

DISSOLVE:

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 -

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:

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:

(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).

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:

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 -

Artist's painting of Foch's railroad car and peace negotiators, if actual newsreel shot unavailable. Over this shot sumperimpose the date - 1918.

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:

WOMAN SUFFRAGE

The celebrated newsreel shot of about 1914.

PROHIBITION

Breaking up of a speakeasy and such.

T.V.A.

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:

How, to boarding housekeeper Mary Kane, by a defaulting boarder, in was left the supposedly worthless deed to an abandoned mine shaft: The Colorado Lode. The magnificent Enquirer Building of today.

- 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.

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.

Loud laughter and confusion.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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"

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)

Newsreel shot of dignitaries on platform, with Kane, alongside of speaker's table, beaming, hand upraised to silence the crowd. (Silent Shot) (1910)

Eleven Kane papers, four Kane magazines merged, more sold, scrapped -

Newsreel 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."

DISSOLVE:

Cabinet 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.

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 encurring 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.

A short pause.

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, silhouettes and the big, bright image of Kane himself on the screen.

Then observations are made almost simultaneous.

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

A silence greets this.

Silence.

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

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?

There is a short silence.

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

The camera from behind him, outlines his back against Kane's picture on the screen.

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:

(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:

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.

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.

Low thunder from outside.

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

Thompson looks at the Captain, who shrugs his shoulders.

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.

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

They walk to the door.

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

FADE OUT:

FADE IN:

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.

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.

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:

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.

The guard has, by this time, delivered the precious journal. Bertha places it reverently on the table before Thompson.

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

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

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:

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.

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.

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 has met his eye. Her triumph over him finds expression in his failure to finish his sentence.

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

Mrs. Kane lifts the quill pen.

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

Mrs. Kane puts pen to the paper and signs.

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.

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.

He throws two snowballs, missing widely, and gets up and advances another five feet before getting on his knees again.

Kane Sr. closes the window.

Mrs. Kane rises and goes to the window.

Thatcher continues as she opens the window. His voice, as before, is heard with overtones of the boy's.

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.

He fires his snowball, well wide of the mark and falls flat on his stomach, starting to crawl carefully toward the snowman.

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

She can't say anymore. She starts for the hall day. Kane Sr., ill at ease, has no idea of how to comfort her.

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.

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.

Mrs. Kane smiles.

Kane stares at him.

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.

He's near enough to try to put a hand on Kane's shoulder. As he does, Kane kicks him in the ankle.

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

Thatcher is looking on indignantly, occasionally bending over to rub his ankle.

Mrs. Kane looks slowly at Mr. Kane.

DISSOLVE:

- NIGHT (STOCK OR MINIATURE)

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

DISSOLVE:

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.

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).

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.

Bernstein has come into the picture. He has a cable in his hand. He stops when he sees Thatcher.

You provide the prose poems - I'll provide the war.

Laughter from the boys and girls at the table.

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.

They cross the City Room together.

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

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

Thatcher doesn't understand him.

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

Thatcher thinks maybe the point has registered.

DISSOLVE:

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.

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:

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.

And now it's after the end. (turns to Thompson) Anything you want to know about him - about the paper -

Bernstein looks out of the window and keeps on looking, seeming to see something as he talks.

Such a fool like Thatcher - I tell you, nobody's business!

DISSOLVE OUT:

DISSOLVE IN:

Bernstein speaking to Thompson.

He leaves the sentence up in the air, as we

DISSOLVE:

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. Everybody is tense and expectant.

Somebody behind Bernstein has trouble concealing his laughter. The City Editor speaks quickly to cover the situation.

Leland is writing it up from the dramatic angle?

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.

The Hirelings rush, with Bernstein, to Kane's side. Widespread, half-suppressed sensation.

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

Kane looks at him for a minute.

The Hireling indicates the closed glass door of a little office at the other end of the City Room. Kane takes it in.

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 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 stares at him.

Bernstein looks over nearsightedly, painfully reading the paragraph written on the page.

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

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.

Bernstein retreats from the room.

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:

Bernstein speaking to Thompson.

On these last words, we

DISSOLVE:

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.

They are following Carter to his raised platform.

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.

Bernstein looks up.

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

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.

DISSOLVE:

Kane, in his shirt sleeves, at a roll-top desk in the Sanctrum, 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.

(looks to make sure of the name) A Mrs. Harry Silverstone. Why didn't the "Enquirer" have that this morning?

Kane has finished eating. He pushes away his plates.

If we were interested in that kind of thing, Mr. Kane, we could fill the paper twice over daily -

Loudly, so that the neighbors can hear.

Kane isn't listening to him.

Bernstein looks up from his figures.

Kane looks at Leland with a fond nod of his head at Bernstein. Leland grins back. Mr. Carter, meantime, has risen stiffly.

Carter, with a look that runs just short of apoplexy, leaves the room, closing the door behind him.

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

DISSOLVE:

NIGHT -

The ground floor with the 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.

The "Enquirer" is not in competition with those other rags.

Kane looks up.

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

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.

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

He starts out of the room, followed by Leland.

DISSOLVE OUT:

DISSOLVE IN:

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:

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 rises from the chair, stretching painfully.

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.

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

Kane grabs a piece of rough paper and a grease crayon. Sitting down on the bed next to Bernstein, he starts to write.

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 silhouette. 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 continues 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 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:

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.

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:

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.

The photographic subjects rise.

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.

General applause.

Applause.

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 Building 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.

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.

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 - JOURNALIST."

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.

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.

Kane and Leland and Bernstein start up the gangplank.

Kane leaves Leland and Bernstein midway up gangplank, as he rushes up to it, calling back with a wave:

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

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:

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:

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.

The order is immediately obeyed, everybody going into business of feverish activity.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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 Townsend and waves his hand.

Bernstein and Miss Townsend at window.

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:

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

(A PAUSE) You know, I was thinking - that Rosebud you're trying to find out about -

FADE OUT:

FADE IN:

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.

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.

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?

If I wasn't, he never had one. Maybe I was what nowadays you call a stooge -

DISSOLVE OUT:

DISSOLVE IN:

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.

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

His tone causes Bernstein to look at him.

The above speeches are heard under the following dialogue.

Kane whistles. The band and the chorus girls enter and hell breaks loose all around Leland and Bernstein.

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

Georgie, a very handsome madam has walked into the picture, stands behind him. She leans over and speaks quietly in his ear.

Leland nods.

Leland shudders.

Brad doesn't answer.

DISSOLVE OUT:

DISSOLVE IN:

Georgie is introducing a young lady to Branford Leland. On sound track we hear piano music.

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

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

DISSOLVE OUT:

DISSOLVE IN:

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:

As told by Bernstein. Kane is calling down to Leland and Bernstein (as before).

A band on deck strikes up "Auld Lang Syne" and further ship- to- shore conversation is rendered unfeasible.

Bernstein and Leland on deck.

Slight pause. They continue on their way.

This stops Bernstein. Bernstein looks at him.

Am I a horse-faced hypocrite? Am I a New England school-marm?

Leland is surprised.

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

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.

Leland and Thompson. Leland is speaking as we dissolve.

Thompson had handed Leland a paper.

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.

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

DISSOLVE OUT:

DISSOLVE IN:

DAY -

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 Secretary rises. Kane, with every bit of will power remotely at his disposal to control what might become an hysterical outburst, manages to bow.

He starts out of the office.

DISSOLVE:

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.

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

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 is spelling out the words: "ASSASSINATED

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:

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

DISSOLVE OUT:

DISSOLVE IN:

Kane in shirtsleeves at phone.

DISSOLVE:

Headline under "Enquirer" masthead which reads:

"PRESIDENT ASSASSINATED" Newsboy is crying the headline at the same time. We pull back to show him and -

DISSOLVE:

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:

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.

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

Kane stops - looks at him.

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

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.

Bernstein leaves the picture with sympathetic attendance. Leland finishes his second drink.

DISSOLVE:

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

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.

He rises and goes to the door.

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

Kane goes around behind the desk and sits down.

Kane looks at Leland sharply before he speaks.

Kane takes this in.

No answer from Kane.

Still no answer from Kane.

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.

And there's practically no opera season at all - and the Lord only knows whether they've ever heard of Lobster Newburg -

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

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

Leland shakes his head. Kane lifts his glass.

DISSOLVE:

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.

Leland has a handkerchief to his face.

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

It seems to me that the new dramatic critic of our Chicago paper should get what he's worth. (almost as a question)

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

DISSOLVE OUT:

DISSOLVE IN:

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.

The nurse looks at Emily.

The nurse, unwilling, leaves.

Silence.

Still silence.

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

He waits for her to continue.

She sits up and looks at the crib. She almost continues to look at the crib, with almost unseeing eyes.

Kane is about to say something, but bites his lips instead. Emily keeps staring at him.

Emily nods several times. There is an uncomfortable silence. Suddenly there is a cry from the crib. Emily leaps from the bed and rushes to him. She bends over the crib.

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

DISSOLVE OUT:

DISSOLVE IN:

By the desk light, Kane is seen working with his usual intensity, Reilly standing beside him at the desk.

Kane is perplexed and worried, but we can see in a moment his mind will be on something else.

Kane doesn't answer. Reilly goes on. He has brought out a piece of paper and is reading it.

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:

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.

Terrific screaming and cheering from the audience.

DISSOLVE OUT:

The Speaker's Platform. Numerous officials and civic leaders are crowding around Kane. Cameramen take flash photographs with old-fashioned flash powder.

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.

Kane pats him on the shoulder as he walks along.

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.

Kane is very pleased. He continues with Reilly slowly through the crowd - a band playing off. Bernstein joins him.

Kane indicates he is to proceed.

DISSOLVE:

Emily and Junior are standing, waiting for Kane.

Just then, Kane appears, with Reilly and several other men. Kane rushes toward Emily and Junior, as the men politely greet Emily.

There are good nights. Kane's car is at the curb and he starts to walk toward it with Junior and Emily.

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

A cab has pulled up.

Emily nods to him.

Kane's reaction indicates that the address definitely means something to him.

Kane nods.

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

DISSOLVE:

Kane and Emily. He looks at her, in search of some kind of enlightenment. Her face is set and impassive.

DISSOLVE:

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

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

They enter, Emily first.

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.

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)

(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 -

(he has to control himself from hurling himself at Kane) It's pretty clear - I'm not a gentleman.

(she leaves her sentence unfinished)

Kane starts to stare at him intently.

Emily looks at Kane.

If you want to know, they've already decided. The election Tuesday'll be only -

Emily looks at him.

She looks at him. He starts to work himself into a rage.

(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.

She walks out. Rogers stops as he gets directly in front of Kane.

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 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:

Emily is opening the door for Leland.

He pauses. Leland comes in. Emily closes the door.

She doesn't have anything to say.

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.

Leland puts his hat unconsciously on his coat by the newspaper.

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.

He stops himself.

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:

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:

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).

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.

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.

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 turns incredulously to Bernstein.

Leland picks his way across the City Room to Kane's side. Kane goes on typing, without looking up. After a pause, Kane speaks.

(ANOTHER PAUSE) I didn't know we were speaking.

Kane stops typing, but doesn't turn.

He starts typing again, the expression on his face doesn't change.

DISSOLVE OUT:

DISSOLVE IN:

Thompson and Leland on the roof, which is now deserted. It is getting late. The sun has just about gone down.

A Nurse appears.

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:

NEON SIGN ON THE ROOF:

"EL RANCHO"

FLOOR SHOW

SUSAN ALEXANDER KANE

Very faintly during this, idle piano music playing.

DISSOLVE:

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 is thinking.

Thompson looks at her.

DISSOLVE OUT:

DISSOLVE IN:

YORK -

NIGHT -

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.

Susan, taking her handkerchief from her jaw, roars with laughter.

He bites his lip and rubs his knee again. Susan tries to control her laughter, but not very successfully. Kane glares at her.

Suddenly, the pain returns and she claps her hand to her jaw.

He has been rubbing his clothes with his handkerchief.

Susan starts to laugh again.

In the middle of her smile, the pain returns.

Susan starts, with Kane following her.

DISSOLVE:

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.

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.

Again she puts her hand to her jaw.

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.

Her face distorts in pain again.

Kane, with soaped hands, has rubbed his face and now cannot open his eyes, for fear of getting soap in them.

Susan comes out of the closet. She holds out the brush with her left hand, her right hand to her jaw in real distress.

Susan can't stand it anymore and sits down in a chair, bent over, whimpering a bit.

He stops and thinks. Susan, her face averted, is still trying hard not to cry.

Slowly, Susan turns.

It takes a second for Susan to adapt herself to this.

He's still wiggling his ears as Susan starts to smile.

Susan smiles, very broadly.

DISSOLVE:

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 is bewildered.

Kane doesn't finish. He looks at Susan. Silence.

A sudden look comes over Kane's face.

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.

DISSOLVE:

Susan tosses down a drink, then goes on with her story.

Thompson doesn't answer.

DISSOLVE:

Susan is singing. Matisti, her voice teacher, is playing the piano. Kane is seated nearby. Matisti stops.

There is a silence. Matisti rises.

DISSOLVE:

It is the same opening night - it is the same moment as before - except that 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.

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 -

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:

Some weeks later. Susan, in a negligee, is at the window. There are the remains of her breakfast tray on a little table.

Kane rises and walks toward her. There is cold menace in his walk. Susan shrinks a little as he draws closer to her.

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:

The camera angles across the bed and Susan's form towards the door, from the other side of which voices can be heard.

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.

He rushes out. Susan is breathing, but heavily. Kane loosens the lace collar at her throat.

DISSOLVE:

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.

Kane nods. He has a small bottle in his hand.

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:

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's head turns and she looks at him silently with pathetic eyes.

Gratefully, Susan, with difficulty, brings her other hand over to cover his.

DISSOLVE:

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.

There is no answer.

Kane looks at her smilingly and turns back to his work.

There is no answer.

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:

Another picture puzzle.

Camera pulls back to show Kane and Susan in much the same positions as before, except that they are older.

Susan shoots him an angry glance. She isn't amused.

Kane has looked at her steadily, not hostilely.

Kane turns away - to Bernstein.

On the soundtrack we hear the following lines of dialogue:

During this, camera holds on closeup of Susan's face. She is very angry.

DISSOLVE:

Long shot - of a number of classy tents.

DISSOLVE OUT:

DISSOLVE IN:

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.

Kane turns to look at her.

She looks at him, with no lessening of her passion.

Without a word, Kane slaps her across the face. They look at each other.

Kane continues to look at her.

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:

Kane is a the window looking out. He turns as he hears Raymond enter.

Raymond waits as Kane hesitates.

Kane impetuously walks past him out of the room.

Packed suitcases are on the floor, Susan is completely dressed for traveling. Kane bursts into the room.

She leaves. Kane closes the door behind her.

Susan looks at him.

Kane is standing against the door as if physically barring her way.

Kane keeps looking at her. Susan reaches out her hand.

He has lost all pride. Susan stops. She is affected by this.

She is staring at him. She might weaken.

It's as if he had thrown ice water into her face. She freezes.

She walks out, past Kane, who turns to watch her go, like a very tired old man.

DISSOLVE OUT:

DISSOLVE IN:

Susan and Thompson at a table. There is silence between them for a moment.

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.

FADE OUT:

FADE IN:

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.

DISSOLVE:

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).

Fred finishes typing and then looks up.

There is the sound of the buzzer on the switchboard. Katherine puts in a plug and answers the call.

DISSOLVE:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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:

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 - 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

Kane looks right through him. Raymond cuts him short.

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.

Raymond is now convinced that the old master is very far gone indeed - not to say off his trolley.

He looks at the grave next to his son's - the grave marked

"MARY KANE."

A short pause. His eyes still on the wall, but looking through it, Kane quotes the translation.

Kane still stares at the wall, through it, and way beyond it. Raymond looks at him.

DISSOLVE OUT:

DISSOLVE IN:

Thompson and Raymond. Raymond has finished his beer.

Thompson doesn't answer.

Thompson has risen. Raymond gets to his feet and goes to the door, opening it for him.

Raymond ushers Thompson into

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

The Photographer and his Assistant start to move off with their equipment towards a large sculpture in another part of the hall.

A flashlight bulb goes off.

Thompson has opened a box and is idly playing with a handful of little pieces of cardboard.

Raymond laughs.

Thompson has turned around. He is facing the camera for the first time.

Another flash bulb goes off. The Photographer turns to Thompson with a grin.

The music has stopped. The dancers have come over to Thompson.

He drops the jigsaw pieces back into the box, looking at his watch.

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:

A large furnace, with an open door, dominates the scene. Two laborers, with shovels, are shoveling things into the furnace. Raymond is about ten feet away.

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.

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: