Citizen Kane Page #4

Synopsis: When a reporter is assigned to decipher newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane's (Orson Welles) dying words, his investigation gradually reveals the fascinating portrait of a complex man who rose from obscurity to staggering heights. Though Kane's friend and colleague Jedediah Leland (Joseph Cotten), and his mistress, Susan Alexander (Dorothy Comingore), shed fragments of light on Kane's life, the reporter fears he may never penetrate the mystery of the elusive man's final word, "Rosebud."
Genre: Drama, Mystery
Director(s): Orson Welles
Production: RKO Radio Pictures
  Won 1 Oscar. Another 9 wins & 13 nominations.
 
IMDB:
8.4
Metacritic:
100
Rotten Tomatoes:
100%
PG
Year:
1941
119 min
853,816 Views


TITLE:

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

THE NAMES IN HIS OWN HEADLINES, WAS KANE HIMSELF, GREATEST

NEWSPAPER TYCOON OF THIS OR ANY OTHER GENERATION.

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

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

surrounded by the reversed rules of mourning, with masthead

and headlines. (1940)

DISSOLVE:

A great number of headlines, set in different types and

different styles, obviously from different papers, all

announcing Kane's death, all appearing over photographs of

Kane himself (perhaps a fifth of the headlines are in foreign

languages). An important item in connection with the headlines

is that many of them - positively not all - reveal passionately

conflicting opinions about Kane. Thus, they contain variously

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

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

TITLE:

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

YEARS HE WAS.

Newsreel shots of San Francisco during and after the fire,

followed by shots of special trains with large streamers: "Kane

Relief Organization." Over these shots superimpose the date -

1906.

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

if actual newsreel shot unavailable. Over this shot

sumperimpose the date - 1918.

NARRATOR:

Denver's Bonfils and Sommes; New

York's late, great Joseph Pulitzer;

America's emperor of the news

syndicate, another editorialist

and landlord, the still mighty and

once mightier Hearst. Great names

all of them - but none of them so

loved, hated, feared, so often

spoken - as Charles Foster Kane.

The San Francisco earthquake.

First with the news were the Kane

papers. First with Relief of the

Sufferers, First with the news of

their Relief of the Sufferers.

Kane papers scoop the world on the

Armistice - publish, eight hours

before competitors, complete details

of the Armistice teams granted the

Germans by Marshall Foch from his

railroad car in the Forest of

Compeigne. For forty years appeared

in Kane newsprint no public issue

on which Kane papers took no stand.

No public man whom Kane himself

did not support or denounce - often

support, then denounce. Its humble

beginnings, a dying dailey -

Rate this script:2.5 / 6 votes

Herman J. Mankiewicz

Herman Jacob Mankiewicz was an American screenwriter, who, with Orson Welles, wrote the screenplay for Citizen Kane. Earlier, he was the Berlin correspondent for the Chicago Tribune and the drama critic for The New York Times and The New Yorker. more…

All Herman J. Mankiewicz scripts | Herman J. Mankiewicz Scripts

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