Citizen Kane

This is a companion to Citizen Kane - the film that was designed to shock (Kenneth Tynan) - one of the best-known movies in the history of Hollywood. Not only was it Orson Welles's first film as actor and director but most of the cast were also new to the cinema. Yet so controversial was the subject matter that an 842,000 US dollar bribe and concentration wrath of the Hearst newspaper empire combined in an attempt to strangle its distribution. The authorship of the film is still a subject of conflict. Pauline Keal's essay, Raising Kane, dissects a maze of Hollywood lore to re-evaluate these and other stories about the making of this film. Her account is followed by the original screenplay, illustrated with over 40 stills and frame enlargements, together with notes on the difference between the script and the final film.