Citizen Kane Page #4

THATCHER:

(reading it)

"With full awareness of the meaning

of my words and the responsibility

of what I am about to say, it is

my considered belief that Mr.

Charles Foster Kane, in every

essence of his social beliefs and

by the dangerous manner in which

he has persistently attacked the

American traditions of private

property, initiative and opportunity

for advancement, is - in fact -

nothing more or less than a

Communist."

Newsreel of Union Square meeting, section of crowd carrying

banners urging the boycott of Kane papers. A speaker is on

the platform above the crowd.

SPEAKER:

(fading in on

soundtrack)

- till the words "Charles Foster

Kane" are a menace to every working

man in this land. He is today

what he has always been and always

will be - A FASCIST!

NARRATOR:

And yet another opinion - Kane's

own.

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

the magnificent Enquirer building. On platform, in full

ceremonial dress, is Charles Foster Kane. He orates silently.

TITLE:

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

CHARLES FOSTER KANE.

Same locale, Kane shaking hands out of frame.

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

older and much fatter, very tired-looking, seated with his

second wife in a nightclub. He looks lonely and unhappy in

the midst of the gaiety.

NARRATOR:

Twice married, twice divorced -

first to a president's niece, Emily

Norton - today, by her second

marriage, chatelaine of the oldest

of England's stately homes. Sixteen

years after that - two weeks after

his divorce from Emily Norton -

Kane married Susan Alexander,

singer, at the Town Hall in Trenton,

New Jersey.

TITLE:

FEW PRIVATE LIVES WERE MORE PUBLIC.

Period still of Emily Norton (1900).

DISSOLVE:

Reconstructed silent newsreel. Kane, Susan, and Bernstein

emerging from side doorway of City Hall into a ring of press

photographers, reporters, etc. Kane looks startled, recoils

for an instance, then charges down upon the photographers,

laying about him with his stick, smashing whatever he can hit.

NARRATOR:

For wife two, one-time opera singing

Susan Alexander, Kane built

Chicago's Municipal Opera House.

Cost:
three million dollars.

Conceived for Susan Alexander Kane,

half-finished before she divorced

him, the still unfinished Xanadu.

Cost:
no man can say.

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

of the Chicago Municipal Opera House.

DISSOLVE:

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

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

Then shots of its preparation. (1917)

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

with tremendous noise.

Shots of vast dredges, steamshovels.

Shot of ship standing offshore unloading its lighters.

In quick succession, shots follow each other, some

reconstructed, some in miniature, some real shots (maybe from

the dam projects) of building, digging, pouring concrete, etc.

NARRATOR:

One hundred thousand trees, twenty

thousand tons of marble, are the

ingredients of Xanadu's mountain.

Xanadu's livestock: the fowl of

the air, the fish of the sea, the

beast of the field and jungle -

two of each; the biggest private

zoo since Noah. Contents of Kane's

palace:
paintings, pictures,

statues, the very stones of many

another palace, shipped to Florida

from every corner of the earth,

from other Kane houses, warehouses,

where they mouldered for years.

Enough for ten museums - the loot

of the world.

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

large mountain - at different periods in its development -

rising out of the sands.

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

shipped, etc. in various ways.

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

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

Arabian, Chinese, etc.) but all consigned to Charles Foster

Kane, Xanadu, Florida.

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

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

clearly recognizable, are Kane and Susan.

NARRATOR:

Kane urged his country's entry

into one war, opposed participation

in another. Swung the election to

one American President at least,

was called another's assassin.

Thus, Kane's papers might never

have survived - had not the

President.

TITLE:

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

ENTERPRISES HAVE BEEN DIRECTED, MANY OF THE NATIONS DESTINIES

SHAPED.

Rate this script:2.5 / 6 votes