RKO 281 Page #12

She nods and leaves the room We linger on Hearst, his expression dark

and dangerous.

INT. SCHAEFER'S OFFICE_EVENING

Welles reclines on a sofa, smoking a cigar, orating, while Schaefer

sits at his desk absently flipping through the evening edition of the

LA EXAMINER.

WELLES:

Give me one dinner with her and I'll sort it out.

Woman of a certain age are woefully susceptible to a

younger man's charm. I'll make myself so

monumentally attractive that

He is distracted by Schaefer flipping through the newspaper anxiously.

Schaefer tears back and forth in the paper and then swivels around in

his chair to grab another newspaper. He flips through it. And then

stops.

SCHAEFER:

(sickened)

Oh Christ...

Welles leaps up and goes to Schaefer's desk.

Schaefer has placed the two newspapers side by side on his desk.

He points to one

SCHAEFER:

This is the morning edition of the EXAMINER.

He points to the other

SCHAEFER:

And this is the evening edition. Notice anything?

WELLES:

The ad..

Indeed, the morning edition contains a large ad for the RKO movie KITTY

FOYLE. In the evening edition the ad has been replaced by innocuous

copy.

SCHAEFER:

They dumped our ad.

He flips through the evening edition and then looks up at Welles.

SCHAEFER:

(quietly)

They dumped all our ads.

INT. MAYER'S OFFICE_DAY

Louis B. Mayer sits at his massive desk, taking notes Hearst sweeps in.

Mayer is surprised.

HEARST:

Louis

MAYER:

Randolph!

HEARST:

Hope you don't mind my popping in--

MAYER:

No -- no -- sit down, please

HEARST:

(sitting)

What a wretched place this is. I can't come to town

without feeling filthy. You really must buy that

parcel of land by the castle and come north.

I only wish I could. You know, business

HEARST:

Quite. And this is why I came to visit. Have you

heard about this CITIZEN KANE picture?

MAYER:

Over at RKO?

A beat.

HEARST:

Mm. Not a very good picture I am told.

MAYER:

(confused)

Uh-hub.

HEARST:

Apparently it details the exploits of a publisher

like myself. Entirely too much like myself. Do you

follow so far?

MAYER:

Yeah

A beat.

HEARST:

I can't see how the release of that picture will do

anyone any good, really.

HEARST:

Say, while I'm in town why don't we play 18 holes

at Bel Air? Or maybe just nine. Do you have time for

a round today?

He gazes at Mayer. Mayer looks at him, disquieted

A pause.

A beat

HEARST:

And maybe we could get Mr. Warner and Mr. Goldwyn

and Mr. Cohn and Mr. Selznick to play as well.

MAYER:

(quietly)

You know that can't happen.

HEARST:

Oh, why is that?

HEARST:

Why is that, Louis?

MAYER:

Bel Air is restricted.

HEARST:

Oh, that's right. How silly of me to have

forgotten. I sometimes forget that you're all Jews.

Lots of people forget that. If they ever knew it.

A tense pause

HEARST:

See what you can do about this CITIZEN KANE

picture, won't you?

MAYER:

(quietly)

Yeah

Hearst stands.

HEARST:

And you'll come out to the castle soon, I hope

Marion and I would love to see more of you.

He smiles and goes. Mayer sits, shaken

INT. BROWN DERBY_NIGHT

Schaefer sits with Louella in her corner booth

LOUELLA:

That's right, fella, no Hearst paper will run an

RKO ad until you agree that CITIZEN KANE will never

see the light of day.

SCHAEFER:

Louella, please, be reasonable, I understand you

have problems with Orson's picture but maybe we can

work something out--

LOUELLA:

Nix, sweetie. You shelve it

SCHAEFER:

Oh for God's sake, Louella-

LOUELLA:

And Mr. Hearst has authorized me to tell you that

you're looking at the most beautiful lawsuit in

history if you release this picture. He'll bleed

your little studio dry and you can all go on back to

New York and do Shakespeare with the Boy Wonder.

SCHAEFER:

Can I talk to Hearst?

LOUELLA:

You are talking to him.

INT SAN SIMEON. ASSEMBLY ROOM DAY

Hearst stands with his arms behind his back, very Kane-like, and

surveys a collection of about 30 newspapers spread around the floor at

his feet. His newspapers.

Marion sits in a corner, doing needlepoint. Hearst picks up one of his

papers

HEARST:

The Journal was pretty harsh to Roosevelt today.

MARION:

You oughta lay off him -- he is the p-p-president,

after all.

HEARST:

He is a Bolshevik. He will have us at war by the

end of the year. I think I'm going to run that

wheelchair picture.

MARION:

Don't

She holds up her needlepoint

MARION:

Whaddaya think?

It is a sampler reading: BLESS THIS CASTLE He laughs

JOE WILLICOMBE, Hearst's private secretary, enters quietly. Willicombe

is a serious and sensitive man in his 60's. He is unquestioningly loyal

to the old man.

WILLICOMBE:

Sir, we got the call.

A moment. Hearst looks at him. Willicombe shakes his head sadly.

HEARST:

Thank you, Joseph.

Willicombe glides out

A long pause as Hearst moves to a window and stares down at his domain.

Marion watches him.

MARION:

How bad is it?

HEARST:

Nothing for you to worry about, darling

MARION:

Pops

A beat

HEARST:

The S.E.C. has turned down my request for relief on

the debts.

MARION:

How much?

HEARST:

It's not really--

MARION:

How much?

A -beat

HEARST:

125 million.

She is absolutely stunned. A pause

MARION:

(softly)

We're 125 million dollars in debt?

HEARST:

Yes.

A pause

Hearst continues to gaze out the window. Marion goes to him and holds

him tenderly. ;

They look down at the massive San Simeon estate spreading out like

Wonderland below them.

INT:

MARION:

How does one get 125 million dollars in debt?

HEARST:

One . . . buys things.

INT. RECORDING STAGE_NIGHT

KANE composer BERNARD HERMANN stands before an orchestra, going over

some of the music for KANE. He tries various measures and makes

adjustments. A movie screen is ready to run sections of the film.

Welles sits at the back of the room, talking quietly to Gregg Toland.

Welles is bewitching, spinning a web:

WELLES:

We open on Monument Valley. Those towering

stalagmites reaching up like pleading fingers to

God. A single figure treads the arid plains. The

crimson sun is behind him so his shadow stretches

toward us. He is a simple man wearing a simple robe.

A profoundly quiet and sad man. Who is he?

Bernard Hermann turns back to Welles and Toland

BERNARD HERMANN:

Orson, please..

WELLES:

(whispering, to Toland)

Who is he, Gregg?

TOLAND:

(realizing)

Oh, no--

WELLES:

Yes!

TOLAND:

He's Christ?

WELLES:

I'm Christ

TOLAND:

You want to do the life of Jesus?

WELLES:

Yes! Vibrant and modern and stark like a Picasso

sketch drawn to flashes of lightning I We shoot the

whole thing in the gallant American West--

Mank joins them, carrying a newspaper.

MANK:

Hey, kid. Gregg.

WELLES:

Mank, sit down. You missed the opening of the new

picture but I'll go back--

MANK:

No, you gotta hear this-

BERNARD HERMANN:

(snapping back at them)

I'm trying to work here!

WELLES:

Sorry, you keep at it, old boy.

He leads Toland and Mank out of the stage and into the sound proof

recording booth...

INT. _SOUND BOOTH

A few sound engineers and mixers work over recording panels and watch

Hermann and the orchestra as Welles, Toland and Mank enter.

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