CITIZEN KANE
1941, RKO, Directed by Orson Welles, Screenplay by Orson Welles,
Herman J. Mankiewicz
Orson Welles
Joseph Cotten
Dorothy Cumminger
KANE
Rosebud.
NARRATOR
News on the march.
CAPTION READS
Obituary: Xanadu's Landlord. In Zanadu did Kubla Khan a stately
pleasure dome decree--"
NARRATOR
Legendary was the Xanadu where Kubla Kahn decreed his stately
pleasure dome. 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 and
successfully built. One hundred thousand trees, twenty thousand
tons of marble are the ingredients of Xanadu's mountain. Contents
of Xanadu's palace -- paintings, pictures, statues, the very
stones of many another palace. A collection of everything, so big
that can never be catalogued or appraised. Enough for ten
museums. The loot of the world. Xanadu's livestock -- the fowl of
the air, the fish of the sea, the beasts of the field and jungle.
Two of each, the biggest private zoo since Noah. Like the
pharaohs, Xanadu's landlord leaves many stones to mark his grave.
Since the pyramids, Xanadu is the costliest monument a man has
built to himself.
CAPTION READS
In Xanadu last week was held 1941's biggest strangest funeral.
NARRATOR
Here in Xanadu last week, Xanadu's landlord was laid to rest. A
potent figure of our Century -- America's Kubla Kahn -- Charles
Foster Kane.
NEWSPAPER HEADLINES READ
Charles Foster Kane dies after lifetime of service; C.F. Kane
Dies at Zanadu Estate; Death Calls Publisher Charles Kane; Kane,
Sponsor of Democracy, Dies; Kane, Leader of News World, Called by
Death at Xanadu; End Comes for Charles Foster Kane; Mort du grand
Editeur C.F. Kane; El Sr. Kane Se Murio;
(Russian Newspaper Headline)
;
(Japanese Newspaper Headline)
CAPTION READS
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.
NARRATOR
Its humble beginning in this ramshackle old building a dying
daily. Kane's empire, in its glory held dominion over thirty-
seven newspapers, two syndicates, a radio network. An empire upon
an empire. The first of grocery stores, paper mills, apartment
buildings, factories, forests, ocean liners. An empire through
which for fifty years flowed, in an unending stream, the wealth
of the earth's third richest gold mine. Famed in American legend
is the origin of the Kane fortune... how to boarding-housekeeper
Mary Kane, by a defaulting boarder, in eighteen sixty-eight was
left the supposedly worthless deed to an abandoned mine shaft,
The Colorado Lode. Fifty-seven years later, before a
Congressional Investigation, Walter P. Thatcher, grand old man of
Wall Street, for years chief target of Kane Papers' attacks on
trusts, recalls a journey he made as a youth.
THATCHER
My firm had been appointed trustee by Mrs. Kane for the large
fortune, which she'd recently acquired. It was her wish that I
should take charge of this boy, this Charles Foster Kane.
INVESTIGATOR
Is it not a fact that on this occasion that boy, Charles Foster
Kane, personally attacked you after striking you in the stomach
with a sled?
THATCHER
Mr. Chairman, Chairman, I shall read to the committee a prepared
statement which I have brought with me. And I shall then refuse
to answer any further questions. "Mr. Charles Foster Kane, in
every essence of his social beliefs and by the dangerous manner
in which he has persistently attacked the American tradition of
private property, initiative and opportunity for advancement, is
in fact nothing more or less than a Communist!"
NARRATOR
That same month in Union Square.
SPEAKER
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 still another opinion...
CAPTION READS
I am, have been, and will be only one thing - An American.
CAPTION READS
1895 to 1941. All of these years he covered many of these he was
NARRATOR
Kane urged his country's entry into one war, opposed
participation inanother, swung the election to one American
President at least, spoke for millions of Americans, was hated by
as many more. 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.
CAPTION READS
Few private lives were more public.
NARRATOR
Twice married, twice divorced. First to a President's niece,
Emily Norton, who left him in nineteen sixteen, died nineteen
eighteen in a motor accident with their son. Sixteen years after
his first marriage, two weeks after his first divorce, Kane
married Susan Alexander, singer, at the Town Hall in Trenton, New
Jersey.
POSTER READS
Chicago Municipal Opera House Presents Susan Alexander.
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.
CAPTION READS
In politics - always a bridesmaid, never a bride.
NARRATOR
Kane, molder of mass opinion though he was, in all his life was
never granted elective office by the voters of his country. But
Kane papers were once strong indeed, and once the prize seemed
almost his. In nineteen sixteen, as Independent Candidate for
Governor, the best elements of the State behind him, the White
House seemingly the next easy step in a lightning political
career. Then, suddenly, less than one week before election -
defeat!
CHRONICLE HEADLINE READS
Candidate Kane caught in Love Nest with "Singer"
NARRATOR
Shameful, ignominious, defeat that set back for twenty years the
cause of Reform in the U.S., forever cancelled political chances
for Charles Foster Kane.
CAPTION READS
1929
NARRATOR
Then, in the first year of the great depression, a Kane paper
closes! For Kane, in four short years: collapse! Eleven Kane
papers merged, more sold, scrapped.
CAPTION READS
But America still reads Kane newspapers and Kane himself was
always news. 1935.
REPORTER(BONES)
Is that correct?
KANE
Don't believe everything you hear on the radio. Read the
Inquirer.
REPORTER(BONES)
How did you find the business conditions in Europe?
KANE
Uh, how did I find the business conditions in Europe, Mr. Bones?
With great difficulty.
REPORTER(BONES)
You're glad to be back, Mr. Kane?
KANE
With great difficulty. I'm always glad to be back, young man. I'm
an American. Always been an American. Anything else? When I was a
reporter, we asked them quicker than that. Come on, young fellow.
REPORTER(BONES)
What do you think of the chances for war in Europe?
KANE
I talked with the responsible leaders of Great Powers England,
France, Germany and Italy. They are too intelligent to embark on
a project which would mean the end of the civilization, as we now
know it. You can take my word for it. There'll be no war.
NARRATOR
Kane helped to change the world, but Kane's world now is history.
The great yellow journalist himself lived to be history. Outlived
his power to make it. Alone in his never finished, already
decaying, pleasure palace, aloof, seldom visited, never
photographed, an emperor of newsprint continued to direct his
failing empire, vainly attempted to sway, as he once did, the
destinies of a nation that has ceased to listen to him, ceased to
trust him.
NEON SIGN READS
Latest News--Charles Foster Kane is Dead
NARRATOR
Then last week, as it must to all men, death came to Charles
Foster Kane. News on the march.
SCREEN READS
The End.
MAN'S VOICE 1
That's it.
MAN'S VOICE 2
Hello, hello. Stand by. I'll tell you if we want to run it again.
THOMPSON
Well, how about it, Mr. Walter?
WALTER
How do you like it, boys?
MAN'S VOICE 3
Well, seventy years in a man's life...
RAWLSTON
That's a lot to try to get into a newsreel. It's a good show,
Thompson. But it needs is an angle.
EVERYBODY IN ROOM
Yes!
RAWLSTON
All we saw in that screen was that Charles Foster Kane is dead. I
know that. I read the papers.
EVERYBODY IN ROOM
(laugh)
RAWLSTON
You see, Thompson. It isn't enough to tell us what the man did.
You've got to tell us who he was.
MAN'S VOICE 4
Needs an angle...
RAWLSTON
Certainly! Wait a minute! What were Kane's last words? Do you
remember, boys?
MAN'S VOICE5
Yes. Yeah.
RAWLSTON
What were the last words he said on earth? Maybe he told us all
about himself on his death bed.
THOMPSON
Yeah, maybe he didn't. Maybe he was...
RAWLSTON
All we saw on that screen was a big American.
THOMPSON
One of the biggest.
RAWLSTON
But how was he different from Ford or Hearst for that matter, or
John Doe?
MAN'S VOICE 6
Yeah, sure.
RAWLSTON
I tell you, Thompson. A man's dying words.
MAN'S VOICE 7
What were they?
THOMPSON
You don't read the papers.
RAWLSTON
When Charles Foster Kane died, he said just one word.
THOMPSON
Rosebud.
MAN'S VOICE6
Is that all he said?
THOMPSON
Yeah.
MAN'S VOICE 6
Tough guy, huh? Dies calling for Rosebud.
RAWLSTON
Yes. Rosebud. Just that one word. But who is she?
MAN'S VOICE 8
What was it?
RAWLSTON
Here's a man who could have been President, who was as loved and
hated and talked about as any man in our time. But when he comes
to die, he's got something on his mind called Rosebud. Now, what
does that mean?
MAN'S VOICE 8
A racehorse he bet on once.
MAN'S VOICE 6
Yeah, it didn't come in.
RAWLSTON
All right! But where was the race?
MAN'S VOICE 9
Rosebud.
RAWLSTON
Thompson!
THOMPSON
Yes, sir.
RAWLSTON
Hold this picture up for a week. Two weeks if you have to.
THOMPSON
But don't you think right after his death it might be better...
RAWLSTON
Find out about the Rosebud! Get in touch with everybody that ever
knew him, or knew him well. That manager of his, uh, Bernstein.
His second wife, she is still living.
MAN'S VOICE 10
Susan Alexander Kane. She's running a nightclub in Atlantic City.
MAN'S VOICE11
Yeah, I'll try it.
RAWLSTON
See them all. Get in touch with everybody that ever worked for
him, whoever loved him, whoever hated his guts. I don't mean go
through the City Directory, of course.
THOMPSON
I'll get on it right away, Mr. Rawlston.
RAWLSTON
Good! Rosebud, dead or alive. It'll probably turn out to be a
very simple thing.
SIGN READS
El Rancho Floor Show, Susan Alexander Kane, Twice Nightly
JOHN
Miss Alexander? This is Mr. Thompson, Miss Alexander.
SUSAN
I want another drink, John.
JPHN
Right away. Will you have something, Mr. Thompson?
THOMPSON
I'll have a highball, please.
SUSAN
Who told you you could sit down?
THOMPSON
I thought maybe we could have a talk together.
SUSAN
Well, think again. Why don't you people leave me alone? I'm
minding my own business. You mind yours.
THOMPSON
If I could just have a little talk with you, Miss Alexander. All
I ask you...
SUSAN
Get out of here. Get out!
THOMPSON
Sorry.
SUSAN
Get out.
THOMPSON
Maybe some other time.
SUSAN
Yeah.
JOHN
Gino... give her another highball. She just won't talk to nobody,
Mr. Thompson.
THOMPSON
Okay.
GINO
Another double
JOHN
Yeah.
THOMPSON
Hello, I want New York City, Cortland seven-nine-nine-seven-oh.
This is Atlantic City, four-six-eight-two-seven. All right. Hey,
she's...
JOHN
Yeah. She'll snap out of it. Until he died, she'd just as soon
talk about Mr. Kane as about anybody. Sooner.
THOMPSON
Hello? This is Thompson. Let me talk to the chief, will you?
Hello, Mr. Rawlston? She won't talk. The second Mrs. Kane, about
Rosebud or anything else. I'm calling from Atlantic City. From
tomorrow on, I'm going over Philadelphia to Thatcher Library to
see that private dairy of his. Yeah, they're expecting me. Then
I've got an appointment in New York with Kane's general manager.
What's his name? Uh, Bernstein. Then I'm coming back here. Yeah,
I'll see everybody if they're still alive. Goodbye, Mr. Rawlston.
Hey, uh...
JOHN
John.
THOMPSON
John. You just might be able to help me. We just talked about Mr.
Kane. Did she ever say anything about Rosebud?
JOHN
Rosebud? Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Thanks. As a matter of fact,
just the other day, when the papers were full of it, I asked her.
She never heard of Rosebud.
SIGN READS
Walter Parks Thatcher
MISS ANDERSON
The directors of the Thatcher Memorial Library have asked me to
remind you again, Mr. Thompson, of the conditions under which you
may inspect certain portions of Mr. Thatcher's unpublished
memoirs. Yes, Jennings.
THOMPSON
I remember...
MISS ANDERSON
I'll bring him right in.
THOMPSON
All I want to know is...
MISS ANDERSON
Under no circumstances are direct quotations from his manuscript
to be used by you. You may come with me.
THOMPSON
That's all right. I'm just looking for one...
MISS ANDERSON
Jennings. Thank you, Jennings.
GUARD
Yes, Miss Anderson.
MISS ANDERSON
Mr. Thompson, you will be required to leave this room at four-
thirty promptly. You will confine yourself, it is our
understanding, to the chapters in Mr. Thatcher's manuscript
regarding Mr. Kane.
THOMPSON
That's all I'm interested in. Thank you.
MISS ANDERSON
Pages eighty-three to one-forty-two.
MANUSCRIPT READS
Charles Foster Kane. I first encountered Mr Kane in 1871
SIGN READS
Mrs. Kanes Boarding House
KANE
Come on, boys! The union forever!
MRS. KANE
Be careful, Charles!
THATCHER
Mrs. Kane.
MRS. KANE
Pull your muffler around your neck, Charles.
THATCHER
Mrs. Kane, I think we'll have to tell him now.
MRS. KANE
Yes. I'll sign those papers now, Mr. Thatcher.
KANE,SR.
You people seem to forget that I'm the boy's father.
MRS. KANE
It's going to be done exactly the way I've told Mr. Thatcher.
KANE,SR.
There ain't nothing wrong with Colorado. I don't see why we can't
raise our own son just because we come into some money. If I want
to, I can go to court. A father has a right to. A boarder that
beats his bill and leaves worthless stock behind. That property
is just as much my property as anybody's. Now that it's valuable.
If Fred Graves has any idea all this is gonna happen, he'd have
made out those certificates in both our names.
THATCHER
However, they were made out in Mrs. Kane's name.
KANE,SR.
He owed the money for the board to the both of us.
THATCHER
With respect to the said newspapers the said Charles Foster Kane
hereby relinquishes all control thereof and of the syndicates
pertaining thereto and any and all other newspaper, press and
publishing properties of any kind whatsoever and agrees to
abandon all claim...
KANE
:
Which means we are bust. All right.
BERNSTEIN
:
Well, out of cash.
KANE
:
All right, Mr. Bernstein. I read it, Mr.
Thatcher. Let me sign it
and I'll go home.
THATCHER
:
Too old to call me Mr. Thatcher, Charles.
KANE
:
You are too old to be called anything else. You
were always too
old.
BERNSTEIN
:
In consideration thereof, Thatcher and Company
agrees to pay to
Charles Foster Kane as long as he lives..."
COWORKER
It's from Mr. Kane.
THATCHER
Go on.
SECRETARY
Sorry. But I'm not interested in gold mines, oil wells, shipping
or real estate...
THATCHER
Not interested? Not... One item on your list intrigues me, the
New York Inquirer, a little newspaper I understand we acquire in
a foreclosure proceeding. Please don't sell it. I'm coming back
to America to take charge. I think it would be fun to run a
newspaper." I think it would be fun to run a newspaper!
NEWSPAPER HEADLINES READ
Traction Trust Exposed!, Traction Trust Bleeds Public White!,
Traction Trust Smashed By Inquirer!, Landlords Refuse To Clear
Slums!, Inquirer Wins Slum Fight! Wall Street Backs Copper
Swindle!, Copper Robbers Indicted! Galleons Of Spain Off Jersey
Coast!
THATCHER
Is that really your idea of how to run a newspaper?
KANE
I don't know how to run a newspaper, Mr. Thatcher. I just try
everything I can think of.
THATCHER
Try really perfectly well. There is not a slightest proof of this
armada is off the Jersey Coast.
KANE
Hello, Mr. Bernstein.
BERNSTEIN
Excuse me, Mr. Kane.
KANE
Can you prove it isn't?
BERNSTEIN
This just came in.
KANE
Mr. Bernstein. I would like you to meet Mr. Thatcher.
LELAND
I just borrow the cigar.
BERNSTEIN
How do you do, Mr. Thatcher?
KANE
Leland.
LELAND
Hello.
KANE
Mr. Thatcher. My ex-guardian. We have no secrets from our
readers, Mr. Bernstein. Mr. Thatcher is one of our most devoted
readers. He knows what's wrong with every copy of Inquirer since
I took over. Read the cable.
BERNSTEIN
Girls delightful in Cuba. Stop. Could send you prose poems about
scenery but don't feel right spending your money. Stop. There is
no war in Cuba. Signed, Wheeler. Any answer?
KANE
Yes. "Dear Wheeler. You provide the prose poems. I'll provide the
war."
BERNSTEIN
That's fine, Mr. Kane.
KANE
Yes. I rather like it myself. Send it right away.
BERNSTEIN
Right away.
THATCHER
I came to see you about this campaign of yours. The Inquirer's
campaign against the Public Transit Company.
KANE
Mr. Thatcher, do you know anything we could use against them?
THATCHER
Still the college boy, aren't you?
KANE
Oh, no, Mr. Thatcher. I was expelled from college, a lot of
colleges. You remember. I remember.
THATCHER
Charles. I think I should remind you of a fact that you seem to
have forgotten.
KANE
Yes.
THATCHER
You are yourself one of the largest individual stockholders in
Public Transit Company.
KANE
Mr. Thatcher, the trouble is you don't realize you're talking to
two people. As Charles Foster Kane, who owns eighty-two thousand
three hundred and sixty-four shares of Public Transit prefer, you
see, I do have a general idea of my holdings. I sympathize with
you. Charles Foster Kane is a scoundrel, his paper should be run
out of town and a committee should be formed to boycott him. You
may, if you can form such a committee, put me down for a
contribution of one thousand dollars.
THATCHER
My time is too valuable for me...
KANE
On the other hand, I am the publisher of the Inquirer. As such,
it is my duty, I'll let you in on a little secret, it is also my
pleasure -- to see to it that decent, hard-working people of this
community aren't robbed blind by a pack of money-mad pirates just
because they haven't anybody to look after their interests! I'll
let you in on another little secret, Mr. Thatcher. I think I'm
the man to do it. You see I have money and property. If I don't
look after the interests of the underprivileged, maybe somebody
else will, maybe somebody without any money or property and that
would be too bad.
THATCHER
Yes, yes, yes! Money and property. Well, I happened to see your
financial statement today, Charles.
KANE
Did you?
THATCHER
Tell me honestly, my boy. Don't you think it's rather unwise to
continue this philanthropic enterprise, this Inquirer, that's
costing you a million dollars a year?
KANE
You are right, Mr. Thatcher. I did lose a million dollars last
year. I expect to lose a million dollars this year. I expect to
lose a million dollars next year! You know, Mr. Thatcher, at the
rate of a million dollars a year I'll have to close this place in
sixty years.
MANUSCRIPT READS
In the winter of 1929
BERNSTEIN
The Bank's decision in all matters concerning his...
KANE,SR.
:
I don't hold with signing my boy away to any
bank as guardian
just because
MRS. KANE
:
I want you stop all this nonsense, Jim.
THATCHER
:
The Bank's decision in all matters concerning
his education, his
places of residence and similar subjects is to be final.
KANE,SR.
:
The idea of a bank being the guardian.
MRS. KANE
:
I want you to stop all this nonsense, Jim.
THATCHER
:
We will assume full management of the Colorado
Lode, which I
repeat, Mrs. Kane, you are the sole owner.
MRS. KANE
:
Where do I sign, Mr. Thatcher?
THATCHER
:
Right here, Mrs. Kane.
KANE,SR.
:
Mary, I'm asking you for the last time.
Anybody'd think I hadn't
been a good husband, father.
THATCHER
:
The sum of fifty thousand dollars a year is to
be paid to you and
Mr. Kane as long as you both live, and thereafter to the
survivor.
KANE,SR.
:
Well, let's hope it's all for the best.
MRS. KANE
:
It is.
KANE
:
The union forever...
KANE,SR.
:
Why I can't raise my own boy...more than I can understand...
MRS. KANE
:
Go on, Mr. Thatcher.
THATCHER
:
Everything else, the principal as well as all
monies earned is to
be administered by the bank in trust for your son, Charles Foster
Kane, until he reaches his twenty-fifth birthday, at which time
he is to come into complete possession.
MRS. KANE
:
Charles! Go on, Mr. Thatcher.
THATCHER
:
Well, it's almost five, Mrs. Kane. Don't you
think I'd better
meet the boy?
MRS. KANE
:
I've got his trunk all packed. I've had it packed for a week now.
THATCHER
:
I've arranged for a tutor to meet us in
Chicago. I'd have brought
him along with me, but...
MRS. KANE
:
Charles!
KANE
:
Lookie, Mom!
MRS. KANE
:
You better come inside, son.
THATCHER
:
Well, well, well, that's quite a snowman! Did
you make it all by
yourself, my lad?
KANE
:
I took the pipe out of his mouth. If it keeps
on snowing, maybe
I'll make some teeth and whiskers.
MRS. KANE
:
This is Mr. Thatcher, Charles.
KANE
:
Hello.
THATCHER
:
How do you do, Charles.
KANE,SR.
:
He comes from the East.
KANE
:
Pop!
KANE,SR.
:
Hello, Charlie!
MRS. KANE
:
Charles.
KANE
:
Yes, mommy.
MRS. KANE
:
Mr. Thatcher is going to take you on a trip
with him tonight.
You'll be leaving on Number Ten.
KANE,SR.
:
That's the train with all the lights on it.
KANE
:
You going, Mom?
THATCHER
:
Your mother won't be going right away, Charles. But she'll...
KANE
:
Where am I going?
KANE,SR.
:
You're going to see Chicago and New York and
Washington, maybe.
Ain't he, Mr. Thatcher?
THATCHER
:
He certainly is. I wish I were a little boy and
going to make a
trip like that for the first time.
KANE
:
Why aren't you coming with us, Mom?
MRS. KANE
:
We have to stay here, Charles.
KANE,SR.
:
You're gonna live with Mr. Thatcher from now
on, Charlie! You're
going to be rich. Your Ma figures, well, that is, me and her
decided this ain't the place for you to grow up in. You'll
probably be the richest man in America someday and you ought to
get education.
MRS. KANE
:
You won't be lonely, Charles.
THATCHER
:
Lonely. Of course not. We're going to have some
fine times
together. Really we are, Charles. Now, shall we shake hands? Oh,
come, come, come! I'm not as frightening as all that, am I? What
do you say? Let's shake.
MRS. KANE
:
Why, Charles!
THATCHER
:
Charles! You almost hurt me.
MRS. KANE
:
Charles!
KANE,SR.
:
Charlie!
THATCHER
:
Sleds aren't to hit people. They are to sleigh with.
KANE
:
Mom!
MRS. KANE
:
You've got to be ready.
KANE,SR.
:
You little...
MRS. KANE
:
Jim!
KANE,SR.
:
I'm sorry, Mr. Thatcher! What that kid needs is a good thrashing.
MRS. KANE
:
That's what you think, is it, Jim?
KANE,SR.
:
Yes!
MRS. KANE
:
That's why he's going to be brought up where
you can't get at
him.
THATCHER
:
Well, Charles. Merry Christmas!
KANE
:
Merry Christmas!
THATCHER
:
And a happy new year! In closing, may I again
remind you that
your twenty-fifth birthday, which is now approaching, marks your
complete independence from the firm of Thatcher and Company as
well as the assumption by your full responsibility for the
world's sixth largest private fortune. Have you got that?
SECRETARY
:
The world's sixth largest private fortune.
THATCHER
:
Yes. Charles, I don't think you quite realize
the full importance
of the position you are to occupy in the world. I'm definitely
choosing your consideration a complete list of your holdings
extensively cross-indexed.
SECRETARY
:
Dear Mr. Thatcher..."
KANE
My allowance.
THATCHER
You will continue to maintain over your newspapers a large
measure of control. Measure of control? "And shall seek your
advice." This depression, temporary. Always the chance that
you'll die richer than I will.
KANE
It's a cinch I'll die richer than I was born.
BERNSTEIN
We never lost as much as we made.
THATCHER
Yes, yes. But your methods! Do you know, Charles never made a
single investment? Always used money to...
KANE
To buy things. Buy things. My mother should have chosen a less
reliable banker. Well, I always gagged on that silver spoon. You
know, Mr. Bernstein. If I hadn't been very rich, I might have
been a really great man.
THATCHER
Don't you think you are?
KANE
I think I did pretty well under the circumstances.
THATCHER
What would you like to have been?
KANE
Everything you hate.
THOMPSON
Oh!
JENNINGS
I beg your pardon, sir?
THOMPSON
What?
JENNINGS
What did you say?
MISS ANDERSON
It's four-thirty. Isn't it, Jennings?
JENNINGS
Yes, ma'am.
MISS ANDERSON
You have enjoyed a very rare privilege, young man. Did you find
what you were looking for?
THOMPSON
No. You're not Rosebud, are you?
MISS ANDERSON
What?
THOMPSON
Rosebud. And your name is Jennings, isn't it?
GUARD
Yes...
THOMPSON
Goodbye, everybody! Thanks for the use of the hall.
BERNSTEIN
Who's a busy man? Me? I'm Chairman of the Board. I got nothing
but time. What do you want to know?
THOMPSON
Well, Mr. Bernstein. We thought maybe, if we can find out what he
meant by his last words as he was dying.
BERNSTEIN
That Rosebud, huh? Maybe, some girl? There were a lot of them
back in the early days.
THOMPSON
It's hardly likely, Mr. Bernstein. Mr. Kane could have met some
girl casually and then fifty years later on his deathbed
remembered...
BERNSTEIN
Well, you are pretty young, Mr., Mr. Thompson. A fellow will
remember a lot of things you wouldn't think he'd remember. You
take me. One day, back in eighteen ninety-six, I was crossing
over to Jersey on a ferry and as we pulled out there was another
ferry pulling in and on it there was a girl waiting to get off. A
white dress she had on, she was carrying a white parasol. I only
saw her for one second. She didn't see me at all but I'll bet a
month hasn't gone by since that I haven't thought of that girl.
Who else have you been to see?
THOMPSON
Well, I went down to Atlantic City.
BERNSTEIN
Susie? Thank you. I called her myself the day after he died. I
thought maybe somebody ought to. Couldn't even come to the phone.
THOMPSON
I'm going down to see her again in a couple of days. About
Rosebud, Mr. Bernstein? You just talk about anything connecting
with Mr. Kane that you can remember. After all, you were with him
from the beginning.
BERNSTEIN
From before the beginning, young fellow. And now, it's after the
end. Have you tried to see anybody except Susie?
THOMPSON
I haven't seen anybody else. But I've been through that stuff of
Walter Thatcher's. That journal of his...
BERNSTEIN
Thatcher! That man was the biggest darn fool I ever met.
THOMPSON
He made an awful lot of money.
BERNSTEIN
Well, it's no trick to make a lot of money if all you want is to
make a lot of money. You take Mr. Kane. It wasn't money he
wanted. Thatcher never did figure him out. Sometimes even I
couldn't. You know who you ought to see? Mr. Leland, he was Mr.
Kane's closest friend. They went to school together.
THOMPSON
Harvard, wasn't it?
BERNSTEIN
Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Cornell, Switzerland. He was thrown out
of a lot of colleges. Mr. Leland never had a nickel. One of those
old families with a father that's worth ten million and then one
day he shoots himself and it turns out there's nothing but debts.
He was with Mr. Kane and me. The first day Mr. Kane took over the
Inquirer.
KANE
Take a good look at it, Jedediah. It's gonna look a lot different
one of these days. Come on.
HAULER
There ain't no bedrooms in this joint. That's a newspaper
building.
BERNSTEIN
You are getting paid, Mr., for opinions or for hauling?
KANE
Jedediah.
LELAND
After you, Mr. Kane.
KANE
Excuse me, sir, but I...
CARTER
Welcome, Mr. Kane. Welcome. Welcome to the Inquirer, Mr. Kane.
I'm Herbert Carter, the editor in chief.
KANE
Thank you, Mr. Carter. But this is Mr. Leland.
CARTER
How do you do, Mr. Leland?
KANE
The new dramatic critic. I hope I haven't made a mistake,
Jedediah. It is the dramatic critic you want to be, isn't it?
LELAND
You know that's right.
KANE
Are they standing for me?
CARTER
You? Oh, Mr. Kane. Standing, oh, yes.
KANE
How do you do?
CARTER
How do you do? I thought it would be a nice little gesture, the
new... new publisher?
KANE
Ask them to sit down. Will you please?
CARTER
Uh, you may resume your duties, gentlemen.
KANE
Thank you.
CARTER
I didn't know your plan so I...
KANE
I don't know my plans myself.
CARTER
I was unable to make any preparations.
KANE
As matter of fact, I haven't got any plans.
CARTER
No?
KANE
Except to get out a newspaper.
BERNSTEIN
Oops!
KANE
Mr. Bernstein.
BERNSTEIN
Yes, Mr. Kane!
KANE
Mr. Carter. This is Mr. Bernstein.
BERNSTEIN
How do you do?
KANE
Mr. Bernstein is my general manager, Mr. Carter.
CARTER
General mana..?
BERNSTEIN
How do you do, Mr. Carter?
KANE
Mr. Carter!
CARTER
Yes.
KANE
Mr. Carter!
CARTER
How do you do?
KANE
Mr. Carter!
CARTER
Yes. How do you do?
KANE
Mr. Carter!
CARTER
Yes, Mr. Berns...
KANE
Mr. Carter!
BERNSTEIN
Kane.
KANE
Mr. Carter. Is this your office, Mr. Carter?
CARTER
My, my, my little private sanctum is at your disposal. But I...
KANE
That's right.
HAULER
Excuse me.
KANE
I'm glad to hear that.
CARTER
But I don't, don't understand.
BERNSTEIN
Excuse me, Mr. Carter.
KANE
Mr. Carter, I'm going to live right here in your office as long
as I have to.
LELAND
Mr. Carter.
CARTER
Live here?
KANE
That's right.
LELAND
Mr. Carter.
CARTER
Yes.
LELAND
Excuse me.
CARTER
But a morning newspaper, Mr. Kane. After all...
HAULER
Excuse me.
CARTER
We're practically closed for twelve hours...
BERNSTEIN
Excuse me.
LELAND
Excuse me.
CARTER
Twelve hours a day.
KANE
Mr. Carter, that's one of the things that's going to have to be
changed around here. The news goes on for twenty-four hours a
day.
CARTER
Twenty...
HAULER
Excuse me.
KANE
That's right, Mr. Carter.
LELAND
Excuse me.
CARTER
Mr. Kane.
BERNSTEIN
Excuse me.
CARTER
Mr. Kane, it's impossible. We...
LELAND
I'm no good as a cartoonist. This is what I mean. I'm no good as
a cartoonist.
KANE
You certainly aren't. You are the dramatic critic, Leland. Let's
stop.
LELAND
You still eating?
KANE
I'm still hungry. Now look, Mr. Carter, here's a front page story
in the Chronicle about Mrs. Harry Silverstone in Brooklyn who's
missing. Now she's probably murdered. Here's a picture of her in
the Chronicle. Why isn't there something about it in the
Inquirer?
CARTER
Because we're running a newspaper, Mr. Kane, not a scandal sheet.
KANE
Joseph. I'm absolutely starving to death.
CARTER
Excuse me, Mr. Bernstein.
BERNSTEIN
That's all right.
KANE
Mr. Carter, here's a three-column headline in the Chronicle. Why
hasn't the Inquirer a three-column headline?
CARTER
The news wasn't big enough.
KANE
Mr. Carter. If the headline is big enough, it makes the news big
enough.
BERNSTEIN
That's right, Mr. Kane.
KANE
Now the murder of Mrs. Harry Silverstone.
CARTER
No proof that the woman was murdered or even that she's dead.
KANE
She's missing and the neighbors are getting suspicious.
CARTER
It's not our function to report the gossip of housewives. If we
were interested in that kind of thing, Mr. Kane, we could fill
the paper twice over daily.
KANE
Mr. Carter, that's the kind of thing we are going to be
interested in from now on. Mr. Carter, I want you to send your
best man to see Mr. Silverstone in Brooklyn. Have him tell Mr.
Silverstone if he doesn't produce his wife, Mrs. Silverstone at
once, the Inquirer will have him arrested. Have him tell Mr.
Silverstone he's a detective from, um...
LELAND
The Central Office.
KANE
The Central Office. If Mr. Silverstone gets suspicious and asks
to see your man's badge, your man is to get indignant and call
Mr. Silverstone an anarchist. Loudly, so that the neighbors can
hear. You ready for dinner, Jedediah?
CARTER
Really, Mr. Kane, I can't see that the function of a respectable
newspaper.
KANE
Mr. Carter, you've been most understanding. Thank you so much,
Mr. Carter. Then, Goodbye.
CARTER
Goodbye.
NEWSBOY
Paper! Read all about it. Paper. Paper, Mister? Read about it in
the Chronicle. Get your early morning Chronicle. She might be
murdered. Lady disappears in Brooklyn. Read all about it. Get
your early morning Chronicle. Read all about it in the
Chronicle...
LELAND
We'll be on the street soon, Charlie. Another ten minutes.
BERNSTEIN
Three hours and fifty minutes late. But we did it.
KANE
Tired?
LELAND
A tough day.
KANE
A wasted day.
BERNSTEIN
Wasted?
LELAND
Charlie?
BERNSTEIN
You only made the paper over four times tonight. That's all.
KANE
I've changed the front page a little, Mr. Bernstein. That's not
enough. Now there's something I've got to get into this paper
besides pictures and print. I've got to make the New York
Inquirer as important to New York as the gas in that light.
LELAND
What're you gonna do, Charlie?
KANE
Declaration of Principles. Don't smile, Jedediah. Got it all
written out. Declaration of Principles.
BERNSTEIN
You don't wanna make any promises, Mr. Kane, you don't wanna
keep.
KANE
These will be kept. I'll provide the people of this city with a
daily paper that will tell all the news honestly. I will also
provide them...
LELAND
That's the second sentence you've started with "I."
KANE
People are gonna know who's responsible. And they're gonna get
the truth in the Inquirer quickly and simply and entertainingly
and no special interests are gonna be allowed to interfere with
the truth. I will also provide them with a fighting and tireless
champion of their rights as citizens and as human beings. Signed,
Charles Foster Kane.
LELAND
Can I have that, Charlie?
KANE
I'm gonna print it. Solly!
SOLLY
Solly! Yes, Mr. Kane.
KANE
Here's an editorial, Solly. I want to run it on a box on the
front page.
SOLLY
This morning's front page, Mr. Kane?
KANE
That's right, Solly. That means we're gonna have to remake again,
doesn't it, Solly?
SOLLY
Yeah.
KANE
You better go down and tell them.
SOLLY
All right.
LELAND
Solly, when you're through with that, I'd like to have it back.
I'd like to keep that particular piece of paper myself. I have a
hunch it might turn out to be something pretty important. A
document.
BERNSTEIN
Sure!
LELAND
Like the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and my
first report card at school.
NEWSBOYS
(inaudible)
KANE
I know you're tired, gentlemen. But I brought you here for a
reason. I think this little pilgrimage will do us good.
LELAND
The Chronicle is a good newspaper.
KANE
The Chronicle is a good idea for a newspaper. Notice the
circulation.
BERNSTEIN
Four hundred ninety-five thousand. But, Mr. Kane, look who's
working for the Chronicle. With them fellows, it's no trick to
get circulation.
KANE
You're right, Mr. Bernstein.
BERNSTEIN
You know how long it took the Chronicle to get that staff
together? Twenty years.
KANE
Twenty years. Well, six years ago I looked at the picture of the
world's greatest newspapermen. I felt like a kid in front of a
candy store. Well, tonight six years later I got my candy, all of
it. Welcome, gentlemen, to the Inquirer! Make up an extra copy of
the picture and send it to the Chronicle. Will you please? It
will make you all happy to learn that our circulation this
morning was the greatest in New York -- six hundred and eighty-
four thousand.
BERNSTEIN
Six hundred and eighty-four thousand one hundred and thirty-two.
KANE
Right. Having thus welcomed you, I hope you forgive my rudeness
in taking leave of you. I'm going abroad next week for a
vacation. I promised my doctor for sometime, other than I'd leave
if I could. And I now realize that I can.
BERNSTEIN
Say, Mr. Kane, as long as you're promising, there's a lot of
pictures and statutes in Europe you haven't bought yet.
KANE
You can't blame me, Mr. Bernstein. They've been making statutes
for two thousand years. And I've only been buying for five.
BERNSTEIN
Promise me, Mr. Kane.
KANE
I promise you, Mr. Bernstein.
BERNSTEIN
Thank you.
KANE
Mr. Bernstein.
BERNSTEIN
Yes?
KANE
You don't expect me to keep any of those promises, do you?
BERNSTEIN
No.
KANE
And now, gentlemen. Your complete attention, if you please. Are
we gonna declare war on Spain, or are we not?
GUEST 1
Oh, mama, here they come!
KANE
I said, are we going to declare war on Spain, or are we not?
LELAND
The Inquirer already has.
KANE
You long-faced, overdressed anarchist!
LELAND
I am not overdressed.
KANE
You are, too. Mr. Bernstein, look at his necktie.
GUEST 2
Let's have the song about Charlie.
GUEST 3
Mr. Kane, is there a song about Charlie?
GUEST 4
Is there a song about you, Mr. Kane?
KANE
You buy a bag of peanuts in this town. You get a song written
about you.
GUEST 5
...
GUEST 6
Yeah.
SINGER
Good evening, Mr. Kane. There is a man
DANCERS
There is a man.
SINGER
A certain man.
DANCERS
A certain man.
SINGER
And for the poor you may be sure that he'll do all he can. Who is
this one?
DANCERS
Who is this one?
SINGER
This favorite son.
DANCERS
This favorite son.
SINGER
Just by his action has the traction magnets on the run. Who loves
to smoke?
DANCERS
Who loves to smoke?
SINGER
Enjoys a joke.
DANCERS
Ha ha ha ha.
SINGER
Who wouldn't get a bit upset if he were really broke. With wealth
and fame.
DANCERS
With wealth and fame.
SINGER
He's still the same.
DANCERS
He's still the same.
SINGER & DANCERS
I'll bet you five you're not alive if you don't know his name.
KANE
I don't know how to dance.
SINGER
What is his name?
BERNSTEIN
What is his name?
DANCERS
It's Charlie Kane.
EVERYONE
It's Mr. Kane. He doesn't like the Mister. He likes good old
Charlie Kane.
BERNSTEIN
Isn't it wonderful? Such a party!
LELAND
Yes.
BERNSTEIN
What's the matter?
SINGER
Who said the Miss?
EVERYONE
Who said the Miss?
SINGER
Was made to kiss.
EVERYONE
Was made to kiss.
SINGER
And when he meets one always tries to do exactly this. Who buys
the food?
EVERYONE
Who buys the food?
KANE & SINGER
Who buys the drinks?
EVERYONE
Who buys the drinks?
KANE&SINGER
Who thinks that dough was made to spend and acts the way he
thinks.
SINGER
Now, is it Joe? No, no, no, no.
EVERYONE
No, no, no, no.
LELAND
Bernstein, these men who are now with the Inquirer who were with
the Chronicle until yesterday...
KANE
Jedediah, catch.
GUEST7
Oh, mama! Please give me that. The blonde?
GUEST8
No, the brunette. Where did you learn that, Charlie?..
LELAND
Bernstein, Bernstein, these men who were with the Chronicle,
weren't they just as devoted to the Chronicle policy? Or they are
now to our policy?
BERNSTEIN
Sure. They're just like anybody else. They got work to do. They
do it. Only they happen to be the best men in the business.
LELAND
Do we stand for the same things that the Chronicle stands for,
Bernstein?
BERNSTEIN
Certainly not. Listen, Mr. Kane, he'll have them changed to his
kind of newspapermen in a week.
LELAND
There's always a chance that, of course, they'll change Mr. Kane
-- without his knowing it.
BERNSTEIN
Mr. Leland! I got a cable from Mr. Kane. Mr. Le... Mr. Leland!
Mr. Leland! I got a cable here from Mr. Kane.
LELAND
What?
BERNSTEIN
From Paris, France.
LELAND
What?
BERNSTEIN
Look! Paris, France.
LELAND
Come on in. Who by his actions has the traction magnets on the
run.
BERNSTEIN
Hey, Mr. Leland! It's a good thing he promised not to send back
any more statues.
LELAND
Bernstein, Bernstein.
BERNSTEIN
Look! He wants to buy the world's biggest diamond. Mr. Leland,
why didn't you go to Europe with him? He wanted you to.
LELAND
I wanted Charlie to have fun with me along. Bernstein, am I a
stuffed shirt? Am I a horse-faced hypocrite? Am I a New England
schoolmarm?
BERNSTEIN
Yes. If you thought I'd answer you any different from Mr. Kane
tells you. Well, I wouldn't.
LELAND
All right. All right. The world's biggest diamond. I didn't know
Charlie was collecting diamonds.
BERNSTEIN
He ain't. He's collecting somebody that's collecting diamonds.
Anyway, he ain't only collecting statues.
BERNSTEIN
Welcome home, Mr. Kane, from four hundred and sixty-seven
employees of the New York Inquirer.
EMPLOYEE
Here he comes!
KANE
I got a mustache. Well, I know. But have you got a society? We
got a society editor?
MISS TOWNSEND
Right here, Mr. Kane.
LELAND
Townsend is the society editor.
BERNSTEIN
Miss Townsend, this is Mr. Charlie Foster Kane.
KANE
Oh. Uh, uh...Townsend, I have...been away so long I don't know
your routine. I, I got a little social announcement. I wish you
wouldn't treat it any differently you would any other social
announcement.
BERNSTEIN
Mr. Kane! Mr. Kane, on behalf of all the employees of the
Inquirer.
KANE
Mr. Bernstein. Thank you very much, everybody. I, I'm sorry. I
can't accept it now. Good-bye.
BERNSTEIN
Say, he was in an awful hurry.
EMPLOYEE
Hey! Hey, everybody! Lookie out here!
LELAND
Let's go to the window.
MISS TOWNSEND
Mr. Leland! Mr. Bernstein!
BERNSTEIN
Yes, Miss Townsend.
MISS TOWNSEND
This is an announcement, Mr. And Mrs. Thomas Monroe Norton
announce the engagement of their daughter, Emily Monroe Norton,
to Mr. Charles Foster Kane.
BERNSTEIN
Huh?
LELAND
Come on!
MISS TOWNSEND
Emily Monroe Norton, she's the niece of the President of the
United States.
BERNSTEIN
President's niece, huh? Before he is through, she would be a
president's wife.
BERNSTEIN
The way things turned out, I don't need to tell you. Miss Emily
Norton was no Rosebud!
THOMPSON
It didn't end very well, did it?
BERNSTEIN
It ended. And there was Susie. That ended, too. You know, Mr.
Thompson, I was thinking. This Rosebud you're trying to find out
about.
THOMPSON
Yes.
BERNSTEIN
Maybe that was something he lost. Mr. Kane was a man who lost
almost everything he had. You ought to see Jed Leland. Of course,
he and Mr. Kane didn't exactly see eye to eye. You take the
Spanish-American war. I guess Mr. Leland was right. That was Mr.
Kane's war. We didn't really have anything to fight about. But do
you think if it hadn't been for that war of Mr. Kane's, we'd have
the Panama Canal. I wish I knew where Mr. Leland was. A lot of
the time now, they don't tell me these things. Maybe he's dead.
THOMPSON
In case you'd like to know, Mr. Bernstein, he's at the Huntington
Memorial Hospital on one hundred eightieth Street.
BERNSTEIN
You don't say! I had no idea.
THOMPSON
Nothing particular the matter with him, they tell me. Just...
BERNSTEIN
Just old age. It's the only disease, Mr. Thompson, that you don't
look forward to being cured of.
LELAND
I can remember absolutely everything, young man. That's my curse.
That's one of the greatest curses ever inflicted on the human
race -- Memory. I was his oldest friend and as far as I was
concerned, he behaved like a swine. Not that Charlie was ever
brutal, he just did brutal things. Maybe I wasn't his friend but
if I wasn't, he never had one. Maybe I was, what you nowadays
call, a stooge.
THOMPSON
Mr. Leland, you were going to say something about Rosebud.
LELAND
You don't happen to have a good cigar, do you? I've got a young
physician here who thinks I'm gonna give up smoking. Do you have
a cigar?
THOMPSON
No, I'm afraid I haven't. Sorry.
LELAND
I changed the subject, didn't I? What a disagreeable old man I
have become! You are a reporter. You want to know what I think
about Charlie Kane. Well, I suppose he had some private sort of
greatness. But he kept it to himself. He never gave himself away.
He never gave anything away. He just left you a tip. Hmm? He had
a generous mind. I don't suppose anybody ever had so many
opinions. But he never believed in anything except Charlie Kane.
He never had a conviction except Charlie Kane in his life. I
suppose he died without one. That's been pretty unpleasant. Of
course, a lot of us check out without having any special
convictions about death. But we do know what we're leaving. We do
believe in something. You're absolutely sure you haven't got a
cigar?
THOMPSON
Sorry, Mr. Leland.
LELAND
Never mind.
THOMPSON
Mr. Leland, what do you know about Rosebud?
LELAND
Rosebud? Oh, oh, his dying words, Rosebud. Yeah, I saw that in
the Inquirer. Well, I never believed anything I saw in the
Inquirer. Anything else? I can tell you about Emily. I went to
dancing school with Emily. I was very graceful. Uh, we were
talking about the first Mrs. Kane.
THOMPSON
What was she like?
LELAND
She's like all the girls I knew in dancing school. A very nice
girl, very nice. Emily was a little nicer. Well, after the first
couple of months, she and Charlie didn't see much of each other
except at breakfast. It was a marriage just like any other
marriage.
EMILY
Oh, God!
KANE
You're beautiful.
EMILY
Oh, I can't be.
KANE
Yes, you are. Very, very beautiful.
EMILY
I've never been to six parties in one night in my whole life.
KANE
Extremely beautiful.
EMILY
I've never been up so late.
KANE
It's just matter of a habit.
EMILY
I wonder what servants will think.
KANE
They'll think we enjoyed ourselves.
EMILY
They are.
KANE
Didn't we?
EMILY
I don't think why do you have to go straight out to the
newspaper?
KANE
You never should have married a newspaperman. They are worse than
sailors. I absolutely adore you.
EMILY
Oh, Charles, even newspapermen have to sleep.
KANE
I'll call Mr. Bernstein and have him put off my appointments
until noon. What time is it?
EMILY
Why, I don't know. It's late.
KANE
It's early.
EMILY
Charles, do you know how long you kept me waiting last night
while you went to the newspaper for ten minutes? What do you do
with the newspaper in the middle of the night?
KANE
Emily, my dear. Your only correspondent is the Inquirer.
EMILY
Sometimes I think I'd prefer a rival of flesh and blood.
KANE
Oh, Emily. I don't spend that much time on the newspaper.
EMILY
It isn't just the time. It's what you print. Attacking the
President.
KANE
You mean uncle John.
EMILY
I mean the President of the United States.
KANE
He's still uncle John. He's still a well-meaning fat head...
EMILY
Charles!
KANE
...who's letting a pack of high pressure crooks run his
administration. This whole oil scandal.
EMILY
He happens to be the President, Charles. Not you.
KANE
That's a mistake that will be corrected one of these days.
EMILY
Your Mr. Bernstein sent junior the most incredible atrocity
yesterday, Charles. I simply can't have it in the nursery.
KANE
Mr. Bernstein is apt to pay a visit to the nursery now and then.
EMILY
Does he have to?
KANE
Yes.
EMILY
Really, Charles. People will think...
KANE
What I tell them to think.
THOMPSON
Wasn't he ever in love with her?
LELAND
He married for love. Love. That's why he did everything. That's
why he went into politics. It seems we weren't enough. He wanted
all the voters to love him, too. As all he really wanted out of
life was love. That's Charlie's story, 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.
THOMPSON
How about his second wife?
LELAND
Susan Alexander? You know what Charlie called her? The day after
he met her, he told me about her. He said that she was a cross-
section of the American public. I guess he couldn't help it. She
must have had something for him. Well, that first night,
according to Charlie, all she had was a toothache.
SUSAN
(laughing)
KANE
What are you laughing at, young lady?
SUSAN
Ooh.
KANE
What is the matter with you, young lady?
SUSAN
(in unclear voice)
I have a toothache.
KANE
What?
SUSAN
(in unclear voice)
I have a toothache.
KANE
Toothache? Oh, oh. You mean you've got a toothache.
SUSAN
(laughing)
KANE
What's funny about that?
SUSAN
You're funny, Mister. You've got dirt on your face.
KANE
It's not dirt. It's mud.
SUSAN
You want some hot water? I live right here.
KANE
What's that, young lady?
SUSAN
I said if you wanted some hot water, I could get you some. Hot
water.
KANE
All right. Thank you very much.
SUSAN
Ow! Ow!
KANE
Do I look any better now?
SUSAN
This medicine doesn't do a bit of good.
KANE
What you need is get your mind off it.
SUSAN
Hey! Excuse me, my landlady prefers me to keep this door open
when I have a gentleman caller.
KANE
All right.
SUSAN
Ooh!
KANE
You have got a toothache, haven't you?
SUSAN
I surely have.
KANE
Hey! Why don't you try laughing at me again?
SUSAN
What?
KANE
I'm still pretty funny.
SUSAN
I know but you don't want me to laugh at you.
KANE
I don't want your tooth to hurt, either. Look at me. See that?
SUSAN
What are you doing?
KANE
I'm wiggling both my ears at the same time, uh?
SUSAN
(giggles)
KANE
That's it, smile. It took me two solid years in the best boys'
school in the world to learn that trick. The fellow who taught it
to me is now the President of Venezuela.
KANE & SUSAN
(laugh)
KANE
That's it!
SUSAN
Is it a giraffe?
KANE
No. It's not a giraffe.
SUSAN
Oh, I bet it is.
KANE
What?
SUSAN
Well, then it's an elephant.
KANE
It's supposed to be a rooster.
SUSAN
No, a rooster. Gee, you know awful a lot of tricks. You're not a
professional magician, are you?
KANE
No, not a magician.
SUSAN
No. I was just joking.
KANE
You really don't know who I am?
SUSAN
You told me your name, Mr. Kane. But I'm awfully ignorant. But, I
guess you caught on to that. You know, I bet it turns out I've
heard your name a million times.
KANE
You really like me, though. Even though you don't know who I am.
SUSAN
Oh, I surely do. You've been wonderful.
KANE
I'm glad you do.
SUSAN
Well, Gee! Without you I don't know what I'd have done. I had a
toothache and I don't know many people.
KANE
I know too many people. I guess we're both lonely. You wanna know
what I was gonna do tonight before I ruined my best Sunday
clothes.
SUSAN
I bet they're not your best Sunday clothes. You've probably got a
lot of clothes.
KANE
I was just joking. I was on my way to the Western Manhattan
Warehouse in search of my youth. You see, my mother died long
time ago. Now her things were put into the storage out West there
wasn't any other place to put them. I thought I'd sent for them
now. Tonight I was gonna take a look at them. You know, a sort of
sentimental journey? I run a couple newspapers. What do you do?
SUSAN
Me?
KANE
How old did you say you were?
SUSAN
I didn't say.
KANE
I didn't think you did. If you had, I wouldn't have asked you
because I'd have remembered. How old?
SUSAN
Pretty old.
KANE
How old?
SUSAN
Twenty-two in August.
KANE
That's a ripe old age. What do you do?
SUSAN
I work at Segilman's. I'm in charge of the sheet music there.
KANE
That's what you wanna do?
SUSAN
No. I wanted to be a singer, I guess. That is, I didn't. My
mother did.
KANE
What happened to the singing?
SUSAN
Well, mother always thought, she always talked about Grand Opera
for me. Imagine. But my voice isn't that kind. It's just, what,
you know, mothers are like.
KANE
Yes. Have you got a piano?
SUSAN
A piano?
KANE
Mm-hmm.
SUSAN
Yes. There's one in the parlor.
KANE
Would you sing for me?
SUSAN
You wouldn't want to hear me sing.
KANE
Yes, I would.
SUSAN
Well, I...
KANE
Don't tell me your toothache is still bothering you.
SUSAN
Oh, no, that's all gone.
KANE
All right. Let's go to the parlor.
SUSAN
(singing)
Yes, Lindor shall be mine. I have sworn it. For
we'll or woe.
Yes Lindor. Close your eyes. la vince ro
LELAND
There's only one man who can rid the politics of this state of
the evil domination of Boss Jim Gettys.
AUDIENCE
Hooray!
EVERYONE
Shoo.
LELAND
I am speaking of Charles Foster Kane. A fighting liberal, a
friend of working man, the next governor of this state who
entered upon this campaign.
KANE
With one purpose only, to point out and make public the
dishonesty, downright villainy of Boss Jim W. Gettys' political
machine. Now in complete control of the government of this state.
I made no campaign promises because until a few weeks ago I had
no hope of being elected. Now, however, I have something more
than a hope. And Jim Gettys, Jim Gettys has something less than a
chance. Every straw vote, every independent poll shows that I
will be elected. Very well, then, now I can afford to make some
promises. The working man, the working man and the slum child
know that they can expect my best efforts in their interests.
Decent, ordinary citizens know that I'll do everything in my
power to protect the underprivileged, the underpaid, and the
underfed.
KANE JR.
Mother, is Pop governor yet?
EMILY
Not yet, Junior.
KANE
Well, I'd make my promises now if I weren't too busy arranging to
keep them. Here's one promise I'll make and Boss Jim Gettys knows
I'll keep it. My first official act as Governor of this state
will be to appoint a special District Attorney to arrange for the
indictment, prosecution and conviction of Boss Jim W. Gettys!
CIVIC LEADER 1
One of the most notable public utterances ever made by a
candidate in this State, Charles.
CIVIC LEADER 2
I wanna.., Charles.
KANE
Hello, Ben. How are you?
CIVIC LEADER 3
...there's never been anything like it!
KANE
I know it does seem too good to be true, doesn't it?
A great speech, Mr. Kane.
CIVIC LEADER 4
If the election were held today, you'd win by a hundred thousand
votes.
CIVIC LEADER 3
Jim Gettys isn't even pretending. He's not just scared any more.
He's sick.
KANE JR.
Hello, Pop!
KANE
Hello. How are you? I think it's dawning on Jim Gettys I mean
what I say. Did you like your old man's speech?
KANE JR.
I was in a box, daddy. I could hear every word.
KANE
I saw you. Hello, Emily.
CAMERAMAN
Hold it!
SUPPORTER 1
A great speech, Mr. Kane! Great!
SUPPORTER 2
Wonderful, wonderful.
EMILY
Get me a taxi, please?
KANE
Taxi? Why? I thought we were...
EMILY
I'm sending Junior home in a car, Charles, with Oliver.
KANE JR.
Good night, Father!
KANE
Bye, son. Emily. Why did you send Junior home in the car, Emily?
What are you doing in a taxi?
EMILY
There is a call I want you to make with me, Charles.
KANE
It can wait.
EMILY
No, it can't.
KANE
What's this all about, Emily?
EMILY
It may not be about anything at all. I intend to find out.
KANE
Where are you going?
EMILY
I'm going to one eighty-five West seventy-forth Street. If you
wish, you may come with me.
KANE
I'll come with you.
KANE
I had no idea you had this flair for melodrama, Emily.
MAID
Come right in, Mr. Kane.
SUSAN
Charlie! Charlie, he forced me to send your wife the letter. I
didn't want to. He's been saying the most terrible...
GETTYS
Mrs. Kane. I don't suppose anybody would introduce us. I'm Jim
Gettys.
EMILY
Yes.
GETTYS
I made Miss, Miss Alexander send you the note, Mrs. Kane. She
didn't want to at first but she did it.
SUSAN
Why? Charlie, the things he said to me. He threatened me.
KANE
Gettys! I don't think I will postpone doing something about you
until I'm elected. To start with, I think I will break your neck.
GETTYS
Maybe you can do it and maybe you can't, Mr. Kane.
EMILY
Charles! Your breaking this man's neck would scarcely explain
this note - "serious consequences for Mr. Kane, for yourself, and
for your son."
SUSAN
He just wanted to get her to come here and...
EMILY
What does this mean, Miss...
SUSAN
I'm Susan Alexander. I know what you think, Mrs. Kane.
EMILY
What does this note mean, Miss Alexander?
GETTYS
She don't know, Mrs. Kane. She just sent it because I made her
see it wouldn't be smart for her not to send it.
KANE
In case you don't know, Emily, this gentleman is...
GETTYS
I'm not a gentleman. Your husband is only trying to be funny
calling me one. I don't even know what a gentleman is. You see,
my idea of a gentleman... Mrs. Kane, if I owned a newspaper and
if I didn't like the way somebody was doing things, some
politician, say I'd fight them with everything I had. Only I
wouldn't show him in a convict suit with stripes so his children
could see the picture in the paper. Or his mother.
KANE
You're a cheap, crooked grafter...
GETTYS
We're talking now about how ugly what you are. Mrs. Kane, I'm
fighting for my life. Not just my political life, my life.
SUSAN
Charlie, he said, unless you withdrew your name, he'll tell
everybody.
GETTYS
That's what I said. Here's the chance I'm willing to give him,
more of a chance than he'd give me. Unless Mr. Kane makes up his
mind by tomorrow that he's so sick that he has to go away for a
year or two. Monday morning every paper in this State except his
will carry the story I'm gonna give them.
EMILY
What story?
GETTYS
The story about him and Miss Alexander, Mrs. Kane.
SUSAN
There isn't any story.
GETTYS
Shut up!
SUSAN
Mr. Kane is just...
GETTYS
We got the evidence that'll look bad in the headlines. You want
me to give you the evidence, Mr. Kane? I'd rather Mr. Kane
withdrew without having to get the story published. Not that I
care about him. But I'd be better off that way.
SUSAN
What about...
GETTYS
So would you, Mrs. Kane.
SUSAN
What about me? Charlie, he said my name would be dragged through
the mud. That everywhere I went from now on.
EMILY
There seems to me to be only one decision you can make, Charles.
I'd sayit's been made for you.
KANE
You can't tell me the voters of this state...
GETTYS
Ha!
EMILY
I'm not interested in the voters of this state right now. I'm
interested in our son.
SUSAN
Charlie, if they publish this story...
EMILY
They won't. Good night, Mr. Gettys. Are you coming, Charles?
KANE
No. I'm staying here. I can fight this all alone.
EMILY
Charles. If you don't listen to reason, it may be too late.
KANE
Too late? For what? For you and this public thief to take the
love of the people of this state away from me?
SUSAN
Charlie, you've got other things to think about. Your little boy.
You don't want him to read about you in the paper.
KANE
There's only one person in the world to decide what I'm gonna do
and that's me.
EMILY
You decided what you were going to do, Charles, some time ago.
GETTYS
You're making a bigger fool of yourself than I thought you would,
Mr. Kane.
KANE
I've got nothing to talk to you about.
GETTYS
You're licked. Why don't you...
KANE
Get out! If you wanna see me, have the Warden write me a letter.
GETTYS
Anybody else, I'd say what's gonna happen to you would be a
lesson to you. Only you're gonna need more than one lesson. And
you're gonna get more than one lesson.
KANE
Don't worry about me, Gettys. Don't worry about me! I'm Charles
Foster Kane! I'm no cheap crooked politician, trying to save
himself from the consequences of his crimes. Gettys! I'm gonna
send you to Sing-Sing! Sing-Sing, Gettys! Sing-Sing...
GETTYS
Have you a car, Mrs. Kane?
EMILY
Yes, thank you.
GETTYS
Good night.
EMILY
Good night.
NEWSBOY
...Read all about it! Extra! Paper! Read all about Kane scandal!
Extra! Paper! Candidate Kane caught in love nest with singer!
Hey, Mister!
NEWSPAPER READS
Candidate Kane caught in Love Nest with "Singer"
NEWSBOY
Paper?
LELAND
No, thanks.
BERNSTEIN
With a million majority already against him and the church
counties still to be heard from. I'm afraid we've got no choice.
ENQUIRER WORKER
This one?
NEWSPAPER READS
Charles Foster Kane Defeated, Fraud at Polls
BERNSTEIN
That one.
BERNSTEIN
Well, good night again.
Sign Reads
Kane for Governor. Is there anything I...
KANE
No, thanks, Mr. Bernstein. You better go home and get some sleep.
BERNSTEIN
You, too.
KANE
Mm-hmm.
LELAND
Good night, Mr. Kane.
KANE
Hello, Jedediah.
LELAND
I'm drunk.
KANE
Well, if you got drunk to talk to me about Miss Alexander. Don't
bother. I'm not interested. I've set back the sacred cause of
reform, is that it? All right. That's the way they want it. The
people have made that choice. It's obvious the people prefer Jim
Gettys to me.
LELAND
You talk about the people as though you own them, as though they
belong to you. Goodness! As long as I can remember, you've talked
about giving the people their rights as if you could make them a
present of liberty as a reward for services rendered.
KANE
Jed.
LELAND
Remember the working man?
KANE
I'll get drunk, too, Jedediah, if it will do any good.
LELAND
It won't do any good. Besides, you never get drunk. You used to
write an awful lot about the working man.
KANE
Oh, go on home!
LELAND
He's turning into something called organized labor. You're not
gonna like that one little bit when you find out it means that
your working man expects something as his right, not your gift,
Charlie. When your precious underprivileged really get together,
oh, boy, that's gonna add up to something bigger than your
privilege and I don't know what you'll do. Sail away to a desert
island, probably, and lord it over the monkeys.
KANE
I wouldn't worry about it too much, Jed. There'll probably be a
few of them there to let me know when I do something wrong.
LELAND
Mmm. You may not always be so lucky.
KANE
You're not very drunk.
LELAND
Drunk. What do you care? You don't care about anything except
you. You just want to persuade people that you love them so much
that they ought to love you back. Only you want love on your own
terms. It's something to be played your way according to your
rules. Charlie, I want you to let me work on the Chicago paper.
KANE
What?
LELAND
Well, what you said yourself, you were looking for someone to do
dramatic crimitism, uh, criticis... I am drunk.
KANE
(laughing)
LELAND
I wanna go to Chicago.
KANE
You're too valuable here.
LELAND
Well, Charlie, there's nothing left for me to do but ask you to
accept my...
KANE
All right. You can go to Chicago.
LELAND
Thank you.
KANE
I guess I'd better try to get drunk anyway. I warn you, Jedediah,
you're not gonna like it in Chicago. The wind comes howling in
off the lake and gosh only knows if they've ever heard of Lobster
Newburg.
LELAND
Will Saturday after next be all right?
KANE
Anytime you say.
LELAND
Thank you.
KANE
A toast, Jedediah, to love on my terms. Those are the only terms
anybody ever knows -- his own.
SIGN READS
Kane Marries Singer
REPORTER1
Hey, Mr. Kane! I'm from the Inquirer.
KANE
All right. Fire away, boys. I used to be a newspaperman myself.
What's next, young man?
REPORTER1
Are you through with politics?
KANE
Am I through with politics? I should say vice versa, young man.
We're gonna be a great opera star.
REPORTER 2
Are you gonna sing in the Metropolitan, Mrs. Kane?
KANE
We certainly are.
SUSAN
Charlie said if I didn't, he'd built me an opera house.
KANE
That won't be necessary.
NEWSPAPER HEADLINE READS
Kane builds opera house
SUSAN
(singing)
MATISTI
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!
DIRECTOR
Places. Places. Places, everybody. Places, everybody. Places.
Places, everybody. Places, everybody. Offstage, everybody.
Places, please.
SUSAN
(singing Aria in French)
BERNSTEIN
Mr. Leland is writing it from the dramatic angle?
NEWSPAPERMAN 1
Yes. And we covered it from the news end.
NEWSPAPERMAN 2
Naturally.
BERNSTEIN
And the social. How about the music notice? You got that in?
NEWSPAPERMAN 2
Oh, yes. That's already made up. Our Mr. Mervin wrote a swell
review.
BERNSTEIN
Enthusiastic?
MERVIN
Yes, sir.
NEWSPAPERMAN 2
Naturally.
KANE
Mr. Bernstein.
BERSREIN
Mr. Kane.
NEWSPAPERMAN 2
Mr. Kane.
BERNSTEIN
Hello, Mr. Kane.
KANE
Hello.
NEWSPAPERMAN 2
This is a surprise. Everything's been done exactly...
KANE
You have a very nice plant here, gentlemen. Mr. Stanley.
NEWSPAPERMAN 2
We've done two spreads of pictures.
KANE
...the music notice on the front page?
MERVIN
Yes, Mr. Kane.
NEWSPAPERMAN 2
But there's still one notice to come. The dramatic.
KANE
The dramatic notice? Bernstein, that's Mr. Leland, isn't it?
BERNSTEIN
Yes, Mr. Kane. We're waiting for it.
KANE
Where is he?
MERVIN
Right in there, Mr. Kane.
BERNSTEIN
Mr. Kane. Mr. Kane. Mr. Leland and Mr. Kane, they haven't spoken
together for years.
NEWSPAPERMAN 1
You don't suppose...
BERNSTEIN
Nothing to suppose. Excuse me.
KANE
Close the door.
BERNSTEIN
He ain't been drinking before, Mr. Kane. Never. We would have
heard.
KANE
What's it say there? The notice. What's he written?
BERNSTEIN
Miss Susan Alexander, a pretty but hopelessly incompetent
amateur. Last night opened the new Chicago Opera House in the
performance of... I still can't pronounce that name, Mr. Kane.
"Her singing, happily, is no concern of this department. Of her
acting it is absolutely impossible to..."
KANE
Go on. Go on.
BERNSTEIN
That's all there is.
KANE
Of her acting it is absolutely impossible to say anything except
in the opinion of this reviewer, it represents a new low. Have
you got that, Mr. Bernstein? "In the opinion of this reviewer."
BERNSTEIN
I didn't see that.
KANE
It isn't here, Mr. Bernstein. I'm dictating.
BERNSTEIN
Mr. Kane, I...
KANE
Give me a typewriter. I'm gonna finish Mr. Leland's notice.
LELAND
Hello, Bernstein. Hello.
BERNSTEIN
Hello, Mr. Leland.
LELAND
Where's my notice, Bernstein? I've gotta finish my notice.
BERNSTEIN
Mr. Kane is finishing it for you.
LELAND
Charlie? Charlie? Is Charlie out there? I guess he's fixed it up.
I knew I'd never get that through.
BERNSTEIN
Mr. Kane is finishing your review just the way you started it.
He's writing a bad notice like you wanted it to be. I guess
that'll show you.
KANE
Hello, Jedediah.
LELAND
Hello, Charlie. I didn't know we were speaking.
KANE
Sure we're speaking, Jedediah. You're fired.
THOMPSON
Everybody knows that story, Mr. Leland. But why did he do it? How
could a man write a notice like that?
LELAND
You just don't know Charlie. He thought that by finishing that
notice he could show me he was an honest man. He was always
trying to prove something. The whole thing about Susie being an
opera singer, that was trying to prove something. You know what
the headline was the day before the election, "Candidate Kane
found in love nest with quote, singer, unquote." He was gonna
take the quotes off the singer. Hey, nurse! Five years ago he
wrote from that place down in the south, what's it called,
Shangri-La? El Dorado? Sloppy Joe's? What was the name of that
place? Hum, all right. Xanadu. I knew it all the time. You caught
on, didn't you? I just say I'm not as hard to see through as I
think. Well, I never even answered his letter. Maybe I should
have. I guess he was pretty lonely down there in that coliseum
all those years. He hadn't finished it when she left him. He
never finished it, he never finished anything except my notice.
Of course, he built the joint for her.
THOMPSON
That must have been love.
LELAND
I don't know. He was disappointed in the world. So he built one
of his own, an absolute monarchy. Something bigger than an opera
house anyway. Nurse!
NURSE
Yes, Mr. Leland.
LELAND
Oh, I'm coming. Uh, say, young fellow, there is one thing you can
do for me.
THOMPSON
Sure.
LELAND
Stop at the cigar store on your way out, will you, get me up a
couple of good cigars?
THOMPSON
I'll be glad to.
LELAND
Thank you. One is enough. You know, when I was a young man, there
used to be an impression around that nurses were pretty. It was
no truer then than it is they.
NURSE
I'll take your arm, Mr. Leland.
LELAND
All right. All right. You won't forget about those cigars, will
you?
THOMPSON
I won't.
LELAND
And have them to wrap them up to look like a toothpaste or
something, or they'll stop them at the desk. You know that young
doctor I was telling you about, well, he's got an idea he wants
to keep me alive.
THOMPSON
I'd rather you just talked. Anything that comes into your mind
about yourself and Mr. Kane.
SUSAN
You wouldn't want to hear a lot of what comes into my mind about
myself and Mr. Charlie Kane. You know, I wish I never sang for
Charlie the first time I met him. I did an awful lot of singing
after that. To start with, I sang for teachers at a hundred bucks
an hour. The teachers got that, I didn't.
THOMPSON
What did you get?
SUSAN
I didn't get a thing. Just the music lessons. That's all there
was in it.
THOMPSON
He married you, didn't he?
SUSAN
Oh, he didn't mention anything about marriage till after it was
all over and it got in papers about us. And he lost the election
and that Norton woman divorced him. He was really interested in
my voice. What do you suppose he built that Opera House for? I
didn't want it. I didn't want a thing. It was his idea.
Everything was his idea except my leaving him.
SUSAN
(singing Aria in Italian)
MATISTI
(singing)
. Don't forget da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. Don't get nervous!
Don't get nervous! Please, let's come back. Daccapo. Please look
at me, Mrs. Kane, darling. Now.
SUSAN&MATISTI
(singing in Italian)
MATISTII
Go ahead, go ahead... Now... La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la. You're
out the pitch... Some people can sing. Some can't. Impossible!
Impossible!
KANE
It's not your job to give Mrs. Kane your opinion of her talents.
You're supposed to train her voice, Signor Matisti.
MATISTI
Mister...
KANE
Nothing more. Please sit down and continue with the lesson.
MATISTI
But, Mr. Kane!
KANE
Please.
MATISTI
But I will be the laughing stock of the musical world! People
will think that...
KANE
People will think. You're concerned with what people will think?
Perhaps I can enlighten you, Signor Matisti. I'm something of an
authority on what people will think. Newspapers, for example, I
run several newspapers between here and San Francisco. It's all
right, darling. Signor Matisti is gonna listen to reasons. Aren't
you, Signor Matisti?
MATISTI
How can I persuade you?
KANE
You can't.
MATISTI
(inaudible)
SUSAN
(sings)
KANE
It's all right, darling. Go ahead.
SUSAN
(sings)
KANE
I thought you'd see it my way.
MATISTI
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! You must reach for
the note. Alto! Alto! Alto!
DIRECTOR
Places. Places. Places. On stage, everybody. Places, everybody.
Places, everybody. Places. Places, everybody. Time. Places,
everybody.
SUSAN
(sings in French)
AUDIENCE MEMBER
Perfectly dreadful. Ha ha ha ha.
SUSAN
(sings)
SUSAN
Stop telling me he's your friend. Friends don't write that kind
of review. All these other papers are panning me. I can expect
that. But the Inquirer ran the thing like that spoiling my whole
debut. Come in!
KANE
I'll get it.
SUSAN
Friend! Not the kind of friends I know. But, of course, I'm not
high class like you and I never went any swell schools.
KANE
That'll be enough, Susan. Yes.
SAM
From Mr. Leland, sir.
KANE
Leland?
SUSAN
Jed Leland?
SAM
He wanted me to make sure that you got this personally.
KANE
Thank you, Sam.
SAM
Yes, sir.
SUSAN
Is that something from him? Charlie! As for you, you ought to
have your head examined. Sending him a letter telling him he's
fired with a twenty-five thousand dollar check in it. What kind
of firing do you call that? You did send him a check for twenty-
five thousand dollars, didn't you?
KANE
Yes. I sent him a check for twenty-five thousand dollars.
SUSAN
What's that?
KANE
Declaration of Principles.
SUSAN
What?
KANE
Mm.
SUSAN
What is it?
KANE
An antique.
SUSAN
You're awful funny, aren't you? But I can tell you one thing
you're not gonna keep on being funny about. That's my singing.
I'm through. I've never wanted to in the first place.
KANE
You will continue with your singing, Susan. Don't propose to have
myself made ridiculous.
SUSAN
You don't propose to have yourself made ridiculous. What about
me? I'm the one who's gotta do the singing. I'm the one who gets
the raspberries. Why don't you let me alone?
KANE
My reasons satisfy me, Susan! You seem unable to understand them.
I will not tell them to you again. You will continue with your
singing.
SUSAN
(singing)
INQUIRER HEADLINES READ
Washington Ovation For Susan Alexander; Susan Alexander Opens San
Francisco Opera Season; Saint Louis Debut Scheduled for Susan
Alexander; Detroit Has "Sell Out" for Susan Alexander; New York
in Furor for Susan Alexander
KANE
Get Dr. Corey. Susan.
DR. COREY
She'll be perfectly all right in a day or two, Mr. Kane.
KANE
I can't imagine how Mrs. Kane came to make such a foolish
mistake. The sedative Dr. Wagner gave her was in a somewhat
larger bottle. I guess the strain of preparing for the new opera
has excited and confused her.
DR. COREY
Yes. Yes, I'm sure that was it.
KANE
No objections to my staying here with her, are there?
DR. COREY
No, no. Not at all. I'd like the nurse to be here, too. Good
night, Mr. Kane.
SUSAN
Charlie. I couldn't make you see how I felt, Charlie. But I
couldn't go through with the singing again. You don't know what
it means to know that peopleare...that a whole audience just
doesn't want you.
KANE
That's when you've gotta fight them. All right. You won't have to
fight them anymore. It's their loss.
KANE
What are you doing? Jigsaw puzzles?
SUSAN
Charlie, what time is it?
KANE
Eleven thirty.
SUSAN
New York?
KANE
Hmm?
SUSAN
I said, what time is it in New York?
KANE
Eleven thirty.
SUSAN
At night?
KANE
Mm-hmm. The bulldog's just gone to press.
SUSAN
Well, hurray for the bulldog! Gee, eleven thirty. The shows are
just getting out. People are going to nightclubs and restaurants.
Of course, we're different because we live in a palace.
KANE
You always said you wanted to live in a palace.
SUSAN
A person could go crazy in this dump. Nobody to talk to, nobody
to have any fun with.
KANE
Susan.
SUSAN
Forty-nine thousand acres of nothing but scenery and statues. I'm
lonesome.
KANE
Till just yesterday, we've had no less than fifty of your friends
at any one time. If you look carefully in the west wings, Susan,
you'd find about a dozen vacationers still in residence.
SUSAN
You make a joke out of everything. Charlie, I wanna go to New
York. I'm tired of being a hostess. I wanna have fun. Please,
Charlie. Charlie, please!
KANE
Our home is here, Susan. I don't care to visit New York.
KANE
What are you doing? Oh. One thing I've never can understand,
Susan. How do you know you haven't done it before?
SUSAN
Makes a whole lot more sense than collecting statues.
KANE
You may be right. I sometimes wonder. But you get into the habit.
SUSAN
It's not a habit. I do it because I like it.
KANE
I thought we might have a picnic tomorrow, Susan.
SUSAN
Huh?
KANE
I thought we might have a picnic tomorrow. Invite everybody to
spend the night at the Everglades.
SUSAN
Invite everybody! Order everybody, you mean, and make them sleep
in tents. Who wants to sleep in tents when they got nice rooms of
their own, with their own bath, where they know where everything
is?
KANE
I thought we might have a picnic tomorrow, Susan.
SUSAN
You never give me anything I really care about.
SINGER
It can't be love for there is no true love, no true love. I know
I've played at the game like a moth in a blue flame. Lost in the
end just the same, just the same. All these years my heart's
floating around in a paddle of tears. Mmm, I wonder what it is...
SUSAN
Oh, sure, you give me things. But that don't mean anything to
you.
KANE
You're in a tent, darling. You aren't at home. I can hear you
very well if you speak in a normal tone of voice.
SUSAN
What's the difference between giving me a bracelet or giving
somebody else a hundred thousand dollars for a statue you're
gonna keep crated up and you'll never even look at. It's just
money. It doesn't mean anything. You never really give me
anything that belongs to you, that you care about.
KANE
Susan, I want you to stop this.
SUSAN
I'm not gonna stop it.
KANE
Right now!
SUSAN
You never gave me anything in your whole life. You just tried to
buy me into giving you something.
KANE
Susan!
SINGERS
It can't be love. He said, it can't be love. It can't...
KANE
Whatever I do, I do because I love you.
SUSAN
You don't love me. You want me to love you. Sure. "I'm Charles
Foster Kane. Whatever you want, just name it and it's yours. But
you've gotta love me." Don't tell me you're sorry.
KANE
I'm not sorry.
RAYMOND
Mr. Kane. Mrs. Kane would like to see you, sir. Marie has been
packing her since morning.
SUSAN
Tell Arnold I'm ready, Marie. Tell him he can get the bags.
MARIE
Yes, Madam.
KANE
Have you gone completely crazy? Don't you know that our guests,
that everyone here will know about this? You've packed your bags,
sent for the car...
SUSAN
And left you? Of course they'll hear. I'm not saying goodbye,
except to you. But I never imagined people wouldn't know.
KANE
I won't let you go.
SUSAN
Goodbye, Charlie.
KANE
Susan. Please don't go. No. Please, Susan. From now on,
everything will be exactly the way you want it to be. Not the way
I think you want it, but... your way. Hmm? You mustn't go. You
can't do this to me.
SUSAN
I see. It's you that this is being done to. It's not me at all,
not what it means to me. I can't do this to you? Oh, yes, I can.
SUSAN
In case you haven't heard how I lost all my money, and it was
plenty, believe me.
THOMPSON
Last ten years have been tough on a lot of people.
SUSAN
They haven't been tough on me. I just lost all my money. So
you're going down to Xanadu?
THOMPSON
Yeah, Monday, with some of the boys from the office. Mr. Rawlston
wants the whole place photographed, all that art stuff. We run a
picture magazine, you know.
SUSAN
Yeah, I know. Well, if you're smart, get in touch with Raymond.
He's the butler. You'll learn a lot from him. He knows where all
the bodies are buried.
THOMPSON
You know, all the same, I feel kind of sorry for Mr. Kane.
SUSAN
Don't you think I do? Oh, what do you know? It's morning already.
Come around and tell me the story of your life sometime.
RAYMOND
Rosebud? I tell you about Rosebud. How much is it worth to you? A
thousand dollars?
THOMPSON
Okay.
RAYMOND
Well, I tell you, Mr. Thompson. He acted kind of funny sometimes,
you know?
THOMPSON
No, I didn't.
RAYMOND
Yes, he did crazy things sometimes. I've been working for him
eleven years now, in charge of the whole place, so I ought to
know. Rosebud.
THOMPSON
Yes?
RAYMOND
Well, like I tell you, the old man acted kind of funny sometimes.
But, uh, I knew how to handle him.
THOMPSON
Need a lot of service?
RAYMOND
Mmm, yeah. But I know how to handle him. Like the time his wife
left him.
KANE
Rosebud.
THOMPSON
I see. And that's what you know about Rosebud?
RAYMOND
Yeah. I heard him say it that other time, too. He just said, uh,
"Rosebud," then he dropped the glass ball and it broke on the
floor. He didn't say anything after that, and I knew he was dead.
He said all kinds of things that didn't mean anything.
THOMPSON
Sentimental fellow, aren't you?
RAYMOND
Mmm... Yes and no.
THOMPSON
That isn't worth a thousand dollars.
RAYMOND
You can keep asking questions if you want to.
THOMPSON
We're leaving tonight. As soon as we're through taking pictures.
RAYMOND
Allow yourself plenty of time. The train stops at the Junction on
signal but they don't like to wait. Not now.
ASSISTANT 1
Number nine-one-eight-two.
RAYMOND
I can remember when they'd wait all day if Mr. Kane said so.
ASSISTANT 2
Nativity.
ASSISTANT 3
Attributed to Donatello.
THOMPSON
We'd better get going.
ASSISTANT 3
Acquired Florence nineteen twenty-one.
ASSISTANT 1
I've got it.
ASSISTANT 3
Next, take a picture of that.
ASSISTANT 4
Hey, can we come down?
ASSISTANT 5
Yeah. Hurry up. We're leaving.
ASSISTANT 4
Okay. Here we come.
RAYMOND
How much do you think all this is worth, Mr. Thompson?
THOMPSON
Millions. If anybody wants it.
RAYMOND
Well, at least he brought all this stuff to America.
ASSISTANT 6
What's that?
ASSISTANT 7
Another Venus, twenty-five thousand bucks. That's a lot of money
to pay for a dame without a head.
RAYMOND
The banks are out of luck then, huh?
THOMPSON
Oh, I don't know. They'll clear all right.
ASSISTANT 8
He never threw anything away.
ASSISTANT 9
Welcome home, Mr. Kane, from four hundred sixty-seven employees
of the New York Inquirer.
ASSISTANT 1
One stove from the estate of Mary Kane, Little Salem, Colorado.
Value -- two dollars.
THOMPSON
We're supposed to get everything, junk as well as art.
ASSISTANT 10
He sure liked to collect things, didn't he?
THOMPSON
Anything and everything.
RAYMOND
A regular crow, huh?
ASSISTANT 11
Hey, look. A jigsaw puzzle.
ASSISTANT 12
We got a lot of those.
ASSISTANT 10
Burmese temple and three Spanish ceilings down the hall.
ASSISTANT 1
Yeah, all in crates.
ASSISTANT 13
There's part of a Scotch castle over there we haven't bothered to
unwrap yet.
NEWSPAPERMAN 1
I wonder...you put all this stuff together, the palaces,
paintings, toys, and everything. What would it spell?
THOMPSON
Charles Foster Kane.
PHOTOGRAPHER
Or Rosebud? How about it, Jerry? Ha, ha, ha.
ASSISTANT 1
What's Rosebud?
RAYMOND
That's what he said when he died.
NEWSPAPERMAN 2
Did you ever find out what it means?
THOMPSON
No, I didn't.
PHOTOGRAPHER
What did you find out about him, Jerry?
THOMPSON
Not much, really. We'd better get started.
NEWSPAPERMAN 3
What have you been doing all this time?
THOMPSON
Playing with a jigsaw puzzle.
ASSISTANT 11
If you could have found out about what Rosebud meant, I bet that
would've explained everything.
THOMPSON
No, I don't think so. No. Mr. Kane was a man who got everything
he wanted, then lost it. Maybe Rosebud was something he couldn't
get or something he lost. Anyway, it wouldn't have explained
anything. I don't think any word can explain a man's life. No, I
guess Rosebud is just a piece in a jigsaw puzzle. A missing
piece. Well, come on, everybody. We'll miss the train.
RAYMOND
Throw that junk.
SLED EMBLEM READS
Rosebud.
SIGN READS
No Trespassing
The End