Scenes cut from Citizen Kane

[maxrael]

Over on another thread Glenn said:

Buried within the "final," much-to-be-changed, shooting script for CITIZEN KANE is another scene, shot but later deleted, set just before the final sequence of the finished movie. I have never seen it quoted in any discussion of CITIZEN KANE.

Kane stands with Raymond the Butler (Paul Stewart) in the family tomb. His only son, Charles Foster Kane II, is dead at the age of 31. The year is 1938, and workmen are setting a slab on the grave. After they leave, Kane looks at the simple inscriptions on the crypts of his father, mother and son; then, above the blank where he will soon lie, he stares at the inscription on an ornate, ancient wall imported from Persia.

He translates for Raymond (who couldn't care less):


The drunkenness of youth has passed
like a fever,
And yet I saw many things,
Seeing my glory in the days of my
glory.
I thought my power eternal
And the days of my life
fixed surely in the years,
but a whisper came to me
from Him who dies not.
I called my tributary kings together
And those who were proud rulers under me,
I opened the boxes of my treasure
to them, saying:
"Take hills of gold, mountains of silver,
And give me one more day upon the earth."
But they stood silent,
Looking upon the ground;
So that I died
And Death came to sit upon my throne.

O sons of men
You see a stranger upon the road,
You call to him and he does not stop.
He is your life
Walking towards time,
Hurrying to meet the kings of India
and China.

O sons of men
You are caught in the web of the world
And the spider Nothing waits behind it.
Where are the men with towering hopes?
They have changed places with owls,
Owls who lived in tombs
And now inhabit a palace.

Nothing can better sum up our affluent lives, or the meaning of CITIZEN KANE.

------------------

It's probably already been mentioned somewhere else, but the version of the scipt Glenn quotes from above can be read online at:

Kane Script

[Glenn Anders]

Thank you, maxrael. Of course, when I got my copy of this revision of the script in 1991, I doubt "kane script" existed on the Internet. In any case, it is good to know that we have the site now. Most useful.

Thank you for pointing it out.

Glenn

[David N]

Fascinating. And this scene was actually shot? I wonder if Welles may have felt that this scene revealed a little too much. I think it does but would love to have seen it. Does this scene go back to the "American" script or is it purely a Welles creation?

[Glenn Anders]

David N: Whether or not the scene was actually shot is in some dispute here. If it was, you are right, probably it was thought a little too much, and it would have snarled the film in another subplot. The scene is taken from a revision "by Herman J. Mankiewicz and Orson Welles," printed in the summer of 1940. The script was included in the Turner Classic 50th Aniversary Edition of CITIZEN KANE, brought out in 1991.

Glenn

[Knowles Noel Shane]

Contrary to what I stated on the other thread, I guess there were some scenes shot which didn't make the final cut. It seems I've seen stills from the brothel scene (which couldn't be shown because of the censors) and there's another still of Kane, Jed, and Bernstein down in the printing room looking at, what is it, a proof of a front page I think. Anyway, they didn't look like publicity stills, so I guess they were staged and shot.

Speaking of deleted scenes, I just saw the footage of Don Quixote slicing up the movie screen, while the audience cheered (apparently) and Sancho came running down the aisle after his master. The little girl (what the hell's her name) who didn't make the Franco version was in the scene as well. It's nice that obscure footage like this continues to surface. There's hope for another Quixote restoration yet! And Arakadin. And TOSOTW. Come on, years ago we all KNEW we'd never see any of Quijote - now there's two hours of it to watch (turn of the sound if you like.) Similarly, I'd been hoping to see more of the films excerpted in One Man Band, and then something like The Short Films restored by the Munich Film Museum turns up. We just need to all live long enough.

[Glenn Anders]

Living long enough gets tougher for some of us every day, no doubt, Knowles.

Yes, at Kane's celebration of taking over his closest rival newspaper in New York, the dancing girls originally did more than dance.

Glenn

[Knowles Noel Shane]

Actually, this is the best point in history (so far) to be a Welles fan, scholar, and/or collector, simply because of the continuing unearthing of lost projects and restorations of the released ones.

Oh, that's Patty McCormick in that scene from Quixote. Originally, Welles was going to use himself explaining the book to her as a framing device for the film, with the Don and Sancho somehow winding up in modern times and being filmed by Welles personally for his film of Quixote! According to a post in another thread, Oja decided not to use any of that footage in the restoration - I don't know why not. I wonder if there are are interviews with Oja and/or Jess Franco about the approach they took and the reasons for it. It's tempting to dismiss their version entirely, but at least they did finish it and release, which Orson never did.

[Orson&Jazz]

Question:

How good is the Turner 50th Anniversary Edition of Citizen Kane? I am assuming it is only on VHS, so how much does it really offer for extras? Just the offering of a script along with a movie seems really interesting. How would you compare it to the recent release of Citizen Kane on DVD?



:p

[Glenn Anders]

Orson & Jazz: The Turner 50th Aniversary Edition is indeed only VHS, but I have never been such stickler for perfection as some here. I saw CITIZEN KANE in the theater of a small Ohio town when I was ten, and that is the version I carry in my mind. The sound is magnificent, which to a considerable extent was Welles' contribution. Technically, there are a few what the technicians call "artifacts," little white flecks, here and there on the print, but I think the transfer is pretty good. After all, the original negative no longer exists.

As for extras, there is the facsimile script in paper covers I've mentioned, which is 8 1/2 X 11, and 209 pages in length. [You can imagine that cuts would have been necessary.] But this draft is far different than American, the version Pauline Kael reproduced.

There is also a 240 page hardbound study of the genesis and production of CITIZEN KANE, which is mostly on glossy paper and has many excellent stills from the film and from the production process, etc.

Finally, in edition to glossy tearsheets of newspaper and magazine advertising, and a numbered certificate attesting to the "limited" nature of the edition, there is a documentary entitled "Reflections on CITIZEN KANE," which contains the original theatrical trailer and interviews with Ruth Warrick, Paul Stewart, Richard Wilson, Martin Scorsese, Ridley Scott, Roger Corman, Brian De Palma, etc.

I would say that this Edition is very much worth having, and it tends to be my bible for the film.

Glenn

[Orson&Jazz]

Although DVD seems to be the preferrred medium for many film collectors, this VHS edition seems even better! I would be thrilled to own it, considering all the extra goodies that came with it. Even many "Special Edition" DVD's do not come with all these great collectibles.

It is too bad that I never even knew about Orson when they celebrated the 50th anniversary, or else I definitely would have tried my damndest to obtain this edition!


All those extras sound interesting. You can't see, but I am wallowing in jealousy! :p

[colwood]

Orson & Jazz, if the vhs with the "reflections" doc is all you're interested in, you can find a couple on ebay for $1 or two. If you're interested in the full 50th box set that Glenn describes, there are two copies on ebay, with the lesser price currently $20,

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws....79&rd=1

[colwood]

Glenn, regarding the cut scenes from CK, when you say "But this draft is far different than American, the version Pauline Kael reproduced" I'm assuming you are referring to the version in the Citizen Kane Book that also included Kael's Raising Kane essay. If I could correct you, the version in that book is dated July 16, 1940, and is stated as the final shooting script. (If you are referring to another version involving Kael, I stand corrected.)

In the CKB, the script is slightly different from the cutting continuity of the final movie. Aside from a few changes here and there and a few cuts here and there, the only significant cut that was made of footage that was filmed was the bordello scene. There appears to be mention of cuts involving a scene of Carter, Bernstein and Kane in the printing rooms of the Inquirer and a cut of a scene involving Raymond telling a woman to release a statement saying that Susan has left Xanadu. From what was in this version, it appears the scene in the cemetary wasn't filmed, but from this side, I couldn't say that for certain.

Among the most interesting points between the script and the film is that the whole sequence after Kane leaves home (getting the Xmas present from Thatcher, the dictation of the letter, the response letter, as well as the newspaper headlines) apparently appears in NO version of the script.

[Glenn Anders]

Dear colwood: We sometimes begin to spin our wheels here.

I've had my say on this at least twice.

I defer to you because I no longer have a copy of THE CITIZEN KANE BOOK, but my memory of American, in contrast to "the cutting continuity," is that it is a very different work, and of course, not a shooting script at all. And the script to which I refer is quite different yet.

What should be clear, as a number of those close to the project suggested at one time or another, is that there were a number of parallel versions and revisions, and that Welles, as you suggest, improvised scenes and bits on the set, such as the history of Charlie and Emily's marriage, which were not in any of the revised versions of the script at all.

The copy I am referring to Orson & Jazz is before me. As I've written, its cover states: CITIZEN KANE by Herman J. Mankiewicz and Orson Welles, June 18, 1940.

[Total manuscript: 209 pages.]

It is a shooting script.

The text begins with the opening scene we are familiar with, but without the fence and the NO TRESPASSING sign. A page for MAIN TITLE and CREDITS follows. And then, "News Digest," which is similar to "News on the March," except that references are made to Pulizter, Bennett. Norcliffe, McCormick, Hearst and a number of other press tycoons, of whom Charles Foster Kane is said to be one of the most important.

The story continues rather closely to what we know until Page 59-60, where a brief scene of Thatcher on a train, looking down on weeping little Charlie, and an entry critical of Kane from Thatcher's Journals are recorded. These have been replaced by the "christmas sled" sequence you indicate.

We move through Bernstein's memories, with some re-arrangement, as the action goes directly to the entry of Kane and "Bradford" Leland into the Inquirer Offices. A portion of the scene in which Kane lays down rules for the paper at PP. 83-86 is not in the finished film.

A montage of headlines involving the "Declaration of Principles," and introducing the party, PP. 92-93, is not not in the film; ditto another with Remington's drawings of conditions in Cuba, more growth of the Inquirer, the courtship of Kane and Emily, their marriage and honeymoon, PP. 97-103.

The "brothel sequence," PP 112-117, as you note, is gone.

Following the elimination of a lawyer's letter concerning Emily's divorce action, the next major cut in this script occurs between PP. 122-130, which involves Kane's arguments with Emily over corruption in the President's Administation (her uncle) over oil leases, Kane's editorial attacks on the President, an almost successful plot to assassinate the President, and arguments how the Inquirer will handle blame for it. The latter argument is further edited from PP. 132-134, in which Leland broaches the fact that Emily intends to leave Kane over the scandal.

An argument, not unlike a later one with Susan, between Emily and Kane around the crib of young Charlie, Jr., PP 138-140, in which he begs her not to leave him, is omitted from the picture.

A scene at PP. 157-160, between Leland and Emily, suggesting a romance between them, will be omitted.

Presumably much of this action was abridged in the "swish pan marriage montage." All of this material, including Susan's disasterous debut and the City Room scene are attributed to Leland, over to P. 164.

Thompson interviews Susan, including a couple of scenes rearranged in the finished picture, to PP. 195.

Raymond enters the story, but a scene between him and the estate telephone operator, which discusses Susan's press release of her separation (before she has told Kane) disappears.

There is no scene between Kane and Susan, and the one we have seems to have been drawn and intensified from the one I've mentioned (in a nursery) between Kane and Emily.

Immediately following, Raymond sets up the scene at the crypt, PP. 199-201. [This is where we came in.]

There are only two other cuts in this script afterward:

1) At P. 207, Thompson delivers a rather sympathetic eulogy for Kane to his reporting team.

And 2) at P 208, there is a direction, which may or may not have been omitted -- I always forget to look: "He [Thompson] picks up his overcoat -- it has been resting on a little sled -- the little sled young Charles Foster Kane hit Thatcher with at the beginning of the picture. Camera doesn't close in on this. It just registers the sled as the newspaper people, picking up their clothes and equipment, move out of the great hall."

Raymond gives the order: "Throw that junk in, too."

And CITIZEN KANE ends as we remember it.

-----------------

All I'm asserting is that, as in most films, there is no one definitive script for Welles' masterpiece.

Glenn

[Roger Ryan]

Although DVD seems to be the preferrred medium for many film collectors, this VHS edition seems even better!

For me, the 50th Anniversary Edition of "Kane" was quite disappointing. While some have complained that certain scenes in the DVD version were "printed" too bright, many scenes in the print struck for theatrical release in '91 and subsequent VHS release were way too dark! For example: during the magnificent crane/minature shot of the "El Rancho", the painting of Susan Alexander Kane is visible only on the lightning strike, then total blackness until the skylight appears! Elsewhere, blurry black outlines seem to swallow the actors. I held on to my VHS copy from the '80s out of fear that "Kane" would never look as good again. Fortunately, the DVD restoration was beautifully done (apart from being a little too bright in spots!).

The extras in the box set are worth having, although I'm afraid the glossy stills included degenerated into a blurry mess in under ten years (as a call to arms for film preservation, they served their purpose).

[Orson&Jazz]

I read the script from the link that was provided, and I must say that I am still in awe.

The script gave me insight to what the film is. There is much they did not include. There was more character development for all. And the scenes that they did not include would have been interesting if they did have the chance to include them.

I really liked the script. It was a mini insight into what motivated the characters, almost like a background synopsis before viewing the movie.


What I was curious about was that the script that came with the 50th anniversary release had 209 pages in length, but the script that the link is to has only 160 pages. There are 49 pages missing. Were the missing pages just filtered because it was technical jargon about how the shots were to be done; film maker lingo? I am guessing that "shooting script" meant it included all the jargon, while the script that the link to was just dialogue. For example, the scene with Thatcher and young C. F. Kane on a train was not on pages 59-60, but on page 33.


What I hope is that I did not miss out on a lot of the dialogue. But even the techical jargon would have been interesting to read.