Citizen Kane 1941, RKO, Directed by Orson Welles, Screenplay by Orson Welles, Herman J. Mankiewicz Orson Welles Josef Cotton 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