This is a companion to Citizen Kane - the film that was designed to
shock (Kenneth Tynan) - one of the best-known movies in the history of
Hollywood. Not only was it Orson Welles's first film as actor and
director but most of the cast were also new to the cinema. Yet so
controversial was the subject matter that an 842,000 US dollar bribe and
concentration wrath of the Hearst newspaper empire combined in an
attempt to strangle its distribution. The authorship of the film is
still a subject of conflict. Pauline Keal's essay, Raising Kane,
dissects a maze of Hollywood lore to re-evaluate these and other stories
about the making of this film. Her account is followed by the original
screenplay, illustrated with over 40 stills and frame enlargements,
together with notes on the difference between the script and the final
film.