Citizen Kane: A Filmmaker’s Journey
The only complete story of the production, controversy,
and release of the greatest film ever made
It is the story of a film masterpiece—how it was created and how it was almost destroyed.
It is the celebration of brilliant achievement, and a sinister tale of conspiracy, extortion, and Communist witch hunts, played out in company boardrooms and a mountaintop palace.
Harlan Lebo—author of books about America’s most acclaimed motion pictures—has written the only book with the full story of Citizen Kane, Orson Welles’ masterpiece film.
Citizen Kane: A Filmmaker’s Journey is the remarkable story of how 24-year-old Orson Welles came to Hollywood, defied the motion picture industry, and created the finest film ever produced. But even then, the fight continued with the dark and disturbing attack on the film by the Hearst organization that tried to destroy it.
Using previously-unpublished material from studio files and the Hearst organization, exclusive interviews with the last surviving members of the cast and crew, and what may be the only copies of the “lost” final script of the film, Citizen Kane: A Filmmaker’s Journey recounts the most extraordinary episode in Hollywood history:
- Orson Welles’ meteoric rise to stardom in New York
- The controversy behind Welles’ arrival in Hollywood
- Welles’ unprecedented contract with RKO that gave him near-total creative control
- The dispute over who wrote the script
- The frantic production schedule
- The mystery of the “lost” final script and the missing scenes
- The plot by the organization of publisher William Randolph Hearst to destroy the film
- And the rise of Citizen Kane to the pinnacle of film masterpiece
The only book of its kind
Citizen Kane: A Filmmaker’s Journey is the only book that explores the full story of the background, production, controversy, and release of the motion picture.
Excerpts from each chapter are here.
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New information and discoveries about Citizen Kane
Using previously unused documents from the Hearst and Welles archives, the University of Michigan, and the Museum of Modern Art, Citizen Kane: A Filmmaker’s Journey includes new findings and stories about:
- Welles’ role in writing the screenplay, which was larger than formerly understood
- Previously-unreleased information provided by Welles’ assistant Kathryn Trosper, which describes Welles’ struggles while creating the film
- A newly-revealed “lost” script that Welles wrote long after the studio approved the final draft
- New eyewitness accounts of Welles directing the film
- The last-second panic to prepare new scenes written by Welles during production that fixed flaws in the story
- Discoveries about the conspiracy by the Hearst organization to suppress or destroy Citizen Kane and discredit Welles.
Details about the previously-unpublished information in Citizen Kane: A Filmmaker’s Journey are here.
Reviews
Citizen Kane: A Filmmaker’s Journey has received consistently positive reviews, with critics citing the book for its comprehensive text, readability, correcting fallacies and inaccuracies, and providing new information about the film.
Highlights of reviews describe Citizen Kane: A Filmmaker’s Journey as:
“Everything you wanted to know about the greatest film of all time—and then some.”
(Kirkus Reviews)
“A crisp, clear-eyed, romp through Kane history.” (Empire Magazine)
“The most thorough account yet of the genesis, production, and release
of Welles’s most famous film.” (New York Times)
“The definitive telling of this classic film’s complete story.” (Flick Attacks)
“A highly readable, comprehensive, intelligent work.” (Publisher’s Weekly)
Links to more reviews and media coverage of the book are here.
About the Author
Harlan Lebo, a senior fellow at the Center for the Digital Future at USC Annenberg, writes about sciences, the humanities, society, and digital technology. Lebo has also written books about Casablanca, and The Godfather—which along with Citizen Kane, represent the three top movies in the American Film Institute’s list of the 100 greatest motion pictures of all time.
Citizen Kane: A Filmmaker’s Journey was published by Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press in April 2016 to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the release of the film.
More about Harlan Lebo is here.
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