Kane on Blu-ray

[Alan Brody]

Having just read the TOSOTW screenplay I was amazed to find how much more there is to that party conversation then what was shown in One Man Band and the AFI tribute, including a curious discussion of organized religion and the supplanting of female diety (ala Robert Graves) with the male diety of the Judeo-Christian Bible.. Hopefully what was written was also filmed.

There is a lot of great and tantalizing footage in One Man Band, but the one that probably has haunted me the most is the "Gentlemen's Club" sequence from the London episode of Welles's aborted TV special, which, like some of Merchant of Venice, has missing sound. Welles plays all of the club members in outrageous makeup and costume, and I really long to hear how he would have voiced each of those characters and what they were saying.

OMB deals mainly with Welles's late career, but steering back to Kane for a minute, the deleted brothel sequence from that film is one of the more unsung holy grails among Wellesian lost footage. But if anyone ever finds that, film history will really be rocked. And it was filmed, so it's not completely implausible that it could still exist. I think we need a documentary on all the lost cinema from Welles's early career. It would make a great companion piece to OMB.

[Harvey Chartrand]

Alan Brody writes: "The deleted brothel sequence from that film (Citizen Kane) is one of the more unsung holy grails among Wellesian lost footage. But if anyone ever finds that, film history will really be rocked. And it was filmed, so it's not completely implausible that it could still exist."

This is amazing. Here we've been lamenting lost Ambersons footage, the forever MIA Jake Hannaford picture, missing scenes from Filming Othello, Don Quixote and The Merchant of Venice, etc. and nobody has (until now) mentioned the cut brothel scene from Citizen Kane in terms of trying to find it and stitch it back into the film... or include it as a deleted scene in a 70th anniversary Blu-ray release.

Let the search begin!

[Alan Brody]

...the cut brothel scene from Citizen Kane in terms of trying to find it and stitch it back into the film... or include it as a deleted scene in a 70th anniversary Blu-ray release.

That would be incredible, wouldn't it? My intuition tells me that, given Kane's stature, the scene probably would have surfaced by now if it existed, especially if it was in somebody's private collection. But you never know.

[Roger Ryan]

...the cut brothel scene from Citizen Kane in terms of trying to find it and stitch it back into the film... or include it as a deleted scene in a 70th anniversary Blu-ray release.

That would be incredible, wouldn't it? My intuition tells me that, given Kane's stature, the scene probably would have surfaced by now if it existed, especially if it was in somebody's private collection. But you never know.

Given that the studio found it unnecessary to hold onto the cut footage from AMBERSONS, I'm sure the KANE scraps were long gone by the mid-40s. In addition to the brothel sequence, there was another cut scene where the young Kane destroys the typesetter's plates so that poor Solly has to remake the front page again. Of course, it's important to note that Welles himself wanted these scenes cut (or, in the case of the brothel scene, understood it could not be included for censorship reasons). I believe the content of the brothel scene was reconfigured and used as a portion of the big Enquirer party, so even if the footage existed, it could not be smoothly "stitched back in" to the film since the dialogue would be replicated in the existing scene. Reflecting on this now, it does seem a little odd that Kane is shouting at Leland about going to "war with Spain" while dancing around with the girls; attempting to hold a conversation when the environment/activity does not seem conducive to such a discussion. Is this the dialogue that would have followed in the original brothel scene before Welles acknowledged that such a scene could not make it past the censors?

[Glenn Anders]

Roger has it down, I think.

In addition, a likely assumption might be that the fire which destroyed the original negative of CITIZEN KANE probably incinerated any extra footage, including the brothel scene, had any been kept.

My take on the Enquirer party scene is that Kane's demeanor illustrates the beginning corruption of his original ideals, foreshadowed by Leland's skepticism about Kane's acquisition of his rival paper's "dream staff," as expressed during his fragmented exchanges with Bernstein while they watch their boss cavort with "the girls."

Glenn

[atcolomb]

I just finished watching the Showtime version of One Man Band and to me the best part was the scenes of him singing in the skit One Man Band in London where he does all the different characters like the lady selling flowers and dirty postcards or the Chinese man at the stripclub or the cop...all very funny. It's not too often to hear Orson sing, i hope to see more of his footage he shot in London.

[Alan Brody]

This is probably all that survives of it:

[atcolomb]

Does that look like cinematographer Gregg Toland laying on the floor next to the girl?....looks like him.

[Glenn Anders]

True, atcolomb: And a possibly aroused Gregg Toland, at that!

Glenn

[Roger Ryan]

That's a great photo; haven't seen it before. There is another production still that exists from the actual scene with Everett Sloane and Joseph Cotten present with Welles on the brothel set.

[Alan Brody]

I'd like to see it. Is it in a book? It would also be interesting to see what the Lilly Library might have buried in their Welles archive. Also, it's nice that the text for the whole brothel scene can be found in The Citizen Kane Book. You're right that the exchange about whether there's a song about Charlie did find it's way into the Enquirer party scene, but there was a lot more dialogue to the brothel scene that did not, and would have added even more flavor to the film, especially Leland's character. Reading the text I was surprised at how much there was to it.

[Glenn Anders]

Yes, Alan, but Welles would have known, certainly Gregg Toland and George Schaefer would have told him, that CITIZEN KANE could never be released containing this brothel sequence. The single still you provide, innocent and whimsical as it may be, illustrates at least four violations of the Motion Picture Code which would have deep-sixed the picture: 1) the decadent setting suggesting "a Turkish house of ill-repute" (as a censors would have delicately described it); 2) the numerous reclining women, a couple in casual but affectionate embrace; 3) a man and woman in the same bed together; and 4) a woman's exposed bare inner thigh.

Hard to imagine today, but those were the reel facts of Hollywood Screen Life in 1941.

The sequence, as many critics have surmised, would have been used as a bargaining chip to retain less shocking elements within the picture.

[And I'm not at all sure that CITIZEN KANE isn't stronger, in this case, for the imposed restraints. After all, we gradually come to know everything we really need to understand about Charles Foster Kane's gradual ethical and moral corruption, his semi-conscious desire to use, control and punish women.]

Glenn

[Alan Brody]

The sequence, as many critics have surmised, would have been used as a bargaining chip to retain less shocking elements within the picture.

You're probably right, Glenn. Sort of like Scorcese filming the eye-popping-out-of-the-head-in-a-vice scene from Casino.

[Sir Bygber Brown]

I forget it I or someone else confirmed this earlier, but Kane has been announced as being prepared for blu for its 2011 anniversary, so barring any disaster, it should actually happen. Can't wait. Also, since I was last here, I grew to hate my 40" LCD and managed to exchange it (plus an upgrade fee) for a 50" Plasma; which, unlike my 50Hz LCD, doesn't go all smeary with movement. On a 50Hz LCD, the slightest pan or dolly will blur. Atrocious.

[purplepines]

"World premiere of new restoration" of Kane to be shown next Spring in California during the TCM Classic Film Festival, so says a press release from them.

"The Festival will present the 70th anniversary world premiere restoration of Citizen Kane (1941) as part of a broader look at prolific composer Bernard Herrmann on the 100th anniversary of his birth," so adds said press release.

Said press release: http://www.tcm.com/festival/uploads/pdfs/102110_TCMClassicFilmFestival_OpeningNightRelease.pdf

Like the man said, everything in its right place.