Often considered by critics, filmmakers and fans to be the greatest film ever made, Citizen Kane is a 1941 American drama film directed, co-written, produced by, and starring Orson Welles. The picture was Welles’s first feature film. Now, Welles’ personal copy of the script for his masterpiece will be offered for auction at Sotheby’s in London on March 6. This typed script, covered in the director’s amendments and marked “Mr. Welles’ working copy” on the front page has an estimated value of £15,000 to £20,000 ($25,000 to $33,000).
The working draft, with the working title “The American”, is the one that did get the script in the heart of George Schaefer, boss of the film production company RKO Pictures, which Welles collaborated since 1939 and who produced it along with him.
The scipt is part of a sale session called “1000 Ways of Seeing: The Private Collection of the Late Stanley J. Seeger” (an affluent collector of everything from Old Masters to historical oddities). Described in the Sotheby’s catalog as the second draft, with markings and deletions in pencil and pink crayon, the script has 229 pages, including the original script and several additions.
The notation “Mr. Welles’s Working Copy” is written twice on the cover — once, underscored, across the top center, and once with the director’s name spelled “Wells,” in the upper right corner.
Needless to say, this is one of the greatest masterpieces in the history of cinema. Citizen Kane was nominated for Academy Awards in nine categories; it won an Academy Award for Best Writing (Original Screenplay) by Herman Mankiewicz and Welles.
