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Raising Kane

Raising Kane is a two-part, book-length essay written by American film critic Pauline Kael and originally published in The New Yorker magazine on February 20 and 27, 1971.^[1] In it, Kael contends that the screenplay for the 1941 film Citizen Kane, long attributed primarily to director Orson Welles, was predominantly the work of screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz, whom she portrays as an overlooked genius of 1930s Hollywood comedy and satire.^[2] The essay draws on interviews with collaborators like producer John Houseman and detailed accounts of the screenplay's development, asserting that Mankiewicz drafted the bulk of the script in 1940 at a remote ranch in Victorville, California, while recovering from a broken leg and dictating it to a secretary under Houseman's supervision.^[1] Kael describes Welles' contributions as limited to revisions and theatrical innovations during production, which began with test shots in June 1940 and wrapped principal photography by October of that year, emphasizing how Mankiewicz's journalistic style infused the film with its satirical edge on power and media magnate William Randolph Hearst.^[1] She also highlights the external pressures on the film, including Hearst's attempts to suppress it through threats and a reported $842,000 offer to RKO Pictures to destroy the negative, which studio head George J. Schaefer rejected.^[1] Upon release, Raising Kane ignited fierce controversy in film circles by challenging the auteur theory that positioned Welles as the singular visionary behind Citizen Kane, often hailed as one of the greatest films ever made.^[2] Welles and his supporters, including director Peter Bogdanovich in his rebuttal essay "The Kane Mutiny" (Esquire, 1972), accused Kael of bias, factual inaccuracies, and overreliance on potentially unreliable sources like Houseman, while downplaying Welles' on-set innovations in cinematography, lighting, and narrative structure.^[2] The essay was later expanded into the 1971 book The Citizen Kane Book: Raising Kane, published by Little, Brown and Company, which included the full shooting script attributed to Mankiewicz and Welles, and in 1996 reissued as Raising Kane and Other Essays by Marion Boyars Publishers. Despite criticisms of its one-sidedness, Raising Kane endures as a pivotal work in film criticism for prompting reevaluations of collaborative authorship in Hollywood, influencing discussions that resurfaced with David Fincher's 2020 film Mank, which echoed Kael's emphasis on Mankiewicz's role.^[2] It remains ranked among the most influential Hollywood books for questioning whether directors like Welles deserve sole credit or if screenwriters like Mankiewicz—whose shared Oscar win for Best Original Screenplay in 1942 was hard-fought via Writers Guild arbitration—deserve greater recognition.^[2]

Overview

Description

"Raising Kane" is a 50,000-word essay by Pauline Kael, a prominent film critic who contributed to The New Yorker from 1967 until 1991.^[1]^[3] In the essay, Kael presents the core thesis that screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz was the primary author of the Citizen Kane screenplay, asserting that the contributions of director Orson Welles have been overstated in historical accounts.^[1]^[4] The essay first appeared in two installments in The New Yorker on February 20 and February 27, 1971, before being republished as the lead piece in the 314-page volume The Citizen Kane Book on October 28, 1971.^[1]^[4]^[5] This publication revived broader discussions on the authorship of Citizen Kane's screenplay.

Historical Context

The development of the screenplay for Citizen Kane began in early 1940 when Orson Welles, fresh from his success in radio and theater, hired veteran screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz to craft the script. Mankiewicz, who had previously pitched ideas inspired by media tycoon William Randolph Hearst, worked in isolation at a ranch in Victorville, California, with oversight from Welles's associate John Houseman and assistance from secretary Rita Alexander in dictating and editing. Despite a broken leg that confined him to a hospital bed for part of the time, Mankiewicz produced the initial draft—spanning over 260 pages—in roughly six weeks by April 1940, drawing on biographical elements from Hearst's life while incorporating Welles's directives for a more nuanced protagonist.^[6]^[7] Authorship tensions emerged soon after as production ramped up in mid-1940. Under his contract with Welles's Mercury Theatre, Mankiewicz was guaranteed payment but no screen credit, a stipulation that chafed as the script's quality became evident. He filed a claim with the Screen Writers Guild for sole authorship but withdrew it amid threats of retaliation from Hearst, whose influence loomed large over Hollywood. The studio, RKO Pictures, stepped in during January 1941 to resolve the matter through arbitration, ultimately granting co-writing credit to both Mankiewicz and Welles on the final screenplay, with Welles listed first on the official guild form.^[6] Mankiewicz's financial compensation for the screenplay totaled $22,833.35, a substantial sum equivalent to over $500,000 in today's dollars, reflecting his extensive contributions despite the credit compromise. Unverified allegations later surfaced that Welles had offered an additional $10,000 bribe to persuade Mankiewicz to relinquish any claim to authorship entirely, though Welles denied this and no corroborating evidence has emerged. Prior to 1971, the joint credit stood with little public contention, but early accounts from collaborators like John Houseman hinted at Mankiewicz's outsized role, portraying him as the script's primary architect while acknowledging Welles's revisions and overall vision.^[8]^[9]^[10]

Development

Research Process

Pauline Kael initiated research for her essay "Raising Kane" in September 1968, a process that spanned more than a year leading up to its publication in 1971. She secured a $750 advance from The New Yorker for the project, half of which she paid to UCLA film professor Howard Suber for access to his extensive, proprietary research on Citizen Kane, including interviews with production principals.^[11] Kael's investigative methods centered on personal interviews and archival review to reconstruct the screenplay's origins. A primary source was John Houseman, Welles's longtime producer and collaborator, whom Kael interviewed for detailed recollections of supervising Mankiewicz's script dictation at a Victorville ranch in early 1940, amid Mankiewicz's recovery from a broken leg.^[1] She also drew from conversations with Mankiewicz's close associates, including his secretary Rita Alexander, who described the three-month writing sessions attended by Houseman, and family members like Sara Mankiewicz, who offered insights into his creative process and personal struggles.^[1] Suber's UCLA research formed a substantial unacknowledged foundation for Kael's narrative, encompassing historical context on Citizen Kane's development and interviews with surviving participants; he had been preparing his own essay on the film but was persuaded by Kael to withhold it in favor of a promised joint byline that never materialized.^[12] This ethical lapse—paying Suber $375 without crediting his contributions—remained hidden for decades until revealed in Brian Kellow's 2011 biography Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark, which documented Kael's appropriation through interviews and archival evidence, prompting accusations of intellectual theft.^[13]^[14]

Writing and Collaboration

Following the research phase, Pauline Kael composed "Raising Kane" as a solo endeavor, transforming her gathered materials into a narrative-driven essay that spanned over 50,000 words and was published in two installments in The New Yorker on February 20 and 27, 1971.^[15] Her editor, William Shawn, provided key input during drafting, convincing him to forgo the magazine's usual fact-checking process and to integrate Kael's voluminous notes—originally intended as footnotes—directly into the prose to create a seamless, immersive style blending historical recounting with analytical commentary.^[16] This approach allowed Kael to weave interviews and archival details into a polemical structure without traditional academic apparatus, though it later drew criticism for factual inaccuracies.^[15] Collaboration proved contentious, particularly with contributors who aided the research but received limited recognition. UCLA film professor Howard Suber conducted extensive interviews and provided foundational material for the essay, for which Kael paid him $375 as an advance and promised co-authorship on a joint book project; however, Suber was astonished to see the published work solely under Kael's byline, with no credit or further compensation, leading to his public expressions of distress over the exclusion.^[6] Similarly, John Houseman, a key figure in Citizen Kane's production, offered enthusiastic initial support during a lengthy 1969 lunch with Kael, sharing insights on Herman J. Mankiewicz's role that aligned with her thesis; yet Houseman later partially withdrew his endorsement, describing the resulting book as sparking an "idiotic controversy" in a 1975 interview.^[17] These tensions highlighted the piece's reliance on uncredited external input amid Kael's determination to craft a singular authorial voice. The essay's length and stylistic ambition facilitated its expansion into book form as The Citizen Kane Book, released in October 1971 by Little, Brown and Company, which incorporated the full text alongside the shooting script by Mankiewicz and Orson Welles, notes by Gary Carey, RKO cutting continuity, and appendices such as "The Credits of Herman J. Mankiewicz" detailing his professional history.^[16] This format blended Kael's expansive narrative and critique with documentary elements, including references to Mankiewicz's correspondence that underscored his creative primacy, amplifying the essay's impact while shifting focus from film analysis to screenplay origins.^[18] Internally, Kael grappled with debates over authorship attribution, insisting in the essay that Mankiewicz deserved recognition as the "sole genius" behind Citizen Kane's screenplay for its wit, structure, and thematic depth, despite the Screen Writers Guild's 1941 arbitration granting co-credit to Welles based on their collaborative revisions.^[6] This stance, shaped during drafting amid input from supporters like Houseman, reflected Kael's broader rejection of auteur theory but overlooked evidence of Welles's substantial contributions, such as structural innovations and dialogue refinements, fueling ongoing scholarly disputes.^[15]

Content

Main Arguments

In her 1971 New Yorker essay "Raising Kane," Pauline Kael contended that Herman J. Mankiewicz authored the bulk of the Citizen Kane screenplay independently, during his isolated writing period in Victorville, California, in early 1940.^[1] She emphasized that Welles's involvement was limited to minor revisions and suggestions made after receiving weekly script updates, with no evidence that he drafted or dictated any substantial portions of the shooting script.^[1] Kael supported this primary claim by highlighting Mankiewicz's testament from his secretary, Rita Alexander, who typed the draft and affirmed that Welles contributed nothing to its composition.^[1] To substantiate Mankiewicz's capability and stylistic influence, Kael drew on his prior screenwriting achievements, particularly his work on the Marx Brothers comedies Monkey Business (1931) and Horse Feathers (1932), which featured the sharp, irreverent banter and satirical edge that permeated Citizen Kane's dialogue.^[1] She argued that these earlier scripts demonstrated Mankiewicz's mastery of rapid-fire wit and character-driven humor, elements directly traceable to Kane's verbal interplay, such as the newsroom scenes and personal confrontations.^[19] Additionally, Kael alleged that Welles engaged in plagiarism of Mankiewicz's concepts, pointing to the director's history of claiming sole credit for collaborative efforts, including unacknowledged reliance on Howard Koch's contributions to the Mercury Theatre's 1938 radio adaptation of The War of the Worlds.^[1] Kael dismissed Welles's self-proclaimed role by portraying him as an opportunistic director whose genius was overstated in postwar interviews and promotional narratives, where he positioned himself as the film's singular visionary despite depending on a team of seasoned Hollywood talents.^[6] She quoted witnesses like producer John Houseman to underscore Welles's absence during the script's core development, suggesting his boasts served more to cultivate a mythic persona than reflect reality.^[1] On a broader level, Kael critiqued the Hollywood studio system's inherent collaboration, which systematically undervalued writers like Mankiewicz by prioritizing directors and actors in credit and compensation, thereby obscuring the foundational role of screenwriters in producing enduring films.^[6] This undervaluation, she argued, exemplified how the industry's power dynamics marginalized creative contributors who lacked the public allure of figures like Welles.^[1]

Analysis of Citizen Kane

In her essay, Pauline Kael traces the origins of Citizen Kane's script to Herman J. Mankiewicz's deep immersion in the life of William Randolph Hearst, whom Mankiewicz knew personally from stays at Hearst's San Simeon estate. She details how Mankiewicz incorporated Hearst's journalistic empire-building, circulation wars, and personal scandals directly into Kane's plot structure, transforming real events into the film's narrative of ambition and downfall. An early version of the script, titled American, spanned 325 pages and closely mirrored Hearst's biography, drawing further influences from films like Preston Sturges's The Power and the Glory (1933), which featured a tycoon's flashbacks and moral decay; this was condensed to 156 pages for production, shaping the final 119-minute film's episodic structure around multiple perspectives on Kane's life. Kael emphasizes that these tracings reveal Mankiewicz's journalistic cynicism as the script's foundation, with Kane's plot as a satirical composite rather than original invention.^[4] Kael's thematic breakdown highlights Mankiewicz's cynical, writer-driven wit in the dialogue as the film's driving force, portraying Kane as a product of Hollywood's sharp-tongued scribes rather than profound artistry. She points to lines like Jedediah Leland's quip, "He never believed in anything except Charlie Kane," as exemplifying Mankiewicz's black comedy, which infuses the narrative with a thirties-style skepticism toward power and idealism, contrasting sharply with Orson Welles's visual exuberance. In Kael's view, this dialogue-driven satire—rooted in Mankiewicz's experience writing for Hearst's rivals—dominates the themes of isolation and failed empire-building, while Welles's flair for dramatic lighting and composition serves as a secondary, almost ornamental layer that occasionally undercuts the script's ironic bite. For instance, she notes how the dialogue's "higher, blacker comedy" exposes Kane's hollowness through witty asides, prioritizing verbal iconoclasm over visual symbolism.^[4]^[1] Regarding innovations, Kael credits Welles with introducing deep-focus cinematography—collaborating with Gregg Toland to capture foreground and background action simultaneously, as in the distant doorway revelations—and the non-linear storytelling that fragments Kane's biography through interviews and flashbacks, adding a layer of subjective mystery to the plot. However, she asserts that the dialogue remains Mankiewicz's core strength, providing the film's authentic voice and structural cohesion amid these technical advances; without it, she argues, the visuals would lack narrative grounding. Kael briefly references Mankiewicz's primary authorship of the shooting script to underscore how his words anchor the innovations, preventing them from devolving into mere stylistic showmanship.^[4]^[1] Ultimately, Kael assesses Citizen Kane as a "shallow masterpiece," brilliant yet superficial due to the mismatched tones between Mankiewicz's satirical wit and Welles's Gothic theatricality, which creates an "exuberant shallow iconoclasm" rather than emotional depth. She contends that this tonal discord—witty dialogue clashing with grandiose visuals—transforms the film into lively entertainment but undermines any claim to tragedy, rendering Kane more a journalistic cartoon than a profound portrait. Despite its technical triumphs, Kael sees the work as a "freak of art," where the collaborators' contrasting styles produce a dazzling but ultimately lightweight achievement.^[4]^[1]

Publication History

New Yorker Essay

"Raising Kane," a book-length essay by film critic Pauline Kael, was serialized in two consecutive issues of The New Yorker on February 20 and February 27, 1971.^[1]^[4] Clocking in at approximately 50,000 words, it represented one of the magazine's most ambitious single-author pieces on cinema, far exceeding typical review lengths.^[20] Under editor William Shawn, who had brought Kael to The New Yorker in 1968 and encouraged her bold, personal style, the essay received strong institutional backing despite its extraordinary scope.^[21] Shawn positioned "Raising Kane" as a landmark work of film criticism, integrating narrative analysis with historical reportage to appeal to the magazine's sophisticated general readership rather than solely academic or industry insiders. The format emphasized Kael's conversational prose, interspersed with direct quotations from contemporaries and archival details, without formal appendices, though it drew on primary materials like interviews and period accounts. The publication leveraged The New Yorker's esteemed reputation for in-depth cultural journalism, ensuring broad distribution to an audience of over 300,000 subscribers at the time and extending reach through newsstand sales and library access. This exposure quickly generated interest among film enthusiasts and professionals, marking the essay's debut as a pivotal intervention in ongoing discussions of Hollywood history. The magazine version served as the foundation for a subsequent book expansion.

The Citizen Kane Book

The Citizen Kane Book was released on October 28, 1971, by Little, Brown and Company as an Atlantic Monthly Press Book, compiling Pauline Kael's "Raising Kane" essay alongside the screenplay credited to Herman J. Mankiewicz and Orson Welles.^[5]^[22] The volume, spanning 440 pages and illustrated with production stills, presented the essay—originally published in The New Yorker earlier that year—in a dedicated book format to broaden its accessibility beyond magazine readers.^[23]^[24] Key additions to the essay included the full text of the shooting script for Citizen Kane, allowing readers to examine the screenplay in detail, as well as Kael's annotations and notes interspersed throughout the script to highlight key scenes, dialogue origins, and production insights.^[18] The book also incorporated references to historical reviews of the film, such as Bosley Crowther's 1941 New York Times critique, which Kael analyzed within her essay to contextualize contemporary reactions to the movie's debut.^[22] These elements transformed the publication into a comprehensive resource that not only argued for Mankiewicz's primary authorship but also provided primary materials for direct study.^[23] Commercially, the book debuted in hardcover at a price of $12.50, targeting film enthusiasts, critics, and scholars interested in screenplay analysis and Hollywood history.^[22] It saw subsequent reprints, including a Bantam paperback edition in March 1974, a Limelight Editions reprint in 1984, and a 1996 reissue of the essay as Raising Kane and Other Essays by Marion Boyars Publishers, which helped sustain its availability without altering the core content.^[24]^[23]^[25] By packaging the essay with the screenplay and annotations, the book expanded the reach of Kael's arguments, positioning it as an essential text for ongoing debates about Citizen Kane's creation.^[5] No major revisions or new editions of the book have appeared since the 1996 reissue, and as of November 2025, it lacks official digital versions or post-2011 updates that address subsequent scholarship on the film's authorship.^[23]^[26]

Reception

Initial Responses

Upon its publication in The New Yorker in February 1971, Pauline Kael's "Raising Kane" received praise for its detailed revelations about the screenplay's origins, particularly for crediting screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz with the primary authorship of Citizen Kane and highlighting his overlooked contributions to Hollywood's golden age.^[1] The essay was lauded for reviving Mankiewicz's legacy as a witty, influential figure whose work had been diminished by the film's director, Orson Welles.^[22] A New York Times review of the accompanying book described Kael's piece as a "highly intelligent and entertaining study" that demanded "honor be paid at last to Herman Mankiewicz," noting its sensible reconstruction of the era's absurdities and its poignant reflections on the film's collaborators.^[22] The essay's timing, coinciding with the 30th anniversary of Citizen Kane's release, contributed to mixed media coverage that underscored the controversy's relevance to ongoing debates about creative credit in film. Film Quarterly reviewed The Citizen Kane Book in its Spring 1971 issue, addressing the screenplay authorship dispute amid auteur theory debates.^[27] Supporters endorsed Kael's arguments for greater recognition of screenwriters' roles, which had long been overshadowed in film history narratives.^[15] "Raising Kane" significantly boosted Kael's reputation as a bold, provocative critic willing to challenge established icons, solidifying her influence in American film journalism following its serialization and subsequent book form, which sold well and sparked widespread discussion.^[15] Conversely, it initially damaged Welles' image as the singular auteur behind Citizen Kane, prompting early questions about his contributions and fueling perceptions of him as overly self-aggrandizing in the film's creation.^[15]

Critical Backlash

The publication of Pauline Kael's "Raising Kane" in 1971 provoked immediate and intense backlash from Orson Welles' allies and auteur theory proponents, who viewed the essay as a deliberate assault on Welles' creative legacy. The most prominent rebuttal came from director Peter Bogdanovich, a close friend and protégé of Welles, in his October 1972 Esquire article "The Kane Mutiny." Bogdanovich, who collaborated extensively with Welles on the piece—including incorporating Welles' revisions and interview material—defended Welles' substantial script contributions, arguing that Welles had rewritten large portions of Herman J. Mankiewicz's draft in a Shakespearean style, transforming it into the final screenplay. He accused Kael of bias, relying excessively on the unreliable testimony of producer John Houseman (who harbored a grudge against Welles) while failing to interview Welles himself, and charged her with plagiarism for using film scholar Howard Suber's uncredited research on the screenplay's origins.^[28]^[29] Welles himself responded indirectly through associates and public statements during this period, emphasizing his hands-on role in the script without mounting a full-scale public campaign. In interviews recorded for Bogdanovich's article, Welles highlighted giving Mankiewicz first billing as a gesture of fairness while asserting his own revisions as pivotal, stating, "Herman made a tremendous contribution. That’s why I gave him first billing!" He largely avoided direct confrontation with Kael, focusing instead on ongoing projects, though associates like Bogdanovich conveyed his frustration at the essay's portrayal of him as a mere performer rather than a multifaceted auteur.^[29] Other critics amplified the attacks, portraying Kael as factually loose and ideologically driven against auteurism. Andrew Sarris, a leading auteur theory advocate, publicly contested Kael's claims in correspondence and reviews, arguing that her dismissal of Welles' directorial authorship ignored the film's integrated artistry. In the Spring 1972 issue of Film Comment, Jonathan Rosenbaum's "I Missed It at the Movies: Objections to 'Raising Kane'" critiqued Kael's selective evidence, such as her overreliance on Houseman while ignoring earlier accounts like Penelope Houston's 1962 interview with him, and accused her of bias by reducing Citizen Kane to gossip about egos rather than analyzing its formal innovations, like the projection-room sequence. Rosenbaum further attacked Kael's condescending tone toward Welles' later works, labeling them "mere thrillers" and deeming her overall approach a failure of critical engagement.^[15]^[30] Kael mounted defenses in subsequent interviews, steadfastly insisting on Mankiewicz's primary authorship and framing her essay as a broader critique of auteur worship. She dismissed rebuttals like Bogdanovich's as protective overreactions from Welles' circle, maintaining that her research exposed Hollywood's collaborative realities over individual genius myths, though she did not directly address specific factual challenges in 1972. These exchanges underscored the essay's polarizing impact, fueling personal animosities and debates over film credit that dominated critical discourse for years.^[15]

Reevaluation

Scholarly Critiques

In the late 1970s and 1980s, scholarly examinations began to systematically challenge the assertions in Pauline Kael's "Raising Kane" by analyzing archival script materials and production records. Robert L. Carringer's 1978 study of the screenplay drafts demonstrated that while Herman J. Mankiewicz produced initial versions in collaboration with John Houseman, Orson Welles extensively revised the material, introducing key structural innovations such as the non-linear narrative and deep-focus techniques that defined the film's style.^[31] Similarly, Richard B. Jewell's 1982 analysis of RKO's production history concluded that screen credit should be shared equally between Mankiewicz and Welles, emphasizing Welles's dominant creative influence over the final script and film. A pivotal development occurred in 2011 with the publication of Brian Kellow's biography Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark, which revealed significant gaps in Kael's research methodology for "Raising Kane." Kellow documented that Kael had extensively drawn from UCLA professor Howard Suber's unpublished doctoral research on Mankiewicz—conducted over several years—without attribution, effectively plagiarizing key historical details and interviews that formed the essay's foundation.^[12] Suber himself later described the experience as a profound violation, noting that Kael accessed his work through a mutual contact and incorporated it verbatim in places, prompting a broader reevaluation of her claims' reliability. This exposure undermined the essay's authority, highlighting how Kael's selective narrative overlooked contradictory evidence from primary sources. The scholarly consensus that emerged from these and subsequent analyses views the Citizen Kane screenplay as a true collaboration, with Mankiewicz providing the foundational biographical elements drawn from William Randolph Hearst's life and Welles contributing essential artistic innovations that elevated the work.^[32] Kael's portrayal of Mankiewicz as the sole author is now widely regarded as overstated, ignoring Welles's integral revisions and directorial vision.^[9] As of 2025, this consensus remains stable, with no major post-2011 scholarship significantly altering the established view of co-authorship; recent statistical analyses of the script's language, for instance, further affirm the balanced contributions of both writers without introducing new controversies.^[33]

Lasting Impact

Kael's "Raising Kane" profoundly influenced film criticism by igniting debates over auteur theory, particularly challenging Andrew Sarris's director-centric framework that positioned Orson Welles as the singular visionary behind Citizen Kane. The essay argued for the screenplay's collaborative origins, emphasizing Herman J. Mankiewicz's foundational contributions and critiquing the tendency to overlook screenwriters in favor of directors, thereby inspiring subsequent defenses of writers' roles in Hollywood's creative process.^[2]^[34]^[35] In film historiography, the piece shifted narratives toward greater recognition of Mankiewicz, serving as a key source for biographies such as Richard Meryman's 1978 Mank and Ben Mankiewicz and Joel Weiss's 2019 The Brothers Mankiewicz: Hope, Heartbreak, and Hollywood, which credit Kael's research for highlighting his wit and influence on films like Duck Soup. This focus tempered the hagiographic portrayal of Welles, promoting a more balanced view of Citizen Kane as a product of multiple talents, including cinematographer Gregg Toland, rather than a lone genius's triumph. The 2020 film Mank, directed by David Fincher, further amplified this perspective by centering Mankiewicz's story and drawing directly from Kael's arguments.^[36]^[37]^[38] The essay's popular legacy endures in contemporary discussions, as seen in 2020s analyses tying it to ongoing authorship debates and its own controversies, including 2011 plagiarism accusations from UCLA professor Howard Suber, who claimed Kael appropriated his unpublished research without credit. It remains a cautionary tale on critical bias, often cited in articles examining how personal agendas can distort historical accounts of cinematic masterpieces.^[34]^[39]^[2] Despite its flaws, "Raising Kane" persists as a pivotal, if imperfect, artifact in film studies, with ongoing reevaluations including Warren Buckland's 2023 statistical analysis in Who Wrote Citizen Kane?, which affirms co-authorship through linguistic profiling, building on earlier work and the context of Mank's release.^[33]^[30]^[40]

References

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Dec 6, 2020 · For Welles scholars, the idea that Mankiewicz alone wrote “Citizen Kane” is an old falsehood, and its continued repetition may testify to the ...
[31]
'Who Wrote Citizen Kane?' offers forensic look at authorship
Oct 23, 2023 · Authorship of the Academy Award winning screenplay has been hotly debated by film scholars since the publication of Pauline Kael's flawed ...
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Who Should Get the Credit for Citizen Kane? The Great Debate ...
Nov 30, 2020 · With frequent Welles collaborator John Houseman, Mankiewicz wrote the first draft based on a loose outline devised by Mankiewicz and hundreds of ...
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https://wellesnet.com/who-wrote-citizen-kane/
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Revenge of the Has-Been | by J. Hoberman
Jan 14, 2021 · Soon after “Raising Kane” was published it became known that Kael had herself taken undeserved credit for much of her research, which drew ...
[35]
'Brothers Mankiewicz' looks at achievements, relationship of ...
Oct 7, 2019 · Herman J. Mankiewicz co-wrote "Citizen Kane" and his kid brother Joseph L. Mankiewicz wrote and directed "All About Eve."
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https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2021/01/14/revenge-of-the-has-been-mankiewicz/
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Howard Suber on Kael's research theft: It felt like rape | IBTimes
Nov 10, 2011 · Suber never took legal action or went public about the plagiarism. ... Raising Kane, Kael's two-part piece, caused a stir when it was ...
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Mank, explained: David Fincher's new film and its link to Citizen Kane
tentatively titled American— to producer John Houseman (Sam Troughton). Houseman has ...