"Citizen Kane," widely considered the greatest film ever made, continues to fascinate critics and historians as well as filmgoers. While credit for its genius has traditionally been attributed solely to its director, Orson Welles, Carringer's pioneering study documents the shared creative achievements of Welles and his principal collaborators. "The Making of Citizen Kane," copiously illustrated with rare photographs and production documents, also provides an in-depth view of the operations of the Hollywood studio system. This new edition includes a revised preface and overview of criticism, an updated chronology of the film's reception history, a reconsideration of the locus of responsibility of Welles's ill-fated "The Magnificent Ambersons," and new photographs.

Orson Welles considered The Magnificent Ambersons the crucial turning point in his career. He said, "They destroyed Ambersons and it destroyed me." In 1942, while Welles was away, RKO Studios drastically recut the completed film. None of that deleted footage is known to survive. Now film scholar Robert Carringer has reconstructed Welles's own version of Ambersons, using all available surviving evidence including rare studio documents and the recollections of Welles himself and other original participants in the film. Carringer reaches startling conclusions about where the responsibility for the film's undoing ultimately lies. His spellbinding--and no doubt controversial--book will be eagerly welcomed by film historians and enthusiasts.