Director's Cut

In the director's cut, we see the Huston character at a press conference where he notifies reporters that he is instituting a plan he calls "the Fairness Doctrine," in which any newspaper or radio network that carries any news or commentary that would "subvert" the New Economic Order (NEO, popularly called "the Real Deal") will be shut down, and its owners and managers fined or imprisoned. An agitated reporter (played by a very young and uncredited Gene Kelly in a precursor to his Mencken-like role in INHERIT THE WIND) shouts out, "Sez you!" and throws a shoe at Huston. Before he can get the other shoe off, Kelly is seized by NEO stormtroopers. Huston says to the stormtroopers, "You know what to do, boys." They drag Kelly outside, stand him against the nearest wall, and shoot him dead.

FDR, who had advised Hearst on the movie, saw the movie in preview, said, "I don't know, I think that scene's a little brutal, don't you think? We don't want to scare people. Besides, I'm not planning on having Mencken killed until my sixth term." So the scene was cut.