VIDEO RAISING 'KANE' NEW DVD OF ORSON WELLES' MASTERPIECE BOOSTS FILM'S LEGEND HIGHER.

The deluxe DVD edition of Orson Welles' ``Citizen Kane'' being released today is a must for any serious film fan.

Most people know that ``Kane'' has been named the No. 1 film of all time by the American Film Institute, but few probably understand why. This two-disc DVD goes a long way toward explaining it.

On the second disc is the two-hour documentary ``The Battle Over Citizen Kane,'' which first aired on PBS' ``American Experience'' in 1996. The documentary looks at the struggle between between Welles and publishing tycoon William Randolph Hearst, who was the model for Charles Foster Kane, the role Welles himself played.

At the time the film was being made, Hearst was in his 70s. As the son of a wealthy mine owner, he built an empire selling newspapers that relied on sensational and scandalous stories that occasionally were not true. He tried to position himself as the champion of the poor and the immigrants in America, aspiring to become president, but except for a couple of terms as an absentee representative to Congress (he didn't see a need to show up), he never got elected to higher office, becoming known as ``William Also-Randolph Hearst.''

When he decided that he would never become chief executive, Hearst followed his urge to acquire, which extended to art objects, mansions and women. His prized estate was his ``castle'' in San Simeon, which George Bernard Shaw called ``the place God would have built - if he had the money.'' It was there he brought priceless antiques and works of art, and it was there he lived with his mistress, Marion Davies, a former showgirl whom he tried to make a star. (His wife lived in one of Hearst's seven other mansions.) San Simeon, nearly half the size of Rhode Island, became a social mecca for Hollywood's elite.

When screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz pitched Welles the idea of using Hearst's life as the basis of a film, the ``boy genius,'' as he was known, bit. Welles - who had made a splash in theater and radio in New York City, including the infamous broadcast of ``War of the Worlds'' (from the sci-fi story by H.G. Wells) - had been brought out to Hollywood by RKO and given unprecedented freedom to make two pictures. But after nearly two years, everything he had tried failed.

Welles' friend and cohort, producer John Houseman, who worked with Mankiewicz on the script, said this about the creation of Charles Foster Kane: ``We were creating a vehicle suited to a man who, at 24, was only slightly less fabulous than the hero he would be portraying. And the deeper we penetrated into the heart of Charles Foster Kane, the closer we seemed to come to the identity of Orson Welles.''

Welles, of course, rewrote the script and started filming ``Kane'' secretly, telling RKO he was shooting tests. When Hearst got wind of it, he put all his publishing might behind trying to get the picture killed, having his gossip columnists attack Welles and trying to blackmail studio executives with the threats of revealing scandals that his papers had hushed up.

Eventually, ``Kane'' came out and was hailed by critics, except in the Hearst papers. But the tycoon did his damage even as his own empire was beginning to crumble. For the rest of his career, Welles seemed to have the curse of ``Kane.'' He never achieved those artistic heights again.

``The Battle Over Citizen Kane'' is fascinating, but it doesn't explain the power of the film itself. Commentaries on the first disc, by Peter Bogdanovich and Roger Ebert, help explain why the film has endured. Bogdanovich has the unique perspective of having been a friend of Welles, so his insights and stories are helpful in putting the film in its proper place - at the top.

By the way, in 1999 HBO did a credible docudrama of the story, called ``RKO 281 - The Battle Over Citizen Kane.'' Liev Schreiber played Welles, John Malkovich played Mankiewicz, James Cromwell was Hearst and Melanie Griffith was Davies.

An interview Welles gave a couple of years before his death, included on the DVD, reveals that he had a number of regrets in his life. One of which was the film's portrayal of Davies - who became Susan Alexander, a rather talentless dim bulb, as opposed to the vivacious Davies.

``We had somebody very different in the place of Marion Davies. And it seemed to me to be something of a dirty trick, and does still strike me as being something of a dirty trick, what we did to her.''

'FRENCH' RECONNECTION : Thirty years ago, when I saw ``French Connection'' for the first time, I had trouble believing that Popeye Doyle, the New York City detective, wasn't a real cop. He just seemed to be right off the streets. I later learned that this was simply marvelous acting from one of America's great actors - Gene Hackman.

The 30th anniversary special edition two-disc DVD set of the film is out, and Hackman is as good as ever in the true story of two detectives - Doyle and Buddy Russo (Roy Scheider) who are out to take down an interna Ational drug smuggling ring.

The new discs include commentary by Hackman and Scheider, a BBC documentary on the film called ``Poughkeepsie Shouffle,'' a second documentary called ``Making the Connection: The Untold Stories'' and seven deleted scenes, which are discussed by director William Friedkin.

And there is that car chase, which - in my book - remains the best one ever filmed.

``Citizen Kane (Special Edition)'' (Warner) is $29.99. ``The French Connection - Five Star Collection'' (Fox) is $26.98 on DVD. ``RKO 281 - The Battle Over Citizen Kane'' (HBO) is $14.98 on DVD.

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Few films have garnered more critical praise than ``Citizen Kane,'' with Orson Welles, left, and Joseph Cotten. The seminal movie gets the DVD treatment, with a documentary and commentaries.