--- title: Citizen Kane at 75—TIME's 1941 Take on the Orson Welles Film description: The masterpiece initially premiered on May 1, 1941, though it would not be widely released until months later canonical: https://time.com/4298943/citizen-kane-original-review/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-28T16:00:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T16:51:34.248Z article:section: History og:title: 'Citizen Kane' at 75: Read TIME's Original Review og:description: "So sharply does 'Citizen Kane' veer from cinema cliche, it hardly seems like a movie" og:url: https://time.com/4298943/citizen-kane-original-review/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf6b91b281f2c6ebf/69888fa58e060124154657cc/kane.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Citizen Kane og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Citizen Kane' at 75: Read TIME's Original Review twitter:description: "So sharply does 'Citizen Kane' veer from cinema cliche, it hardly seems like a movie" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf6b91b281f2c6ebf/69888fa58e060124154657cc/kane.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # _Citizen Kane_ at 75: Read TIME's Original Review  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Apr 28, 2016 4:00 PM UTC  Orson Welles in his film 'Citizen Kane', 1941 Orson Welles in his film 'Citizen Kane', 1941Hulton Archive / Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Apr 28, 2016 4:00 PM UTC On the night of May 1, 1941—exactly 75 years ago this weekend—the movie now hailed as one of the best ever premiered in New York City. That first showing was followed by premieres in Chicago and Los Angeles, along with rave reviews and a whiff of a scandal, all of which helped to build buzz in the almost four months before its general release. [_Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter_](http://time.com/newsletter) Scandal had surrounded the movie prior to its initial release, when it was [rumored](http://time.com/vault/issue/1941-01-27/page/71/) that publisher William Randolph Hearst might sue over his purported resemblance to the character of Kane. But if that helped to make audiences aware of the film, reviews like this one from TIME were making the case that they needed to see it: --- > “” --- **_Read the full story, here in the TIME Vault:_** [Kane Case](http://time.com/vault/issue/1941-03-17/page/92/) **MORE:** [Why _Citizen Kane_ Almost Didn’t Happen](http://time.com/3840818/citizen-kane-orson-welles/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4298943/citizen-kane-original-review/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4298943/citizen-kane-original-review/"},"headline":"Citizen Kane at 75: Read TIME's Original Review","datePublished":"2016-04-28T16:00:52.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T16:51:34.248Z","description":"'So sharply does Citizen Kane veer from cinema cliche, it hardly seems like a movie'","url":"https://time.com/4298943/citizen-kane-original-review/","keywords":["movies","review"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf6b91b281f2c6ebf/69888fa58e060124154657cc/kane.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf6b91b281f2c6ebf/69888fa58e060124154657cc/kane.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Citizen Kane","caption":"Citizen Kane","creditText":"Hulton Archive / Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4298943/citizen-kane-original-review/","name":"Citizen Kane at 75: Read TIME's Original Review"}}]}] ```