Why did Citizen Kane only become famous after the war, according to J.D. Rhodes and Ian Christie?

Ian Christie says Hearst's newspapers attacked the film, MGM's theatre arm Loew's tried to buy it from RKO, and cinema owners afraid of Hearst would not show it, while wartime limited where it travelled. When American films flooded into France after the war, critics were stunned. John David Rhodes credits André Bazin above all, who stressed its deep focus and low angles, and notes French critics met Kane alongside Italian neorealism. Christie adds that Welles's later exile from Hollywood made the film his single shining achievement.

• By the end of the 1950s Citizen Kane was widely called the greatest American film, if not the greatest of all.
• A 1962 critics' poll ranked it first, a place it kept for 40 years; a recent poll still had it third.
• Christie notes Welles's next film, The Magnificent Ambersons, was recut while he was away on a promotional tour.

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on In Our Time (2026-11-02). Read the whole episode summary →

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