Aug 31, 2026 · 1 hr 17 min · 39 segments
Get ready for an artsy and pretentious episode—it’s Jess’s turn on the Cheese Wheel! This week, we're tackling what many critics hail as the greatest film of all time: Orson Welles' iconic debut…
How do you do, ladies and gentlemen? This is Orson Welles.
I'm speaking for the Mercury Theater, and what follows is supposed to advertise our first motion picture.
Citizen Kane is the title, and we hope it can correctly be called a coming attraction.
It's certainly coming, coming to this theater, and I think our Mercury actors make it an attraction.
I'd like you to meet them.
Speaking of attractions, well, the chorus girls are certainly an attraction, but frankly, ladies and gentlemen, we're just showing you the chorus girls for purposes of ballyhoo.
It's pretty nice ballyhoo.
So Citizen Kane was a film written by Herman J. Mankiewicz, John Hausman, and Orson Welles.
Kane opened at RKO Palace Theater on Broadway in New York on May 1st, 1941, and in Chicago on May 6th, and in Los Angeles on May 8th.
Most were in the first category, but basically a lot of shit happened behind the scenes.
William Randolph Hearst did not like the fact this movie existed and threatened movie houses that they would not be able to promote themselves in Hearst papers if they screened the film.
So the film was a flop on release and then later got appreciation down the road.
So it's hard to do a proper critical response, but the fact that we're talking about it today is because of the people that looked at it once again.
The plot of Citizen Kane is, following the death of the publishing tycoon Charles Foster Kane, reporters scrambled to uncover the meaning of his final utterance, Rosebud.
And I know there's a lot of people that will say, friends of mine who who just said or citizen kane is the most boring fucking movie i've ever seen and you're wrong there are so many more boring
How do you do, ladies and gentlemen? This is Orson Welles.
I'm speaking for the Mercury Theater, and what follows is supposed to advertise our first motion picture.
Citizen Kane is the title, and we hope it can correctly be called a coming attraction.
It's certainly coming, coming to this theater, and I think our Mercury actors make it an attraction.
I'd like you to meet them.
Speaking of attractions, well, the chorus girls are certainly an attraction, but frankly, ladies and gentlemen, we're just showing you the chorus girls for purposes of ballyhoo.
It's pretty nice ballyhoo.
So Citizen Kane was a film written by Herman J. Mankiewicz, John Hausman, and Orson Welles.
Kane opened at RKO Palace Theater on Broadway in New York on May 1st, 1941, and in Chicago on May 6th, and in Los Angeles on May 8th.
Most were in the first category, but basically a lot of shit happened behind the scenes.
William Randolph Hearst did not like the fact this movie existed and threatened movie houses that they would not be able to promote themselves in Hearst papers if they screened the film.
So the film was a flop on release and then later got appreciation down the road.
So it's hard to do a proper critical response, but the fact that we're talking about it today is because of the people that looked at it once again.
The plot of Citizen Kane is, following the death of the publishing tycoon Charles Foster Kane, reporters scrambled to uncover the meaning of his final utterance, Rosebud.
And I know there's a lot of people that will say, friends of mine who who just said or citizen kane is the most boring fucking movie i've ever seen and you're wrong there are so many more boring
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