‘Citizen Kane’ premieres in New York City 80 years ago this hour #OnThisDate #OTD (May 1 1941)


Video: 'Citizen Kane' trailer

(Thursday, May 1, 1941, 8:30 p.m. EDT)Citizen Kane, an American drama film about a group of reporters who are trying to decipher the last word ever spoke by Charles Foster Kane, the millionaire newspaper tycoon, premiered tonight at the RKO Palace at 1564 Broadway (at West 47th Street) in New York City.

Directed by and starring Orson Welles, Citizen Kane also featured Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore, Everett Sloane, Ray Collins, George Coulouris, Agnes Moorehead, Paul Stewart, Ruth Warrick, Erskine Sanford and William Alland.


Video: 'Citizen Kane (1941) - Movie' (10 clips)

Considered by many critics, filmmakers, and fans to be the greatest film ever made, Citizen Kane was voted number 1 in five consecutive British Film Institute Sight & Sound polls of critics, and it topped the American Film Institute’s 100 Years … 100 Movies list in 1998, as well as its 2007 update.