'Citizen Kane' loses perfect Rotten Tomato score after 80-year-old negative review

A review penned in 1941 has been added to the site as part of an Archival Project

Orson Welles and Dorothy Comingore in 'Citizen Kane'. 

Speak to a movie buff and they'll likely tell you that Citizen Kane is as close to perfect as you can get in film.

That sweeping generalisation was backed up on movie review-aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, where it boasted a critic-awarded score of 100 per cent ... that was until last month.

An 80-year-old review has been added to the site, which pans the film and thus knocks down its "fresh" score to 99 per cent.

The clipping from the May 7, 1941 edition of the Chicago Tribune concisely says the film "fails to impress critic". It was penned no less than 80 years ago by a writer who used the pseudonym Mae Tinee and clearly did not buy into the hype.

"You've heard a lot about this picture and I see by the ads that some experts think it 'the greatest movie ever made.' I don't," the review reads.

"It's interesting. It's different. In fact, it's bizarre enough to become a museum piece. But its sacrifice of simplicity to eccentricity robs it of distinction and general entertainment value."

Although written in 1941, the review was added to the site on March 2; it is the only green splat in a sea of red tomato reviews. Green splats are awarded when a critic offers up a score of less than 60 per cent on the site.

The review has been added as part of the site's Archival Project, a project that aims to pull together original reviews for classic and historical films, uncovering both films and reviews.

Citizen Kane was directed by Orson Welles and starred Welles alongside Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore, Ruth Warrick and Everett Sloane.

The 1941 film tells the story of a group of reporters scrambling to unearth the meaning of publishing tycoon Charles Foster Kane's last word, "Rosebud".