In this episode of pplpod, we explore the titanic life of George Orson Welles, a man voted the greatest film director ever by the British Film Institute. We trace his journey from a child prodigy in Kenosha, Wisconsin, to the "Boy Wonder" of New York theatre and radio, where his 1938 broadcast of The War of the Worlds famously panicked listeners who believed a Martian invasion was real,,.

We delve into his arrival in Hollywood, where he secured an unprecedented contract with RKO that granted him complete creative control to make Citizen Kane, a masterpiece consistently ranked as one of the greatest films of all time,,. The episode also covers his tumultuous relationship with the studio system, including the tragic editing of The Magnificent Ambersons and his eventual shift to becoming a pioneering independent film ...