Which one has correct hyphenation: "Citizen-Kane-like" or "Citizen Kane-like"?

Question

The second one looks more correct to me, but I just want to be sure.

Answer 1

If you are treating "Citizen Kane-like" as an adjective for a following word, I would write it as I did in the beginning of this sentence. I do not believe there should be a hyphen between "Citizen" and "Kane" only because the words work together to form a title, "Citizen Kane." Essentially, I think "Citizen Kane" should be treated as if it were one word. I also italicized "Citizen Kane" because it is a title.

Example: His Citizen Kane-like behavior was intriguing.

I hope this helps!

Answer 2

Since "Citizen Kane" is the full title of the movie, then it is treated as a single entry to which "like" would be applied, thus, "Citizen-Kane-Like" would be correct.