Mr. Arkadin (1955)

Defying All Reasonable Recitation, This Film is Another of Welles Extravagances that Spun Out of His Control in Post Production and Manifested a Life of its Own. Trying to Discern What it Was Supposed to Be or What it Is, for that Matter, is the Stuff of Scholarly Pursuits, Doctoral Thesis, and Criterion Collections.The Casual Film Buff Venturing Into Welles World, Especially His Late Term Efforts, is Likely to be Chewed Up, Spit Out, and Sent Sliding Into Incomprehensible Mutterings and a Desire for Firmer Ground.Solid Footing is Fleeting when it comes to Mr. Arkadin. There are So Many Versions, So Many Varying Prints, and So Many Rumors and Recollections that it is Best to Just Go with the "Comprehensive Version" and Leave "Welles" Enough Alone. Orson Welles was a Magician, a Curmudgeon, a Tinkerer, and a Tailor of Film that Loved to Play with His Craft Endlessly Until All Reason was Ripped This Way and That and Then Back Again.Few Knew or Have Been Able to Penetrate the Mind of this Filmmaker and Come Up with Anything Coherent or Understandable (a description of Arkadin), Although Mr. Bogdanovich and Others Certainly Gave it the Old College Try. Therein Lies the Endless Fascination with Orson Welles. A Puzzle of a Motion Picture Maker that is Forever Being Broken Up and Put Back Together, Although the Image on the Box is Always Different for Anyone Willing to Look. Mr. Arkadin is Perhaps Welles Most Fun Film. It is Bizarre, Disjointed, Awkward, Ill Fitting, and Absolutely Amazing and it Exists in a Select Universe of Films, Fit for Deconstruction Only by the Most Masochistic and Maniacal of Movie Fanatics. Others are Best Advised, for Peace of Mind, to Please Move Along and Play Elsewhere.

Putting it simply, my head hurt after viewing this! The poor copy with out of sync and sometimes unintelligible dialog released as "Confidential Report" on DVD here didn't help. The overwhelming and chaotic qualities I felt were aided by Robert Arden yelling much of his dialog. It did arrive at an outcome after flashback from the start of the film however the journey is convoluted, busy and somewhat confusing. Also a rich, visually textured one. I can see and appreciate the genus of Welles here in light of certain sources stating he was excluded from the editing process and he himself calling it a big mistake. Dreamlike - YES! Maybe another viewing is needed. Maybe. Seeing a decent 35mm print on the big screen would be the way to go.

I admire Orson Welles's ability to take a seemingly simple story and develop it into a brilliant one. with his square face covered in a huge beard and devious eye brows he makes the strongest character in this film. The leading character (Van Stratten) was all right, but he did not succeed creating a captivating performance. i saw this one at a friend of mine, he happened to have it on Criterion(at a steep price i might add). of course we saw the longest version as there are three versions to behold. the dialog coming out of Arkadin's(Welles) mouth is wonderful and just plain amusing. this film is a must see/own for those who enjoy the old stuff and those who appreciate the work of a cinematic genius .

Firstly, some administration issues: like most Orson Welles projects, 'Mr. Arkadin (1955)' suffered from studio interference in post- production, and so there are numerous versions of the film available for public viewing. Among the possible options is the chronologically-cut print released in America, the European cut retitled "Confidential Report," and several versions released by the Criterion Collection that purport to represent, to varying degrees, Welles' original vision. For my first viewing of the film, I watched the version titled "Confidential Report," which can be found on a VHS released by distributor Connoisseur Video. The flashback structure maintained in most prints of the film, including this version, deliberately recalls the American film noir style. Of course, this comes as no surprise – Welles had already released 'The Stranger (1946)' and 'The Lady from Shanghai (1947),' and would soon return to Hollywood (albeit briefly) to direct his archetypal noir, 'Touch of Evil (1958).' But Orson Welles was not one to do things by the book, and 'Mr. Arkadin' is like no American noir you've ever seen.If one must choose a film with which to compare 'Mr. Arkadin,' it would probably be Carol Reed's 'The Third Man (1949).' Both pictures transplant a familiar film noir plot into a European setting, and an eccentric camera captures the personality of the exotic locales and their inhabitants. Both, of course, also starred Orson Welles in a prominent role, and playing analogous characters. In Reed's film, Harry Lime is a smug, boyish racketeer whose thirst for ill-gotten profits takes priority over the faceless victims of his black-market crimes. Gregory Arkadin might be considered an extension of Lime's character, had he emerged unscathed from the Vienna sewers and lived years more. Arkadin is undoubtedly a criminal, but one whose incredible success has pushed him beyond such a characterisation. Despite having apparently eluded his youthful years in petty crime (after erasing his former identity, much as Lime attempted), Arkadin remains plagued by the shame of his past, unwilling to acknowledge that he is just as contemptible now as he ever was.Despite the thematic influence of American cinema, Welles' direction, stylistically, more closely resembles the work of European artists like Federico Fellini. His dynamic camera-work and editing has an air of improvisation, and a certain flamboyance that might seem overindulgent if it weren't so brilliantly effortless. The film's most interesting sequence is an early costume ball in which guests are hidden behind grotesque masks, whose massive features crowd the frame like the creatures from Maurice Sendak's "Where the Wild Things Are." Though it is Welles' presence that dominates the screen, Robert Arden is an intriguing noir protagonist: Guy Van Stratten is a small-time smuggler (once again drawing a parallel with Harry Lime) who epitomises the petty crook that Arkadin once was. Infatuated with nothing but money and self- preservation, Stratten continually exploits the affections of girlfriend Mily (Patricia Medina) and Arkadin's daughter Raina (Paola Mori). He destroys the lives of both women, and, unremorsefully, manages to save his own neck; Gregory Arkadin isn't the only villain on this cluttered continent.