gridoon2018 Confusing, eccentric, frenzied, playful, indulgent. Not much deep meaning, just Orson Welles using the film medium as his playfield. Fanciful camerawork and flamboyant cast. Not althogether successful, but far more modern than your typical mid-1950s Hollywood fare. **1/2 out of 4.

ackstasis 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.

JohnHowardReid This fascinatingly bizarre recap of Citizen Kane pits the determined investigator (Robert Arden in his only starring role) against a subject (again flamboyantly played by Orson Welles) who is very much alive. In this round, Welles's screenplay ranges widely all over Europe, taking in such pictorially baroque splendors as a castle in Spain, a crate-laden Naples waterfront, ritzy fashion houses, wintry streets, desolate warehouses, a yacht tossing wildly in a raging sea. These are the self-imposed prisons not only of the supporting characters, but even of the broad-ranging Arkadin himself who is finally confined to the tiny cockpit of a small plane. To play the various cameos, Welles has assembled a first-rate cast—at least for the English-language version. I thought Suzanne Flon more effective than Spain's Amparo Rivelles, while Katina Paxinou way outshone Irene Lopez Heredia. (It must be admitted that Welles has directed these Spanish inserts rather slackly—if indeed he directed them at all. And they were certainly not photographed by Jean Bourgoin. Both are very brightly lit and neither have the noirish texture so brilliantly captured in the rest of the movie. And incidentally this is one reason I prefer the Corinth version to the others boxed in Criterion's splendid 3-disc set. The images are perfectly graded. And the dubbing is superior too. Welles decided to change some of the original dialog and was thus forced to re-dub many lines himself in the producer's re-edit called Confidential Report. That version has its moments, but over all, it was a grave mistake).

Neil Doyle He may well have been a genius but he also made some irritatingly bad films that need instructional information in order to follow the complex web of storytelling. This one came at a very troubled time during Orson's life when he was having difficulties getting his films finished, let alone distributed.There's no mistaking the fact that MR. ARKADIN is an Orson Welles film. Every frame of it has the stamp of the Welles touch in both cinematography (the dark, shadowy kind of odd angled shots) and story material. Once again, (like the rich merchant he played in THE IMMORTAL STORY), a mysterious man (Arkadin, a financier) sends a man on a quest to find out the truth about the past that he's forgotten. The only sure thing is that somehow most of those participating in his past end up murdered.The film had a troubled "making of" background story, and is one of those European productions Welles made and had trouble getting financial backing for distribution which took quite a bit of time.There's a touch of CITIZEN KANE to the story idea and a bit of THE THIRD MAN in the noirish B&W photography, but none of it really makes a lot of sense and some perfectly good actors turn up in oddbeat roles and disappear again.Only for true Welles fans who must see everything the master did, whether good, bad or indifferent. The worthwhile cast includes MICHAEL REDGRAVE, PATRICIA MEDINA, KATINA PAXINOU and AKIM TAMIROFF.