Mr Arkadin [Confidential Report] **** (1955, Orson Welles, Peter van Eyck, Michael Redgrave) – Classic Movie Review 2450

Writer-director Orson Welles’s Mr Arkadin, retitled Confidential Report in Britain and some parts of Europe, was shot throughout Europe in 1954. Filming took place in several Spanish locations, including the Costa Brava, Segovia, Valladolid and Madrid, as well as London, Munich, Paris, the French Riviera, and the Château de Chillon in Switzerland.

Orson Welles himself stars as continental financier Mr Gregory Arkadin, who pieces together his life with the help of a young small-time American smuggler called Guy Van Stratten (Robert Arden), who is romancing his daughter Raina. She is played by Paola Mori, aka Countess Paola Di Girfalco, who became Welles’s third wife.

Van Stratten, jailed in Italy, is at the scene of the murder of a man named Bracco, who just has time to whisper Arkadin’s name. Van Stratten manages to meet the business magnate and socialite Arkadin, who hires him to research his own past, which he claims to have no memory of before 1927. The real purpose of Van Stratten’s mission proves deadly.

Welles’s trick-laden melodrama is a typically flamboyant piece of cinema. As it was made independently in Europe and edited by other hands, it is perhaps not top-drawer Welles. Alas some slight acting, screenplay and editing limitations prevent that.

But it contains enough of his directorial touches and writing themes to be absolutely fascinating and essential nonetheless, certainly in the restored and comprehensively re-edited 2006 Criterion Edit. Welles’s own performance is charismatic, in his personally tailor-made role, and some of the other acting is most effective too.

Welles described Mr Arkadin as the biggest disaster of his life, because of his loss of creative control. After Welles missed an editing deadline, producer Louis Dolivet took the film out of his hands and released several edits of the film, none of which Welles approved.

It is based on Welles’s story, which was based on several episodes of the radio series The Lives of Harry Lime, which in turn was based on the character Welles portrayed in The Third Man. The main inspiration was the episode Man of Mystery. But most of the key elements for Arkadin’s character and background come from the real life of arms dealer Basil Zaharoff, including his mysterious birthplace, French Riviera property and Spanish castle.

Also in the cast are Michael Redgrave as Burgomil Trebitsch, Katina Paxinou as as Sophie Radzweickz Martinez, Akim Tamiroff as Jakob Zouk, Mischa Auer as Jakob Zouk, Patricia Medina as Mily, Jack Watling as Bob, the Marquess of Rutleigh, Peter van Eyck as Thaddeus, Gregoire Aslan as Bracco, Frédéric O’Brady as Oskar, Tamara Shayne as the woman who hides Zouk, Terence Longdon as Mr Arkadin’s Secretary, Suzanne Flon as Baroness Nagel and Gert Frobe as a Munich detective.

A French-Spanish-Swiss co-production, it was first released in Spain in March 1955 in the Spanish-language version of Mr Arkadin (93 minutes), filmed back-to-back with the English-language version. This is Confidential Report (98 minutes), the most common European release print, which premiered in London in August 1955. But it was not released in the United States until 1962 in the Corinth version of Mr Arkadin (99 minutes) – named after Corinth Films, the distributor.

Welles never finished editing the film, but the 2006 Criterion Edit (106 minutes) is likely to be closest version to Welles’ original vision. It was compiled by Stefan Drössler of the Munich Film Museum and Claude Bertemes of the Cinémathèque Municipale de Luxembourg. It uses all available English-language footage, and follows Welles’ planned structure and editing style as closely as possible, incorporating his comments over the years.

Welles was credited as author of the novel Mr Arkadin, first published in French in Paris in 1955, and then in English in 1956. But Welles always denied authorship of the book, and French actor-writer Maurice Bessy is believed to be the author.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2450

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