MR. ARKADIN (1955)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
Orson Welles had never been lucky when it came to making films. After "Ctizen Kane," Welles had his films taken away from him, usually resulting in drastic re-editing and destroyed footage. "Magnificent Ambersons" is certainly proof of this, and so is "Mr. Arkadin," a film project that took four years to make. When it was finally released, it barely resembled the original product.
The story deals with a certain Mr. Arkadin (Orson Welles), a wealthy tycoon who is suffering from amnesia. He is found by a Guy Van Stratten (Robert Arden), a con-man hired by Arkadin to do a confidential report. The report is to be on Arkadin, who has no memory of what has happened to him in the last twenty years since establishing his fortune. Van Stratten has been looking for Arkadin since hearing his name and his association with fortune from a dying man's last breath (his partner in crime, Mily played by Patricia Medina). He finds Arkadin through his daughter, Raina (Paola Mori), and they fall in love ever so briefly until he meets Arkadin at a masquerade. Once Van Stratten begins his search for Arkadin's secrets, he finds a past involving a white girl slavery ring, a former Professor who has a flea circus, and a Jakob Zouk (Akim Tamiroff) who knows more than he lets on aware that his knowledge of Arkadin puts him in harm's way. In a desperate search for truth to possibly blackmail the millionaire, Van Stratten travels from Paris to Spain and at every stop, Arkadin miraculously appears along with his personal secretaries and his spy network. Is Arkadin only pretending he has amnesia or is he trying to clear his name for his daughter's sake and for the undergoing intelligence check by the United States Army?
"Mr. Arkadin" bears all the trademarks of Welles's style. We have the shadowy, low-angle shots, the frenetic editing giving way to moments where time slows down, the overlapping of sounds and so on. Unfortunately, the English version I have seen of "Mr. Arkadin" (reportedly, four different versions exist) has been butchered badly - clear evidence of tampering and lack of the necessary budget to complete the film. Some shots are bleached out and others have asynchronous sound which is quite distracting. Supposedly Welles had wanted the film to be structured as flashbacks with Van Stratten telling his story of Arkadin to Jacob Zouk, but that version was abandoned in favor of something more linear (similar film butchery occurred with "Touch of Evil"). This version, however, makes little sense and sometimes the sound is so inaudible that it is difficult to grasp what is happening.
Robert Arden's performance has been criticized as lacking any wit or style but I do not think he was meant to be shown as more clever or charismatic than he is. Arden finds the right tone of disgruntled allure - a man every bit as corrupt as Arkadin (he even lets his girlfriend, Mily, meet with Arkadin alone!) It is Mori (Welles''s wife at the time) who is a complete bore to watch - there is little grace or mystery in the character which one can attribute to the script. Welles himself uses grandiloquent speech patterns to hide the true self from Arkadin, but there is little or no trace of humanity in the character. Welles looks great and does a fine job of showing how he covers up his past indiscretions and deceits by literally wearing masks. Still, it is not enough to disguise the fact that the character is a cipher, and some of Welles's mannered gestures and body language might seem more appropriate in a play, not a film. Some films work even when dealing with a cipher, a man with no past (like Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name from those spaghetti westerns) but some degree of an intriguing personality or behavioral aspects are needed to make up for it. Welles does a bang-up makeup job, and that is about it.
"Mr. Arkadin" succeeds as a curio, and for Welles's fans, it is worthwhile viewing. To the rest of us, it is one of those losses, post-"Citizen Kane," that gives scant evidence of Welles's genius behind and in front of the camera.
