Mr. Arkadin
Encyclopedia
Mr. Arkadin is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, 1955) is a French-Spanish-Swiss coproduction film, written and directed by Orson Welles
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
and shot in several Spanish locations, including Segovia
Segovia
Segovia is a city in Spain, the capital of Segovia Province in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is situated north of Madrid, 30 minutes by high speed train. The municipality counts some 55,500 inhabitants.-Etymology:...
, Valladolid
Valladolid
Valladolid is a historic city and municipality in north-central Spain, situated at the confluence of the Pisuerga and Esgueva rivers, and located within three wine-making regions: Ribera del Duero, Rueda and Cigales...
and Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
.
Its history is convoluted. The story was based on several episodes of the radio series
Old-time radio
Old-Time Radio and the Golden Age of Radio refer to a period of radio programming in the United States lasting from the proliferation of radio broadcasting in the early 1920s until television's replacement of radio as the primary home entertainment medium in the 1950s...
The Lives of Harry Lime
The Lives of Harry Lime
The Adventures of Harry Lime was an old-time radio programme produced in London, England during the 1951 to 1952 season....
, which in turn was based on the character Welles portrayed in The Third Man
The Third Man
The Third Man is a 1949 British film noir, directed by Carol Reed and starring Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles, and Trevor Howard. Many critics rank it as a masterpiece, particularly remembered for its atmospheric cinematography, performances, and unique musical score...
. The main inspiration for the plot was the episode Man of Mystery. In addition, several different versions of the film were released. Jonathan Rosenbaum
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Jonathan Rosenbaum is an American film critic. Rosenbaum was the head film critic for the Chicago Reader from 1987 until 2008, when he retired at the age of 65...
's essay "The Seven Arkadins" is an attempt to detail the different versions including the novel and radio play. Adding to the confusion is a novel of the same title that was credited to Welles; Welles claimed the book was only ghostwritten with Maurice Bessy.
In 1982 Welles described Mr. Arkadin as the "biggest disaster" of his life, due to his loss of creative control, not released in the United States until 1962. Some compensation for Welles came in the form of Paola Mori who played the role of his daughter. In private life Countess Paola Di Girfalco, she would become his third wife. In addition the shooting started Welles's longtime relationship with Spain, where he lived for several periods in his life.
Released in some parts of Europe as Confidential Report, this film shares themes and stylistic devices with The Third Man. Like many of Welles's other films, Mr. Arkadin was heavily edited without his input. The Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection is a video-distribution company selling "important classic and contemporary films" to film aficionados. The Criterion series is noted for helping to standardize the letterbox format for home video, bonus features, and special editions...
produced a three-DVD box set that includes three separate versions of Mr. Arkadin including a comprehensive re-edit that combines material taken from all the known versions of the film. Though even the creators of this "restored" version express their doubts as to the "correctness" of altering another artist's work, this new version is far and away the most comprehensible and easy to follow of the known versions. Also included are three of the Harry Lime radio plays reported to have been written by Welles and which he certainly based the Arkadin screenplay on. A copy of the Arkadin novelization — which may have been adapted by Welles or a ghost writer — is also included. The Criterion release also includes commentary tracks from Welles film scholars Jonathan Rosenbaum
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Jonathan Rosenbaum is an American film critic. Rosenbaum was the head film critic for the Chicago Reader from 1987 until 2008, when he retired at the age of 65...
and James Naremore
James Naremore
James Naremore, born James Otis Naremore, is a film and comparative literature scholar based at Indiana University. Now retired, he retains the titles of Chancellor's Professor of Speech Communication, Chancellor's Professor of Comparative Literature, Chancellor's Professor of English, and...
.
Plot
Guy Van Stratten, a small-time American smuggler working in Europe, is at the scene of a murder, and the dying man whispers two names that he claims are very valuable, one of which is Gregory Arkadin. Using this small bit of information and lots of bluffing, Van Stratten manages to meet the apparent multi-millionaire business magnate and socialite Arkadin, and Arkadin then hires Van Stratten to research his own past, of which he claims to have no memory before 1927.Traveling across the world, Van Stratten pieces together Arkadin's past from the few remaining people who knew Arkadin as a gangster in post-WWI Europe, but in each case the individuals he speaks to end up dead. Van Stratten ultimately discovers the truth about Arkadin's past, leading to a climactic race to Spain between the two, with disastrous consequences.
Cast
- Gregory Arkadin – Orson WellesOrson WellesGeorge Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
- Guy Van Stratten – Robert ArdenRobert ArdenRobert Arden was an English-born film, television and radio actor who worked and lived mostly in the United States....
- Mily – Patricia MedinaPatricia MedinaPatricia Paz Maria Medina is an English actress from Liverpool, England. Her father was a Spaniard and her mother was English. Medina began acting as a teenager in the late 1930s...
- Raina Arkadin – Paola Mori
- Jakob Zouk – Akim TamiroffAkim TamiroffAkim Mikhailovich Tamiroff was an Armenian actor. He won the first Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor.Tamiroff was born in Tiflis, Russian Empire , of Armenian ethnicity. He trained at the Moscow Art Theatre drama school. He arrived in the U.S. in 1923 on a tour with a troupe of actors...
- Bracco – Gregoire AslanGrégoire AslanGrégoire Aslan was an Armenian actor.Born Krikor Aslanian in Switzerland or in Constantinople, according to different sources, Aslan made his professional debut at 18 as a vocalist and drummer with a Paris dance band, then launched an acting career under the name of Koko Aslan. His first film...
- Robert Rutleigh – Jack WatlingJack WatlingJack Watling was a British actor.-Early life:Watling trained at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts as a child and made his stage debut in Where the Rainbow Ends at the Holborn Empire in 1936...
- The Professor – Mischa AuerMischa AuerMischa Auer was a Russian-born American actor.-Early life:Auer was born Mikhail Semyonovich Unskovsky in St. Petersburg, Russia...
- Thaddeus – Peter Van EyckPeter van EyckPeter van Eyck, born Götz von Eick , was a German-American actor.-Biography:...
- Burgomil Trebitsch – Michael RedgraveMichael RedgraveSir Michael Scudamore Redgrave, CBE was an English stage and film actor, director, manager and author.-Youth and education:...
- Baroness Nagel – Suzanne FlonSuzanne FlonSuzanne Flon was a French film actress and comedienne.-Early life:Her father was a railway worker and her mother crafted jewelry....
- Oskar – Frederick O'Brady
- Sophie Radzweickz Martinez – Katina PaxinouKatina PaxinouKatina Paxinou was a Greek film and theatre actress.-Early life:Born Aikaterini Konstantopoulou in Piraeus, Greece, she trained as an opera singer, and appeared in the operatic version of Maeterlinck's "Sister Beatrice," with a score by Dimitri Mitropoulos, but changed career and joined the Greek...
- Jesus Martinez – Manuel Requena
- Woman Who Hides Zouk – Tamara ShayneTamara ShayneTamara Shayne was a Russian-born actress long resident in the United States....
- Mr. Arkadin's Secretary – Terence Langdon
- Munich Detective – Gert FrobeGert FröbeKarl Gerhart Fröbe, better known as Gert Fröbe was a German actor who starred in many films, including the James Bond film Goldfinger as Auric Goldfinger, The Threepenny Opera as Peachum, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as Baron Bomburst, and in Der Räuber Hotzenplotz as Hotzenplotz.-Life:Born in...
- Munich Policeman – Eduard LinkerEduard LinkersEduard Linkers was an Austrian actor. He appeared in 75 films between 1936 and 1988.-Selected filmography:* Men Without Wings * Krakatit * Question 7 * The Marquise of O...
- Pianist In Cannes Bar – Gordon HeathGordon HeathGordon Heath was an African-American actor and musician who appeared in feature film Animal Farm, and the British made for TV movie Othello, directed by Tony Richardson. Together with his lover Lee Payant, he ran a Left Bank café called L'Abbaye later in his life...
- Woman With Baguette In Paris – Annabel
- Sofía – Irene López Heredia (only in Spanish version)
- Baroness Nagel – Amparo RivellesAmparo RivellesAmparo Rivelles, is a Spanish actress.In the beginning of her career, she was known as Amparito Rivelles.She has worked in Cinema of Mexico and in telenovelas...
(only in Spanish version)