Mr. Arkadin (1955)

Director:

Orson Welles

Writers:

Orson Welles (story)
Orson Welles (screenplay)

Release Date:

2 October 1962 (USA)

Genre:

Thriller | Crime | Mystery | Drama

Tagline:

Discovering the past can be murder...

Plot:

An American adventurer investigates the past of mysterious tycoon Arkadin...placing himself in grave danger.

Plot Keywords:

Amnesia | Tycoon | Smuggler | Adventurer | Secret Past

Cast

Orson Welles	...	Gregory Arkadin
Michael Redgrave	...	Burgomil Trebitsch
Patricia Medina	...	Mily
Akim Tamiroff	...	Jakob Zouk
Mischa Auer	...	The Professor
Paola Mori	...	Raina Arkadin
Katina Paxinou	...	Sophie
Grégoire Aslan	...	Bracco
Peter van Eyck	...	Thaddeus
Suzanne Flon	...	Baroness Nagel
Robert Arden	...	Guy Van Stratten
Jack Watling	...	Marquis of Rutleigh
Frédéric O'Brady	...	Oscar (as O'Brady)
Tamara Shayne	...	Woman in Apartment (as Tamara Shane)
Terence Longdon	...	Secretary (as Terence Langdon)
Annabel	...	Parisian woman with bread
Gert Fröbe	...	First Policeman - Munich (as Gert Frobe)
Eduard Linkers	...	Second Policeman - Munich (as Eduard Linker)
Manuel Requena	...	General Martinez
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Emilio Fornet	...	Party Guest (uncredited)
Manolita G. Fraile	...	(uncredited)
José González Talavera	...	(uncredited)
Mateo Guitart	...	(uncredited)
Gordon Heath	...	Pianist (uncredited)
Gary Land	...	(uncredited)
Vicente Martín	...	(uncredited)
Sergio Mendizábal	...	(uncredited)
Anne-Marie Mersen	...	Uncredited (uncredited)
Antonio Molino Rojo	...	(uncredited)
Sergio Orta	...	(uncredited)
Carmen Rambla	...	(uncredited)
Gustavo Re	...	Italian police in Naples port (uncredited)
Robert Rietty	...	Airport Control Tower Operator (uncredited)
Emilio G. Ruiz	...	(uncredited)
Jacinto San Emeterio	...	(uncredited)
Pedro Vidal	...	(uncredited)

Directed by
Orson Welles

Writing credits
Orson Welles		(story)
Orson Welles		(screenplay)

Produced by
Louis Dolivet	....	producer
Orson Welles	....	producer

Original Music by
Paul Misraki

Cinematography by
Jean Bourgoin

Film Editing by
Renzo Lucidi
William Morton		(uncredited)
Orson Welles		(uncredited)

Art Direction by
Orson Welles		(uncredited)

Set Decoration by
Gil Parrondo		(uncredited)
Luis Pérez Espinosa		(uncredited)

Costume Design by
Orson Welles		(uncredited)

Makeup Department
Roy Ashton	....	makeup artist (uncredited)
Arcadio Ochoa	....	makeup artist (uncredited)
Francisco Puyol	....	makeup artist (uncredited)

Production Management
Michel Boisrond	....	production manager (uncredited)
Juan N. Solórzano	....	production manager: Spain (uncredited)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Isidoro M. Ferry	....	assistant director (as Ferri)
José María Ochoa	....	assistant director (as Jose Mario Ochoa)
José Luis de la Serna	....	assistant director (as De La Serna)

Art Department
Francisco Prósper	....	construction coordinator (uncredited)
Enrique de la Riva	....	property master (uncredited)

Sound Department
Jacques Carrère	....	sound re-recordist (as Jacques Carrere)
Jacques Lebreton	....	sound
Jaime Torrens	....	sound engineer: Spain (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Paul Rodier	....	camera operator
Louis Stein	....	camera operator
Félix Mirón	....	additional cinematographer (uncredited)
Julio Ortas	....	still photographer (uncredited)
Rafael Pacheco	....	still photographer (uncredited)
Raúl Pérez Cubero	....	additional camera operator (uncredited)

Editorial Department
Colette Cueille	....	assistant editor
Lolita López	....	assistant editor (uncredited)

Music Department
Antoñita Moreno	....	saeta singer (uncredited)

Other crew
Johanna Horward	....	script clerk
Jacques Laird	....	researcher (as Jacqueline Laird)
Julio de Fleischner	....	supervising director (uncredited)
Alfredo Ruescas	....	production assistant (uncredited)
Tadeo Villalba	....	production assistant (uncredited)
Billie Whitelaw	....	dubbed voice: Paola Mori (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Filmorsa (as Film Organisation S.A.)
• Cervantes Films
• Sevilla Films
• Mercury Productions
• Bavaria Film

Distributors

• Chamartín (1955) (Spain) (theatrical)
• Enrique Pérez Font (1955) (Spain) (theatrical)
• AFEX (1956) (Austria) (theatrical)
• Warner Bros. (1956) (Germany) (theatrical)
• Warner Bros. (1956) (France) (theatrical)
• Warner Bros. (1955) (UK) (theatrical)
• Sociedade Importadora de Filmes (SIF) (1957) (Portugal) (theatrical)
• Cari Pictures (1962) (USA) (theatrical)
• Janus Films (1962) (USA) (theatrical)
• Continental Home Vídeo (2000) (Brazil) (DVD)
• Passworld (2002) (Italy) (DVD)
• Media Cooperation One (MC-One) (2005) (Germany) (DVD)
• Criterion Collection, The (2006) (USA) (DVD)
• Art Free (????) (Greece) (theatrical)
• Warner Bros. Continental Films (????) (UK) (theatrical)
• Criterion Collection, The (????) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Home Vision Entertainment (HVE) (????) (USA) (DVD)

Special Effects

• LAX Lab.

Other Companies

• Sevilla Films  sound post-production
• Cinémathéque Municipale de Luxembourg  2006 comprehensive version created by
• Cinémathéque Municipale de Luxembourg  film material: 2006 comprehensive version
• Corinth Films  film material: 2006 comprehensive version
• Criterion Collection, The  2006 comprehensive version created by
• Criterion Collection, The  picture restoration: 2006 Comprehensive Version
• Euro-London Films (I)  film material: 2006 comprehensive version
• Euro-London Films (I)  under exclusive license from: 2006 comprehensive version (as Eurolondon)
• Filmmuseum München  2006 comprehensive version created by
• Filmoteca Española  film material: 2006 comprehensive version
• Luna  furniture
• Mengíbar  furniture (as Menjíbar)
• Modern VideoFilm  telecine color timing: 2006 comprehensive version (as Modern Videofilm, Los Angeles)
• Post Logic  additional color correction: 2006 comprehensive version (as Post Logic, NYC)
• Scanlab Saint Cloud  additional color correction: 2006 comprehensive version
• Technicolor Madrid  additional color correction: 2006 comprehensive version

Also Known As:

Runtime:

93 min | France:95 min (Cannes Film Festival) | USA:98 min (TCM print) | USA:105 min (2006 Restored Version)

Country:

France | Spain | Switzerland

Language:

English | German | French | Polish

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Ultraviolet High Fidelity Sound System)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | UK:A (original rating) | UK:PG (re-rating) | Sweden:15 | Australia:PG | USA:Not Rated | West Germany:16 (f)

Filming Locations:

Bavaria Filmstudios, Geiselgasteig, Grünwald, Bavaria, Germany

Company:

Filmorsa

Trivia:

"Mr. Arkadin" was created from three episodes of the 1951-52 radio program "The Lives of Harry Lime": "Man of Mystery" (AKA "Greek Meets Greek"), "Murder on the Riviera" and "Blackmail Is an Ugly Word". Arakdin is based mostly on the first of the three and centered on a character named Gregory Arkadian. Primary characters and set-ups are taken from the other two episodes.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: The shadows of the crew and camera operator are clearly seen at the very end of the film when the convertible drives off.

Quotes:

Gregory Arkadin:A scorpion wanted to cross a river, so he asked the frog to carry him. The frog refused because the scorpion would sting him. That would not be logical, explained the scorpion, because if he stung the frog they would both drown. So the frog agreed to carry the scorpion. Half way across, the frog felt a terrible pain - the scorpion had stung him. There is no logic in this, exclaimed the frog. I know, replied the scorpion, but I cannot help it - it is my nature.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Snuff-Movie (2005)

Soundtrack:

Saeta

There Really IS no "Original" version after all!

I've always liked Orson Welle's "Mr Arkadin." At least I've been compelled to watch it an awful lot of times, in any case. So I must like it, right? Actually, I think a big part of the reason why the film is so fascinating, to regular folk like me as well as to film historians, is that it is so obviously incomplete and unfinished. This is both the film's greatest weakness and its most intriguing strength. The film "Mr Arkadin" is just as mysterious as the character it is named after. This is yet another film Welles made that was taken from him during the editing stages by the people putting up the money.

Until the recent release of the exhaustive Criterion "Complete Mr. Arkadin" DVD set, all I had to go on were tapes and discs of various, beat up public domain versions and a nice Janus tape of the "Confidential Report" version that is widely known to be a re-edit of Welles' "original" cut.

However, now, after having seen the famed "Corinth" version as well as Criterion's "Comprehensive" version, I doubt that there ever really WAS a Welles cut of this film. He was obviously a compulsive tinkerer who liked to massage the story in the editing room. Therefore, we can't really know what version is "closest to Welles' intentions," we can only guess at which ones are closest to the intentions he had at the moment the producer took the film from him. I have no doubt that if he'd been given all the time to edit he wanted, the film would have completely changed a dozen more times.

If you closely watch first half hour or so of the versions that are supposedly "closer to Welles' vision," this is apparent. These are the scenes between Arden's Van Stratten and Tamiroff's Zouk that set up the flashback within a flashback format that Welles himself has been quoted as saying was absolutely vital to his vision. But if you watch closely during the scenes between Van Stratten and Zouk, it is obvious that virtually none of Arden's lip movements come anywhere near matching what he's saying on the soundtrack. And I'm not talking about the usual Welles problem of the voices not exactly matching the lips—I'm talking a complete disconnect. These scenes were originally filmed with much different dialog. Interestingly if you watch Laserlight's release of the American 'no flashbacks' version you can catch bits of this original dialog (why wasn't that version included in Criterion's 'Complete' set?).

I think that Welles came up with the flashback idea well after principal photography was finished and then had Arden dub in different lines to make the flashback format work. It looks to me like his original plan was a linear story, like the novel, and then he had the idea to make it a "Citizen Kane" type series of flashbacks after the fact. So even Welles' "original vision" wasn't his "original vision."

But the film is still fascinating, and the new, "more complete" Criterion versions do make more sense than the public domain versions that have been floating around. There are more establishing shots, better transitions, slightly fuller characterizations, and much better sound. But the first twenty minutes is still a mess. The story lurches and jumps, asking us to accept too many crazy things too quickly and losing us for a while. There seems to be at least twenty minutes worth of material missing. So far I haven't seen or read anything in the Criterion set to suggest that more material from the early part of the film exists, but I did read a fascinating blog article by a gentleman who claims to have seen a working print preview of "Arkadin" in England back in the 50s. As of this writing, it can be found here: http://www.epinions.com/mvie-review-7A18-458AFFD2-3A4C153E-prod3. In this article, the guy describes many scenes of exposition in the early part of the story that do not exist in any available film version. For instance: 1) In the prolog, we not only see Mily's dead body on the beach (a rare shot restored in the Criterion version) but also a close up of her face and eyes. And on the soundtrack we hear Van Stratten eulogizing her. 2) There was a rather involved scene showing Zouk actually being released from prison (in the released version, we are just told that this happened in dialog).

If this account of what must have been one of the first public showings of any version of "Arkadin" is true, that also says to me that Welles was compulsively noodling around with the film, changing it, rearranging it, cutting it to bits, well before his backers took it away from him and edited it themselves. And if we believe that these bits existed, there's no reason not to believe that other footage also existed. But I don't think we can assume he was necessarily making it better with each change, either.

I think that one of two things would have had to have happened for there to have ever actually been a true "final cut": 1) Welles would have had to accept collaborators to help him decide when to quit editing (as he had during "Kane" with Mankiewicz and Houseman) or 2) he would have had to have been given as much time as he wanted to edit. I think option one would have been the better choice—from the state of any version of the film available, I think it is obvious that he would have tinkered with it until he freaking died.

Making great art is not simply a matter of "doing it until it's right." It is also a matter of knowing when to stop. Arkadin is a fascinating study of an artist who didn't know when to--or didn't really want to--stop. But I still love the mystery.