Mr. Arkadin: The Comprehensive Version

Mr. Arkadin was Orson Welles’ seventh “finished” film. I say that because for various reasons, (many of them financial) Welles was forced to abandon numerous projects throughout his career. Mr. Arkadin was actually never finished, as it was taken from Welles by the producer during the editing process and several different versions of the film now exist. Part of the problem was that the story is supposed to be told through flashbacks and this caused lots of confusion for anyone editing it who wasn’t Orson Welles. This version of Mr. Arkadin was composed from pieces of the different edits and is supposed to be the version that most accurately adheres to Orson Welles’ personal vision as the director.

Now all that trouble is what most likely accounts for all the problems there are in this film. Even so this is by no means a bad film. At times, particularly near the end, it is absolutely marvelous. Yet, throughout the film, Mr. Arkadin feels fragmented and rushed. The film opens with multiple story hooks that draw you in immediately. The plot structure leaves you in the dark and guessing and wanting to know more. However after a little while the story advances much too quickly and a little confusion ensues as the viewer is hit with a bit too much too soon. You wonder why all of a sudden the main character has gone across the ocean and back in two minutes. Part of this is acceptable as parts of the story are being quickly relayed in flashback from one character to another. Knowing the history of the film, the rest can probably best be explained by the confusion of the multiple edit jobs. Just a few more minutes of discovered footage could have really helped. The movie also suffers from a multitude of seemingly random, Third Man-esque camera angles. They disrupt the flow of some scenes almost as much as the erratic editing issues.

The story chronologically begins with a dying man relaying some information to a smuggler named Van Stratten, played by Robert Arden. This information leads to Van Stratten trying to find his way into the world of mysterious millionaire, Mr. Arkadin, played by Welles. Apparently Mr. Arkadin cannot remember anything before 1927 when he found himself in Zurich with 200,000 Swiss francs and built his fortune from there. Thus Mr. Arkadin commissions Van Stratten to delve into his past and discover who he is. BUT NOT ALL IS AS IT SEEMS, and as Van Stratten pieces together the details of Mr. Arkadin’s life, the people of his past continuously wind up dead. At the same time Van Stratten is falling in love with Arkadin’s daughter. The story appears to be quite simple, but there is an underlying depth in the way it plays out. If really fleshed out many of the scenes are so juicy that they could be turned into the basis for an entire separate script on their own. This is due not only to the writing of these scenes, but also to their visuals that are screaming out to be part of a film more worthy as a whole.

Unfortunately all of the issues with this film caused Orson Welles to describe Mr. Arkadin as the “biggest disaster” of his life. There are just so many continuity issues with how the film unfolds, as well as some creatively suspect, although inventive, exposition issues. Fortunately for us it is an impressive "failure" with flashes of real brilliance.