I love this movie so much

Fresh and Exciting

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

American Guy Van Stratten (Robert Arden) smuggled cigarettes in Europe. He encounters murdered Bracco at the docks who whispers two valuable names to Mily. She revealed one name Gregory Arkadin (Orson Welles) to everybody while Guy is arrested for smuggling. He uses Arkadin's daughter Raina to get to her father. Mily says the second name is a woman's but she'd forgotten and later remembered as Sophie something. Guy tries to blackmail Arkadin. Arkadin hires him to recover his past prior to 1927 and claims to have amnesia.I like the premise and I like the first half. Orson Welles is putting in all of his style into this movie. The story does take a lot of twists and turns. Honestly, I'm lost half of the time trying to figure out who's who in this movie. It's convoluted and confusing. The overall effect is a nightmarish tone in a Kafkaesque world.

I admire Orson Welles's ability to take a seemingly simple story and develop it into a brilliant one. with his square face covered in a huge beard and devious eye brows he makes the strongest character in this film. The leading character (Van Stratten) was all right, but he did not succeed creating a captivating performance. i saw this one at a friend of mine, he happened to have it on Criterion(at a steep price i might add). of course we saw the longest version as there are three versions to behold. the dialog coming out of Arkadin's(Welles) mouth is wonderful and just plain amusing. this film is a must see/own for those who enjoy the old stuff and those who appreciate the work of a cinematic genius .

Firstly, some administration issues: like most Orson Welles projects, 'Mr. Arkadin (1955)' suffered from studio interference in post- production, and so there are numerous versions of the film available for public viewing. Among the possible options is the chronologically-cut print released in America, the European cut retitled "Confidential Report," and several versions released by the Criterion Collection that purport to represent, to varying degrees, Welles' original vision. For my first viewing of the film, I watched the version titled "Confidential Report," which can be found on a VHS released by distributor Connoisseur Video. The flashback structure maintained in most prints of the film, including this version, deliberately recalls the American film noir style. Of course, this comes as no surprise – Welles had already released 'The Stranger (1946)' and 'The Lady from Shanghai (1947),' and would soon return to Hollywood (albeit briefly) to direct his archetypal noir, 'Touch of Evil (1958).' But Orson Welles was not one to do things by the book, and 'Mr. Arkadin' is like no American noir you've ever seen.If one must choose a film with which to compare 'Mr. Arkadin,' it would probably be Carol Reed's 'The Third Man (1949).' Both pictures transplant a familiar film noir plot into a European setting, and an eccentric camera captures the personality of the exotic locales and their inhabitants. Both, of course, also starred Orson Welles in a prominent role, and playing analogous characters. In Reed's film, Harry Lime is a smug, boyish racketeer whose thirst for ill-gotten profits takes priority over the faceless victims of his black-market crimes. Gregory Arkadin might be considered an extension of Lime's character, had he emerged unscathed from the Vienna sewers and lived years more. Arkadin is undoubtedly a criminal, but one whose incredible success has pushed him beyond such a characterisation. Despite having apparently eluded his youthful years in petty crime (after erasing his former identity, much as Lime attempted), Arkadin remains plagued by the shame of his past, unwilling to acknowledge that he is just as contemptible now as he ever was.Despite the thematic influence of American cinema, Welles' direction, stylistically, more closely resembles the work of European artists like Federico Fellini. His dynamic camera-work and editing has an air of improvisation, and a certain flamboyance that might seem overindulgent if it weren't so brilliantly effortless. The film's most interesting sequence is an early costume ball in which guests are hidden behind grotesque masks, whose massive features crowd the frame like the creatures from Maurice Sendak's "Where the Wild Things Are." Though it is Welles' presence that dominates the screen, Robert Arden is an intriguing noir protagonist: Guy Van Stratten is a small-time smuggler (once again drawing a parallel with Harry Lime) who epitomises the petty crook that Arkadin once was. Infatuated with nothing but money and self- preservation, Stratten continually exploits the affections of girlfriend Mily (Patricia Medina) and Arkadin's daughter Raina (Paola Mori). He destroys the lives of both women, and, unremorsefully, manages to save his own neck; Gregory Arkadin isn't the only villain on this cluttered continent.

After seeing Gregoire Aslan knifed on a dock and hearing a couple of last words like Sophia and Mr. Arkadin, Robert Arden and girl friend Patricia Medina know at least part of it.Mr. Arkadin refers to the mysterious gazillionaire played by Orson Welles. However Sophia is as elusive at first as the mysterious 'rosebud' in Citizen Kane.Welles seeing that Arden is a man of wit and resource in the seamier side of life, hires him to find out about Sophia. In fact the story that Welles gives Arden is that before 1927 when he found himself in Zurich, Switzerland with several million francs, he has amnesia and has no memory of his past.It's obviously a lie because one of the reasons that Arkadin is so mysterious is that he has steadfastly refused to be photographed. Not something someone would normally do unless they had a lot to hide.Still Arden takes the assignment and it leads to some startling answers and puts Arden's life in peril.Welles came up short with Mr. Arkadin. It's an intriguing story and has some good performances by the cast members already mentioned and people like Mischa Auer, Akim Tamiroff, Michael Redgrave, and Katina Paxinou from Welles's past. Problem is that Welles seems to be using a lot more in his bag of tricks than is necessary to tell the tale.A little to arty for art's sake. Still it's an interesting story and well acted.