Mr. Arkadin

Released May 8, 1956

1h 39m

Drama

List

73%

30 Reviews

Tomatometer

80%

1,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

Claiming that he doesn't know his own past, a rich man enlists an ex-con with an odd bit of detective work. Gregory Arkadin (Orson Welles) says he can't remember anything before the late 1920s, and convict Guy Van Stratten (Robert Arden) is happy to take the job of exploring his new acquaintance's life story. Guy's research turns up stunning details about his employer's past, and as his work seems linked to untimely deaths, the mystery surrounding Mr. Arkadin deepens.

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CHANNING K

The Third Man alá Bond, James Bond. Chock-full of film noir charm with Welles' style of B&W cinematography. Gert Fröbe ("Auric Goldfinger") briefly appears. Includes an amusing Christmas Eve goose liver MacGuffin.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

10/09/23

Full Review

Asa H

Some of the most stiff and staged acting ever seen..Even Orson does a terrible job. The direction is very amateurish as is the production value. Can't quite understand the high ratings here...

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

06/25/23

Full Review

Rex Michael D

The lens to best view the 1955 film "Mr. Arkadin," (also retitled and released as "Confidential Report" (1955)), is in the context of another post-war film, "The Third Man" (1949). The Third Man is clearly superiorly written by intrigue-novelist Graham Greene. Wells' acting was much less ham-fisted in the Third Man, but there are parallels in these stories. The reason these films should be viewed as a duplet is that they take us to a place largely overlooked in American cinema. Since World War II, the Americans can only see themselves as the triumphalist heroes of Europe. Yet it is in these films that we hear of American opportunist scoundrelism that stooped to the levels of selling bogus medication (in The Third Man) and all manner of profiteering done by the infamous billionaire before and after the war in Mr. Arkadin/Confidential Report. Spoiler: In both films, Wells' character is the underbelly. Heroine use is spoken about directly in Mr. Arkadin/Confidential Report. Arkan's activities in the inter-war years (the touchstone of his billionaire fortune) included a phony dance school that abducted Polish girls for a sex trafficking ring in Warsaw and sold them into prostitution. In a sense, Arkadin and the mysterious Sophie are the prototypes of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghillane Maxwell. The images in both films do include the actual ruble from European cities not yet rebuilt from the devastation of WWII. In this regard, these films stand as time capsules and have value for this in and of itself. It is of historical value that both of these capture the desperation in Europe during the post-war era, despite the jet-setting nature of the billionaire and his foolish errand boy sent to investigate. There is an "almost" aspect to the Mr. Arkadin/Confidential Report film(s). There is a thriller storyline that was there; a story concept buried deep under the over-the-top acting by the main characters. Had they been less bombastic this film might have made for a true classic in the way that The Third Man is, underrated though it The Third Man is today.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/16/23

Full Review

Cem Y

Camera shots were well thought, and plot is interesting enough. However, the acting is raw and unnecessarily exaggerated even when we consider the movies made at that period.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/26/23

Full Review

Martin B

All I can remember is Wells staring into the camera. He loved having the camera catch his every nuanced pose. Took to long setting up and getting into the plot. Just too much of Orson Wells.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

03/23/22

Full Review

Audience Member

Orson Welles helms this economical 100 minute flick in front of and behind the lens. While it is an effective little thriller, this story of a forgetful vulnerable magnate does have a very abrupt ending that may disappoint many viewers.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/20/23

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Orson Welles

Director

Orson Welles

Gregory Arkadin

Michael Redgrave

Burgomil Trebitsch

Robert Arden

Guy Van Stratten

Paola Mori

Raina Arkadin

Patricia Medina

Mily

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Penelope Houston

Sight & Sound

Beneath the baroque extravagance of its style, and the characteristic romantic retreat from reality into another Xanadu, the film crumbles emptily away.

Mar 18, 2020

Full Review

Richard Brody

New Yorker

This fractured Citizen Kane, built of frames within frames and mirrors within mirrors, is aptly brought to life by Welles's later style, born of low budgets and high anxiety, its grotesque closeups and cocked angles suggesting worlds and minds askew.

Mar 11, 2013

Full Review

Variety Staff

Variety

Engaging meller it may be, but missing the incisive delineation that marked Kane.

Mar 26, 2009

Full Review

Roger Moore

Movie Nation

Restored...it makes sense. It’s flashy in all the best Wellesian ways...and Welles pops off the screen in one of his most colorful performances.

Rated: 3/4

Apr 2, 2024

Full Review

Yasser Medina

Cinefilia

Its plot has a start full of intrigue in which Welles demonstrates, above all, his skill in elevating the compositional thickness of the frame, but whose degree of mystery is lost in its routine of international hunts. [Full review in Spanish]

Rated: 6/10

Oct 29, 2023

Full Review

Herman G. Weinberg

Film Culture

That rara avis among films -- the intensely personal expression of a highly gifted artist, intoxicated by the creative possibilities of the film medium, and who imparts something of this prodigality of joy in the medium to us.

Mar 28, 2022

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Synopsis

Claiming that he doesn't know his own past, a rich man enlists an ex-con with an odd bit of detective work. Gregory Arkadin (Orson Welles) says he can't remember anything before the late 1920s, and convict Guy Van Stratten (Robert Arden) is happy to take the job of exploring his new acquaintance's life story. Guy's research turns up stunning details about his employer's past, and as his work seems linked to untimely deaths, the mystery surrounding Mr. Arkadin deepens.

Director: Orson Welles
Screenwriter: Orson Welles
Distributor: Criterion Collection
Production Co: Sevilla Films, Mercury Productions, Filmorsa, Cervantes Films
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): May 8, 1956, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Sep 21, 2017
Runtime: 1h 39m
Sound Mix: Mono

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