Classic Movie: Mr. Arkadin

Directed by Orson Welles

Cari Pictures/The Criterion Collection


Orson Welles’ “Mr. Arkadin” is another one of those “ask your blackmailer to do a biographical report on your past because you have amnesia” thrillers. You know the type….

No?

Made in the mid-50s, “Arkadin” intertwines narrative aspects of “Citizen Kane” and “The Third Man” to probe Cold War institutional corruption. A dying man gives a petty criminal named Van Stratten (Robert Arden) two names—Gregory Arkadin and Sophie—which he tries to use to blackmail Arkadin (played by writer/director Orson Welles), one of the world’s richest and sketchiest men. The other name, it is later revealed, is that of Arkadin’s collaborator from his former days as an international criminal.

Instead of agreeing to Van Stratten’s terms, Arkadin decides to pay Van Stratten to find out the details of his past, ostensibly due to amnesia. As Van Stratten wanders the world, Welles gives center stage to a series of glorious character actors representing the changes in the international scene—the Dutch man is an avaricious eccentric, the titled Frenchwoman is forced to work in a clothing store, the Englishman is ignored until the end, and the Mexican representative is corrupt, but just wants to be left alone.

The key aspect of the characters, however, is summed up in the story of the scorpion and the frog, which Arkadin tells. A scorpion convinces a frog to take him across a river, because if the scorpion stings the frog, they will both die. In the midst of their journey, the frog feels the sting and says, “Why? This is illogical. We will both die.” The scorpion responds, “I can’t help it. It is my character.” This anecdote foreshadows the plot of the movie while making an adventure narrative into the basis for a philosophical argument.

It is Welles’ unique genius that he turned this movie into a parsing of character and the new international order without losing any of the narrative drive or interest that has always propelled his best films.

“Mr. Arkadin” was taken away from Welles during post-production; many of the available cuts were butchered versions of his original intent. The Criterion Collection has just released the film in a three disc set that contains the best known versions of the film, a new cut stitched together from all known prints and more special features then you could ever be able to watch. “Mr. Arkadin” is, as the titular character is described in the film, “a phenomenon of an age of disillusionment and crisis.” It’s a unique vision and one that’s well-worth seeing.



—Reviewer Scoop A. Wasserstein can be reached at wasserst@fas.harvard.edu.