Review - Mr. Arkadin

So, we watched Mr. Arkadin on DVD, actually we watched it three times . . . The original was never finished by Orson Welles, so the Criterion Collection has two Wells versions, The Corinth Version and The Comprehensive Version based on his edits (the first being the version Wells last worked on, the later, a reconstruction with as much material as possible) and Confidential Report, the Janus films edit of it.

The basic story involves the secret of the shady power broker, Mr. Arkadin, who cannot remember his part before awaking in Switzerland in 1927 with a suitcase full of Swiss francs from which he builds his fortune. Akkadin hires Guy Van Stratten, an American hood in Europe, who hoped to blackmail Arkadin to discover that missing past . . . Lots of travel around Europe recovering from the war and dealing with various odd and semi-criminal people seeking the truth behind Arkadin. The ending, however, is very weak and Van Stratten is immensely unlikeable. My Grades, for the order we watched them in (Corinth / Confidential Report / Comprehensive): C- / C+ / C-/C, the Janus edit get the highest marks because it is the tightest of the three, cutting useless filler and focusing on the plot.