Watch Mr. Arkadin For Free

So much average

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

The acting in this movie is really good.

This is a film for Orson Wells fans and filmmakers.Don't press the pause button, to go to the frig, or you might not bother to resume play.A cross between Citizen Kane and Joe McDoaks, as in "So you want to be a Private Eye". It tries for meaning, symbolism, and is replete with clownish characters, and some creative camera work, but Fellini it is not.There is, unfortunately, no message. The sound is bad, and the dialogue is pedestrian.It is more like a homework assignment than entertainment, but then, I thought Citizen Kane and The Third Man were grossly overrated too.

Defying All Reasonable Recitation, This Film is Another of Welles Extravagances that Spun Out of His Control in Post Production and Manifested a Life of its Own. Trying to Discern What it Was Supposed to Be or What it Is, for that Matter, is the Stuff of Scholarly Pursuits, Doctoral Thesis, and Criterion Collections.The Casual Film Buff Venturing Into Welles World, Especially His Late Term Efforts, is Likely to be Chewed Up, Spit Out, and Sent Sliding Into Incomprehensible Mutterings and a Desire for Firmer Ground.Solid Footing is Fleeting when it comes to Mr. Arkadin. There are So Many Versions, So Many Varying Prints, and So Many Rumors and Recollections that it is Best to Just Go with the "Comprehensive Version" and Leave "Welles" Enough Alone. Orson Welles was a Magician, a Curmudgeon, a Tinkerer, and a Tailor of Film that Loved to Play with His Craft Endlessly Until All Reason was Ripped This Way and That and Then Back Again.Few Knew or Have Been Able to Penetrate the Mind of this Filmmaker and Come Up with Anything Coherent or Understandable (a description of Arkadin), Although Mr. Bogdanovich and Others Certainly Gave it the Old College Try. Therein Lies the Endless Fascination with Orson Welles. A Puzzle of a Motion Picture Maker that is Forever Being Broken Up and Put Back Together, Although the Image on the Box is Always Different for Anyone Willing to Look. Mr. Arkadin is Perhaps Welles Most Fun Film. It is Bizarre, Disjointed, Awkward, Ill Fitting, and Absolutely Amazing and it Exists in a Select Universe of Films, Fit for Deconstruction Only by the Most Masochistic and Maniacal of Movie Fanatics. Others are Best Advised, for Peace of Mind, to Please Move Along and Play Elsewhere.

Prior to becoming a multimillionaire, the title character was the leader of an infamous gang in pre-WWII Poland. He hires an opportunist-drifter who breaks into his house to find out about his past, saying he has amnesia and can't remember anything, not even his real name.Sound intriguing? You bet. An interesting story? well, semi-interesting. It's festooned with plot holes and poor continuity, sorely in need of an editor. Plus, the main character represents what may be the worst casting job in the long history of Motion Pictures. His name is Robert Arden. Ever hear of him? Thought not. He was, in a word, dreadful. No subtlety, no nuance and wrecked this picture almost singlehandedly.Everybody wants to give Orson Welles and his genius their due. I think that is the main reason for many reviewers overrating this picture, and some of his genius is on display here, in fits and starts. Too often, however, his genius manifests itself in brief outbursts of megalomania as he postures and glowers before the camera in one of his too-frequent close-ups.The supporting cast ranges from excellent to superb, led by Akim Tamiroff and Katina Paxinou, both of whom had too brief appearances before the camera. As I said, there are flashes of brilliance, but not enough to pull this film up to a respectable rating. This is a seriously flawed movie.

Even the inherent beauty of an Orson Welles film and an interesting story can't overcome bad editing, terrible pacing, sub par acting and an awful dub. The problems start early on when you notice that, what do you know, the dialogue just doesn't really match the lip movements. They're always a bit ahead or a bit behind or just plain off. This is no mere technical gripe--the constant distraction ruined any chance of immersiveness that's so important to Welles' visual style, constantly reminding me that this is "just a movie." A further problem, which is kind of hard to explain in text, is that the lines are not read like dialogue for a movie. Instead, they're read just like a radio show--like there's nothing to pay attention to except whatever the characters are saying. This combined with the frenetic editing results in most of the film being an endless barrage of spoken narration and dialogue with nary a break between lines. It sounds like the actors are trying to get through the script as quickly as humanly possible, and thus the nice acting of many characters is lost because it all sounds so staged. Finally, the acting of two of the leads, Robert Arden and Paula Mori (including whoever dubbed her voice), is terrible. Their characters are supposed to provide a lot of the film's emotion, but they have no chemistry or charisma. Orson Welles himself does a nice job, but constantly seems to be overacting because he's matched against such wooden and cloying performances.The only reason one would watch this, except for being a Welles completist, is for some very beautiful camera-work, but even that is only on display in bursts here and there. And the story, while having a lot of potential, is told in such a haphazard way that it cannot be said to have been realized to any degree. The last quarter of the film in particular includes some actions by both Arkadin and Van Stratten that seem maddeningly incomprehensible, as well as a five-minute-long segment consisting almost entirely of a minor character repeatedly asking for goose liver.I would recommend watching The Lady From Shanghai instead of this for a film with similar themes that works despite even more pronounced attempts by the studio to butcher Welles' work.