Warner Bros.
Directed by Orson Welles
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(DVD, Criterion Collection)
A small time blackmailer falls in love with the daughter of a reclusive, wealthy businessman. She introduces him to her father at a masquerade ball in a castle in Spain. The mysterious figure, played by the director Orson Welles, agrees to let him marry his daughter only if he uncovers his past, which apparently he has forgotten due to amnesia! What follows is a globe-trotting, dreamlike investigation of the people and places of his past. Welles always seems to show up at each place, as do dead bodies, ratcheting up the stakes. Eventually the truth is uncovered, and Welles will stop at nothing to keep it from his daughter, whose love he fears losing. Covering many of the same themes as his more famous Citizen Kane, Welles had the final cut taken out of his hands by the producers, and as a result it has been released in many versions, all of which are confusing. It is nonetheless very good, and frequently hilarious, with a deadpan performance by Robert Arden, a poorly dubbed one by Welles' wife Paola Mori, and of course the omnipresent, devilish Welles as Mr. Arkadin.
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