Mr. Arkadin - Production

Production

Its history is convoluted. The story was based on several episodes of the radio series The Lives of Harry Lime, which in turn was based on the character Welles portrayed in The Third Man. The main inspiration for the plot was the episode Man of Mystery. Most of the key elements for Arkadin's character come from real life arms dealer, Basil Zaharoff, the mysterious birthplace, the French Riviera property and the Spanish castle for example.

In addition, several different versions of the film were released. Welles missed an editing deadline, and so Producer Louis Dovilet took the film out of his hands and released several edits of the film, none of which were approved by Welles. Jonathan Rosenbaum's essay "The Seven Arkadins" is an attempt to detail the different versions including the novel and radio play. Adding to the confusion is a novel of the same title that was credited to Welles; Welles claimed that he was unaware of the book's existence until he saw a copy in a bookshop.

In 1982 Welles described Mr. Arkadin as the "biggest disaster" of his life, due to his loss of creative control, not released in the United States until 1962. Some compensation for Welles came in the form of Paola Mori who played the role of his daughter. In private life Countess Paola Di Girfalco, she would become his third wife. In addition the shooting started Welles's longtime relationship with Spain, where he lived for several periods in his life.

Released in some parts of Europe as Confidential Report, this film shares themes and stylistic devices with The Third Man. Like many of Welles's other films, Mr. Arkadin was heavily edited without his input. The Criterion Collection produced a three-DVD box set that includes three separate versions of Mr. Arkadin including a comprehensive re-edit that combines material taken from all the known versions of the film. Though even the creators of this "restored" version express their doubts as to the "correctness" of altering another artist's work, this new version is far and away the most comprehensible and easy to follow of the known versions. Also included are three of the Harry Lime radio plays reported to have been written by Welles and which he certainly based the Arkadin screenplay on. A copy of the Arkadin novelization — which may have been adapted by Welles or a ghost writer — is also included. The Criterion release also includes commentary tracks from Welles film scholars Jonathan Rosenbaum and James Naremore.