How Long Is “Mr. Arkadin”?

Confidential File was one of several interim titles bestowed upon Orson Welles' Mr. Arkadin, which was completed in 1955, premiered in Europe and South America in 1956, and finally received American distribution in 1962. Welles not only produced, directed, wrote and starred in the film, but also handled the art direction and costume design. Based on a story first dramatized on Welles' radio series The Third Man, this Citizen Kane rehash concerns the efforts by the wealthy and powerful Gregory Arkadin (played by Guess Who?) to gather information about his own past. To this end, he hires American hack writer Robert Arden to interview those worthies who knew Arkadin when. When the interviewees begin dying off at an alarming rate, Arden comes to the horrible realization that Arkadin, who made his millions in the white-slavery racket, is going to desperate lengths to wipe out all evidence of his shady past, so that his beloved daughter will never know the truth. Because the film's attenuated budget precluded the rehiring of his high-priced actors to do their own post-dubbing, Welles' own voice emanates from the lips of such perfomers as Mischa Auer and Akim Tamiroff. Though it must rank as a lesser Welles, Mr. Arkadin is still a heady visual experience; this is also the film in which Orson sums him his philosophy of life in the now-famous "frog and scorpion" parable ("That is my character. . .and there is no logic in my character").