Mr Arkadin as comedic?

[Glenn Anders]

Colmena: As long as you allow for irony, you have no disagreement from me. Grotesques, as I've suggested, like the revelers at Arkadin's Christmas Ball, may often jeered at by those not invited to the party.

I simply believe that Welles cared too much about Sir Basil Zaharoff to make him a figure of fun and his film about him a farce. What we are not taking into account is that Narrator Guy Van Stratten, like Michael O'Hara in THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI, is a fool.

If MR. ARKADIN is only a farce, then so is THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI, or TOUCH OF EVIL, for that matter. I doubt we would get many takers on that proposition.

Glenn

[mteal]

I would say all three of those films have several scenes that are on the edge of farce, balanced against other scenes that are totally serious. But I think that "comedic & farcical quality" that Colmena mentioned is probably one of the things that brought him into conflict with Dolivet, who was probably hoping for a straight out attack on Capitalist power figures in Europe. As Charles Higham writes in RISE AND FALL OF AN AMERICAN GENIUS:

Welles said that CONFIDENTIAL REPORT was ruined by the distributors, Warner Brothers, who he claimed cut it to ribbons in Europe; his producer, Louis Dolivet, thought differently and sued Welles for more then $700,000 for drunken behavior and for not delivering the picture he promised. The case dragged on ruinously for years

[Colmena]

Re the difference between getting Mr A and not getting it,
Originally, I concurred with those (a good number) who say that, in the first place, the movie is damaged by Arden's bad acting. Someone said the movie would have made it if that role had been assumed by Dana Andrews. But Welles said that Arden's acting was fine, just what he was after... and eventually I figured out that Arden is projecting this kind of American tough-guy persona, and his boorishness and cluelessness (e.g. that exchange about Goya! at the party) is what Welles wanted. His exaggerated type is mirrored by his rival for the daughter's affections (along with her Dad), who is the epitome of a limp Brit type.

Similar, many complain about how bad Arkadin's make-up is... but now I take it that Welles wanted it to be preposterous. He takes off his mask, when we first see him... and he's still wearing one.

Also, an esp funny scene is the one with Arkadin and Milly on the rolling ship... the way they're circling around each other in their drunken erotic dance, while they run through this major chunk of dialog with each other. Mr A is wearing this joke of a sailor costume!

It should be added that the two debriefings of women enjoy the ring of truth and heart. They stand out, for that reason.

[Glenn Anders]

Colmena: May I throw out this idea to mix with your thinking? MR. ARKADIN, like most of Welles' best original films, has a strong streak of German Expressionism running through it. When we watch Fritz Lang's METROPOLIS, we may laugh and marvel at Maria's grotesquely seductive wink, but that does not mean that the film is a ha-ha comedy. Lang's 1925 masterpiece is about the coming world of robotics and the utter careless indifference of the 1% (which we now have to live and deal with). By the same token, colmena, you may chortle at that strange, twisted mating dance between Milly and Arkadin (putting aside the punchline that he murders her), but MR. ARKADIN, on one overridingly important and serious level, is about the return of Fascism (Totalitarianism, if you will) to Europe after the hopes and pledges of World War II. The survivors of the eighty to one hundred million who died in that war were promised by the Allies and by the new United Nations a new deal in the decade after 1945. [Welles, after all, was an official observer in San Francisco at the founding of the United Nations, which made those lofty promises.] But, very quickly, under the surface, the same old players (or their successors) went back to "business as usual." And like Harry Lime, Gregorie Arkadin has gone right back to his greedy dealings in dope, arms, and military war contracts. It is those Gregorie Arkadin's who have also brought us our present World, gradually corrupting all of the institutions which held out such promise.

That was always Welles' great worry from the mid-1930's on.

Who was MR. ARKADIN and all those henchmen he was trying to kill off? They were the men who enabled and worked for the cartels which supported the Hitlers, Mussolini's and Stalin's, who caused all the death and destruction.

That's why, despite what Mr. Naremore may write, I don't buy your steady insistence that MR. ARKADIN is for laughs.

Glenn

[Colmena]

Thanks for your comment, Glenn. Since plunging into Rosebud, Kane & Welles big time (which began about 3-4 months ago) the feature of Welles' life that I've learned the most about, that was essentially unknown to me, is his political side /interests /commitment. Learned more from Callow's 2nd volume than any other source. And when I began this thread, I did underline that there was a basic seriousness to Welles antipathy to Arkadin, as a kind of Stalin. If you have Naremore at hand, you should read that extensive quoted passage where OW talks about coming upon one of these Arkadin types. So, I do take this political side seriously, I'm not just giggling,... and your caution is appreciated.