Mr. Arkadin on DVD

[Peter Tonguette]

Hi all,

I'm sure this topic has been addressed before, but I'll ask anyway.

What is the opinion of the below DVD release of "Mr. Arkadin"?

http://www.amazon.com/exec....e&s=dvd

For those who can't open the link, this is the DVD release put out by Laserlight and which features an introduction by Tony Curtis (!). I'm wondering just what version of the film is contained on this release as well as WellesNet'ters feelings about its quality. Some of the Amazon User Comments seem to suggest the quality leaves something to be desired, but I'm curious for people's thoughts here.

Thanks,

Peter

[Jeff Wilson]

I believe the general consensus was that it's of pretty awful quality, and that Tony's intro (done in black leather gloves and all) was equally awful. I don't know if the original discussion was before or after we lost the first round of postings when I updated the board software...did you try the search function?

[Peter Tonguette]

Okay, so I dove into the WellesNet archives...

And it sounds as though the DVD with the great Mr. Curtis is the "public domain" version and, arguably, the worst of the several Arkadins floating around out there. I think I'll skip this release and just hope and pray that Criterion takes the case up and releases all seven versions on DVD.

Peter

[Harry Lime]

I can tell you that anything from "Laserlight" is horrible. I don't have this Mr. Arkadin DVD, but I have several Laserlight DVDs of early Hitchcock and they are the poorest quality I've ever seen. Tony Curtis' introductions are embarrassing.

[Welles Fan]

I bought the LaserLight DVD last year. I thought "for $5 or $6 how bad can it be?". It is definitely a P.O.S. Luckily, Wellesnet member Frederic made me a tape of the Corinth video version he has, so I was able to see one of the known "good" versions. I have an ebay laserdisc purchase of the Criterion version coming soon, so I am looking forward to the other known good version.

Funny-in the early days of home video (late 70s-early 80's), an execrable release like the Laserlight Arkadin was pretty much par for the course.

My advice: avoid all public domain DVD releases. You would do better (in the case of classic films) to record them when TCM airs them.

[NoFake]

I can't find the more recent Arkadin DVD thread, so I'll post this here. Looks like Criterion has it definitely listed for an April release: http://criterionco.com/asp/release.asp?id=322

[NoFake]

Well, it DID say April when I posted it... looks like it's back to "Coming soon!" (Up to your old tricks, my friend...?

[Kevin Loy]

I believe the general consensus was that it's of pretty awful quality, and that Tony's intro (done in black leather gloves and all) was equally awful.

I certainly agree in terms of the awful print (and edits) used for Arkadin on that DVD...but I still think that the Tony Curtis introduction is humorous. In a sort of twisted way, it is like F For Fake, except the narrator in this case has no real knowledge of the subject and seems to be under the influence of barbituates when attempting to discuss it.

That having been said, I'm not sure that it is worth the $5 that is typically charged nowadays, especially with the Criterion edition just around the corner.

[Terry]

That's another example of the name Arkadin being mispronounced. A sure sign that the speaker never saw the film.

[Orson&Jazz]

Unfortunately my first introduction into "Mr. Arkadin" was the laserlight DVD.

It was god awful. I am looking forward to the Criterion version.