Mr. Arkadin on DVD soon

[Anton]

what a great title for a film about reinhardt, HANGMEN ALSO DIE!

A great title and a great film, too. One of Lang's best American films. It shows up on TCM from time to time.

Can't wait for the Arkadin set, or Callow's new volume. It's a good thing he had the foresight to interview Robert Arden before he died. I also remember someone saying that, with all of Callow's theatre connections, he's the right man to get all the interviews that would do full justice to Welles's later stage career.

[catbuglah]

[/quote]groucho would have made rasputin get a hair cut and carry a big horn like harpo did.[quote]

Ozzy Osbourne vows to press on with Rasputin the Musical
Liz Thomas

http://www.thestage.co.uk/news....asputin

[Christopher]

I, too, am looking forward to the release of MR. ARKARDIN on DVD. Although it has never been one of my favorite films, I am curious to see the three different versions that will be on the DVD, including CONFIDENTIAL REPORT, which I have never seen. It is entirely likely that after watching the DVD, I will end up with a higher opinion of MR. ARKARDIN than I now have. In any case, I am going to approach it with an open mind.

[Terry]

In the versions which have the flashback structure it's pretty good - at least you can follow the story. That 92 minute cut is just terrible. It looks like someone edited it on a kitchen table with a pair of scissors. The film has lots of great moments and great camera work. The story makes more sense and the dialogue is less corny than Lady from Shanghai. Some of the performances are pretty bad - especially Patricia Medina. While I like Robert Arden in it, he's not exactly leading man material. I like Paola Mori, even though she's obviously not a professional actress. Akim Tamirrof's goings-on about the goose liver are some of the best things to be found in Welles' films. Welles dubbed several of the other characters, which is always noticeable - some would say that's a flaw - I just think it means that it's an Orson Welles film.

Confidential Report is a slightly different cut. It has different narration to make the story more simple. One of the characters dubbed by Welles was redubbed by someone else - again to make the story more simple. It's the dumbed-down version of Arkadin - tailor-made for hoped-for box-office potential. That version got good reviews when it premiered in the UK.

I'll be happy to get Confidential Report on DVD as I like that cut. I'll be happy to get the 99-minute cut of Mr. Arkadin on DVD as that cut is better and my VHS copy of it is rather Nth generation. I'm very interested in seeing the extended Locarno cut. If the set somehow includes the novel - that's very cool, but I don't know what format it would be in. A small-print slim paperback incuded in the case? A virtual version which you can page-through on your TV screen? That would be hard to read. Again, I hope that it includes both the radio shows on which the screenplay was based - "Man of Mystery" and "Blackmail Is a Nasty Word." I hope it includes the full-length versions of them and not the short syndicated versions with the erroneous titles.

All that PLUS commentaries? Kick ass!

[Terry]

And lest I not forget Jacob Zouk yelling "Arkadin Schmadin!" Another great moment.

At the very least I hope the world of cineasts learns how to pronounce the name, finally.

It's ar-KAH-din, not AR-kuh-DIN!

Always embarrassed me to see the talking heads commenting on Welles and mispronouncing the name. Like Marcus Wolland in his interviews accompanying his The Magnificent Welles - the fact that he didn't know how to pronounce Arkadin made me very dubious of his research. And Tony Curtis' intro to the film on that budget-line DVD - how could an intro to a movie mispronounce it's title? Make Curtis look like a stupid old drunken burn-out. And Robert Osbourne on TCM mispronouncing the title? You never really thought he'd seen all those movies, did you? He's just a talking-head reading a teleprompter. He's no guru, just some slacker with a bum job, so pity him.

[catbuglah]

http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/00/10/arkadin.html

[Holly Martins]

Mr. Arkadin - Orson Welles's elusive film presented in three different versions.
SRP: $49.95
Prebook date: 2/21/06
Street date: 3/26/06

[Terry]

Pretty good cover!

Hey, who mocked this up, to fool me into believeing this was a real release? Sheesh.

[NoFake]

It IS the real release...

[Jeff Wilson]

The URL for that image is Criterion's web site, so it appears to be legit.

[tonyw]

This is great news since I will finally be able to show it in next semester's Welles class. If only others such as Macbeth will follow soon!

[Narshty]

Release specs are up: http://www.criterionco.com/asp/release.asp?id=322

Orson Welles’s Mr. Arkadin (a.k.a. Confidential Report) is one of cinema’s great mysteries. How did a globetrotting narrative of espionage, amnesia, and backstabbing come to be itself marked by these qualities? In the film, small-time American smuggler Guy van Stratten is hired by elusive billionaire Gregory Arkadin to investigate the tycoon’s past. What follows is a dizzying descent into the Cold War landscape of a Europe trying to erase its history. In making the film, Welles was ultimately banned from the editing room by producer (and undercover Soviet agent) Louis Dolivet. As a result, many versions exist, none of them definitive. The Criterion Collection is proud to collect the many faces of Mr. Arkadin into one box for the first time—from the story’s beginnings in radio to the novel published under Welles’s name to an all-new “comprehensive version” of the film.

SPECIAL EDITION THREE-DISC SET FEATURES
- New, restored high-definition digital transfers of three versions of the film: the Corinth Verion, Confidential Report, and a new Comprehensive Version
- Audio commentary by scholars Jonathan Rosenbaum and James Naremore
- Interviews with Welles biographer Simon Callow, star Robert Arden, radio producer Harry Alan Towers, director Peter Bogdanovich, and film archivists Stephan Droessler and Claude Bertemes
- Three half-hour episodes of the radio program The Lives of Harry Lime, upon which the film is based
- On the Comprehensive Version, a new documentary featuring Droessler, Bertemes, and Bogdanovich
- Outtakes, rushes, and alternate scenes from the film
- Extensive stills gallery
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

[Holly Martins]

Callow is on the DVD? After he bashed Welles in "Xanadu." First that horrid Viridiana cover and now this. Criterion is releasing the films I like, but adding a bunch of crap to them! :angry:

[RayKelly]

Jeff posted in his News Blog that Mr. Arkadin's release may have been changed since it was moved off the Coming Soon portion of the Criterion site.
It has previously been posted on this message board that the street date was March 26. Last week, I received from Image publicity a list of Criterion discs for March and Arkadin was NOT on it.
Amazon.com is listing it as an April 18 release. I do not see that date or the release on other sites.

[Terry]

I wonder if "She Who Must Not Be Named" is up to her usual nasty tricks...