Mr. Arkadin (aka Confidential Report) (1955)

A small time American smuggler (Robert Arden) is hired by a mysterious millionaire (Orson Welles) to dig into his past and discover his true identity as the millionaire has amnesia and no recollection of his life prior to 1927. Written and directed by Orson Welles (CITIZEN KANE). Apparently Welles never completed the film (creative control was taken away from him) and the movie has been released in several different versions and running times. There's a Spanish language version with Katina Paxinou and Suzanne Flon replaced by Irene Lopez Heredia and Amparo Rivelles respectively. The original U.S. release removes the film's flashback structure entirely. The transfer I saw is reputedly the closest to Welles' vision and runs one hour and 46 minutes. I suppose it's unfair to make any definitive comments on the film as Welles died in 1985 and this version was assembled in 2006. What remains is supremely tantalizing but near incomprehensible. But clearly the work of a master film maker. The only negative in the film is Robert Arden, whose amateurish performance is just terrible. With Michael Redgrave, Akim Tamiroff, Patricia Medina, Peter Van Eyck, Gert Frobe, Mischa Auer, Gregoire Aslan, Tamara Shayne and Paola Mori, who would become Welles' third wife.