When Stagecraft Attacks

One of my favorite things is actors getting crazy into make-up and other props to help them get into character.  This can be too much of a good thing on occasion.

Case in point: Orson Welles pictured here blacking up his face.  Stop what you are doing Orson and put down the greasepaint.  Here is an affectionate and thorough article on all the ways that Orson went a little over the top with the stagecraft.  One of the more obtrusive examples was his habit of wearing a fake nose for no good reason.  Welles was very insecure about his nose and like to apply a fake schnoz in leading man roles such as Jane Eyre. 

My first impression of the first half hour of this movie was pretty bleak.  The dubbing is weird and most of the sound is just sort off through most of it.  The lead actor (Robert Arden) is unattractive with an abrasive voice and the femme fatale (Patricia Medina) is also kind obnoxious. Orson appears about a half an hour in, acting mysterious and arch with a ginormous beard.  Once one resigns oneself to living with the leads, the movie improves.  As Guy Van Stratton (Arden) carries out his investigation he meets with a string of cameos underground characters each with a piece of the mystery for him.  Using his patented nostril cam, Welles manages to create a series of memorable grotesques.  Ultimately Mr. Arkadin is an entertaining and stylish thriller.  Something about it feels kind of stagey, and I wonder if it wasn’t written for the radio.  Some of Welles’ set-ups are more effective than others, but on the whole if one goes in with low expectations and a forgiving heart, it can be a rewarding experience. 

Nothing says stylish thriller like paper mache monsters.

The set up is a bit murky, but the story is that Guy and his girl Mily (inexplicably in men’s pajamas) witness a murder on the Naples docs.  The dying man promises them great wealth if they blackmail billionaire Mr. Arkadin with the name, “Sophie.”  As guy gets hauled away for questioning by the police, Mily hears the rest of the name, but claims later that she forgot it. 

Arkadin’s daughter Raina (Paolo Mori) is the “hero’s” route to Arkadin, but even she is not safe from the nostril cam.

For a minute there, I got excited and thought I was watching Under the Cherry Moon.

One of Arkadin’s hobbies is giving high-concept masquerade parties.  No big deal, I guess he just orders 200 or so people costumes modeled on Goya’s paintings.  This would be one of the best things about being super rich and powerful. 

One of the reason I wondered weather the script were left-over from Welles’ radio days, was this scene in which the audience is reminded at least three times in the dialog that it takes place in his daughter’s bedroom. 

Guy’s investigations lead him all over Europe, and eventually to Amsterdam where he meets with an antique’s dealer named Trebitsch (Michael Redgrave).  This cameo makes Redgrave’s slightly campy performance in Oh! Rosalinda seem like The Browning Version. 

Also: Double PINKY RINGS!!!

I know Orson Welles was trying to make Michael Redgrave unattractive, here, but it is failing.

Nostril Cam strikes again. 

One of the sequences that works quite well, is this one in which Mily and Arkadin do some Star Trek acting as his yacht shifts and pitches on a drunken afternoon. 

Sophie, about whom all the fuss is about, is played by Katina Paxinou. Like Marlene Dietrich in Touch of Evil, she runs away with the picture in just a few minutes.  Sophie is the thing I will probably remember most from this film, though Michael’s hairnet is pretty historic as well. 

Do you know, Mr Arkadin has been sitting on my Orson Welles shelf (yeah) for about 4 years, still in its plastic. I kind of don’t want to watch it, because I never want Orson to disappoint (he never HAS! There’s always enjoyment at the very least)

I came in with no preconceived notions at all.  I wasn’t even aware it was Orson Welles until it started.  God it is seriously shit.  I’m sorry but it is shit.  It is so shit that I’m going to make my screencaps of Michael and then watch the end of it while I do a big cooking project so I don’t have to watch it quite so actively anymore. 

Also, you know what I would fucking love more than anything?  One of you Film Spams of Journey to the Center of the Earth.  Just a suggestion, but if my powers of telpathic long-distance persuasion have any effect at all you should be feeling a wave of disire to screen cap Journey to the Center of the Earth…

klokwerk:

A drawing by Nick Perks that renders a movie poster for Orson Welles version of The Batman.

Why are you not  a real thing?  Also, Basil should be Mr. Freeze. 

Consider accessorizing your tweed with a pipe and an Underwood. 

finestrasulcortile:

Orson Welles in Citizen Kane [1941]

Say what you will about Charles Foster Kane, mofo could wear a mandress.