There is a story, but it gets soaked and drowned in a mess of subplots, diversions and detours involving an odd lot of characters all played by great actors, so it is very difficult to get head or tail out of this. Apparently Orson Welles himself was not at all finished with it, as he spoke about re-editing the whole thing to the end of his days. He is a billionaire with unlimited influence who has his one daughter to live for, but he has a problem, which is that he is uncertain of his own past. He is a most powerful and wealthy man who suffers from having no identity. So he hires this Robert Arden to make a full investigation and report of unveiling his past, but for each person that Arden encounters to tell something of Mr. Arkadin's story, that person gets murdered. Above all, Mr. Arkadin is extremely concerned about his daughter never learning anything about this investigation. But his daughter gets well acquainted with Arden, and in the end Arden gets back to her to tell her all about the investigation and his findings, and although he gets no time to tell her much, Mr. Arkadin feels everything is lost. We are left hanging in the black hole of the mystery of Mr. Arkadin's secret, which he made so exorbitantly much fuss about, so it all comes to almost nothing. It's a parallel to "Citizen Kane", a similar investigation is carried out there ending up in what only the audience is informed about, while here not even the audience gets to know anything. At least the music and the cinematography is excellent and worth watching.
Review of Confidential Report
Confidential Report
(1955)
Orson Welles messing everything up with a minimum amount of logic
25 June 2023