Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Report Retort



As secret as those of Aladdin
are the riches of Mr. Arkadin
This native of Georgia
's a latter day Borgia
Confidentially, Gregor's a bad 'un.



His accent's wild, woolly and weird
It's strained through a ludicrous beard
This rich man of leisure
pretends am-a-nesia
His history's quite disappeared.

David Cairns


Orson Welles is Mr. Arkadin (1955), aka Confidential Report. Feigning amnesia, Arkadin hires dopey American Guy Van Stratten (Robert Arden) to investigate his past as a means to secretly eradicate all trace of his criminal beginnings. "Am-a-nesia" is the odd way actor Arden pronounces amnesia. The plot was expanded from "Greek Meets Greek", a script Welles had written for his Third Man radio series, The Adventures of Harry Lime. Image source: DVD Beaver.

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