mr. arkadin/confidential report (1955)
Directed by Welles from his own novel, this is the
only movie he ever made that was not from somebody else’s story. It
is not strong, and the editing (not by Welles, of course) was
terrible. You would probably be better off reading the book (even
though Welles later claimed that he hadn’t actually written
it, or even read it).
However, its faults aside, this movie is important
for one reason, which is the story of the scorpion. Mr. Arkadin, a
rich and powerful man (played by Welles) tells this story at a party.
I paraphrase:
A scorpion wishes to cross a stream, but scorpions
cannot swim. So, he asks a frog to carry him across on his back. The
frog refuses, saying that the scorpion will sting him. The scorpion
points out that if he stings the frog while they are going across the
river, they will both drown.
The frog sees the logic of this argument, and starts
across, bearing the scorpion on his back. Halfway across, he feel the
scorpion’s sting. “Is this logic?” he cries as they sink beneath the
water.
“No, it is not,” replies the scorpion, “but I can’t help
myself. It is my character.”
This story is very important for understanding the
view of human nature which Welles brought to all of his work. In most
of his films, there are scorpions and frogs, and the scorpions always
keep to their true nature even when it means their own
destruction.
It is even important for understanding how he
conducted his career (see my review of Ambersons for his comments on
his films). He had to make his films his way, to be true to his
character.
(The story is already familiar to anybody who has
seen The Crying Game, of course.)
Later: Welles’ original version of the movie is available on the Criterion Collection DVD, which includes three versions of the movie in total. It is much improved over the versions which had been generally available until now. It does not alter the meaning of the film (unlike Touch of Evil), but it does make a much better story, focusing the attention on the most interesting character (and the best performance).