Mr. Arkadin

Mr. Arkadin AKA Confidential Report
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Orson Welles
Produced by	Louis Dolivet Orson Welles
Written by	Orson Welles
Based on	original radio scripts by Ernest Bornemann and Orson Welles, from The Lives of Harry Lime originally produced by Harry Alan Towers (uncredited)
Starring	Orson Welles Robert Arden Paola Mori Akim Tamiroff Michael Redgrave
Music by	Paul Misraki
Edited by	Renzo Lucidi
Distributed by	Filmorsa/Cervantes Films/Sevilla (Spain), Warner Bros. (USA)
Release date	20 October 1955 (Madrid)
Running time	99 minutes ("Corinth" version) 93 minutes (Spanish version) 95 minutes (public domain version) 98 minutes (Confidential Report) 106 minutes (2006 edit)
Country	France Spain Switzerland
Language	English Spanish
Box office	517,788 admissions (France)

Mr. Arkadin (first released in Spain, 1955), known in Britain as Confidential Report, is a French-Spanish-Swiss coproduction film, written and directed by Orson Welles and shot in several Spanish locations, including Costa Brava, Segovia, Valladolid and Madrid. Filming took place throughout Europe in 1954, and scenes shot outside Spain include locations in London, Munich, Paris, the French Riviera, and the Château de Chillon in Switzerland.

Guy Van Stratten (played by Robert Arden) a small-time American smuggler working in Europe, is at the scene of the murder of a man named Bracco. The dying man whispers two names that he claims are very valuable, one of which is Gregory Arkadin. Using this small bit of information and lots of bluffing, Van Stratten manages to meet multi-millionaire business magnate and socialite Arkadin, who then hires Van Stratten to research his own past, of which Arkadin claims to have no memory before 1927.

Traveling across the world, Van Stratten pieces together Arkadin's past from the few remaining people who knew him as a gangster in Europe after World War I, but in each case, the individuals Van Stratten speaks to end up dead. When he ultimately discovers the truth about Arkadin's past, there is a climactic race to Spain between the two, with disastrous consequences.

The story was based on several episodes of the radio series The Lives of Harry Lime, which in turn was based on the character Welles portrayed in The Third Man. The main inspiration for the plot was the episode entitled Man of Mystery though some elements may have been lifted from an episode of the radio show Ellery Queen, entitled "The Case of the Number Thirty-One," chiefly the similar-sounding name "George Arkaris," the mysterious birthplace, the French Riviera property and the Spanish castle for example. Most of the other key elements for Arkadin's character come from a real-life arms dealer, Basil Zaharoff.