Orson Welles completism. Also a Peter van Eyck jag from a sneaky rewatch of The Wages of Fear (1953), and also Michael Redgrave from The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962). The latter is very fruity here as a post-war fence/purveyor of junk in Copenhagen.
Producer/writer/director Welles tried to rebottle the lightning of Citizen Kane (1941) but apparently the budget didn't stretch far enough to encompass his high-concept aspirations. Lead Robert Arden (far down the billing) was a lot weaker than all the other players. His thief, smuggler, etc. is tasked by billionaire Welles to find out what the world knows about Welles's life before 1927 as the man himself has lost it all due to a mysterious bout of amnesia. This leads to much traversal of Europe and a jaunt to Mexico. His sometime lady-friend Patricia Medina runs a parallel operation. That things don't make a ton of sense does not occur to Arden. Notionally the two men are duking it out for the affections of Paola Mori who has flashes of independence and yet never goes looking for a better man.
Much of the dialogue was dubbed and the lips do not match the sounds. Jean Bourgoin's cinematography was adventurous. It's engaging but the production could've been a lot better.
Someone at the New York Times at the time. J. Hoberman at length for the Criterion Collection in 2006. IMDB trivia. Wikipedia.
