Orson Welles: The Stranger / On Film / The Trial / Mr. Arkadin (3 DVD Set)

Hollywood Classics

The Stranger
After three commercial disasters in a row, Orson Welles was badly in need of a hit in Hollywood. The result was The Stranger. Set shortly after WWII, it casts Edward G. Robinson as a Nazi hunter assigned the task of finding the infamous Franz Kindler, one of the architects of the genocide of the Jews. Wilson traces Kindler to Hartford, Connecticut, where he comes to suspect that Professor Charles Rankin (Welles) is actually Kindler hiding behind a new identity.

Orson Welles: On Film
Orson Welles is universally recognized as a cinematic genius for his 1941 masterpiece Citizen Kane. Director Martin Scorsese said of Welles, "He is responsible for inspiring more people to be film directors than anyone else in the history of cinema." This documentary explores the achievements and disappointments of a Hollywood legend.

The Trial
Welles applied his exceptional directorial style to Kafka's landmark 1925 novel about Joseph K. (Anthony Perkins), an office clerk who gets arrested without being told why. The film, which opens with a brilliant series of pin-screen pictures, (a technique using pins, cloth, light and shadows created by A. Alexeieff), concentrates on the atmosphere of K's world, accompanied by the dreamy musical leitmotif of Albinoni's "Adagio". The sets are typical Welles baroque, massive structures which engulf K in the same way Xanadu shows the claustrophobic walls and ceilings, make The Trial essential viewing!

Mr. Arkadin
Mr. Arkadin is one of Orson Welles' most interesting films. Welles wrote the novel and the screenplay, starred, and directed. The film gets off to a fast start with a gun battle along the docks at Naples where a dying man's last words pertain to Arkadin (Welles) and his wife, Paxinou. Guy Van Stratten (Arden), knowing that Arkadin is one of the richest men in creation, thinks he might be able to cadge some money out of the rich industrialist...