Word: arkadin
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...critical success, he has used the same ideas, the same flashback techniques, and even the same evil Prometheus as his protagonist. But these methods could not make the the story of a pathetic border sheriff in Touch of Evil as interesting as the life of Charles Foster Kane. Mr. Arkadin has a more heroic figure than the sheriff, but Welles' personal triumph in the title role cannot compensate for the weak ending and even weaker acting of the co-principals...
Although these these flaws keep it from sharing Kane's greatness, Mr. Arkadin remains brilliant. The work is alternately baffling and lucid, and should be see. Welles is certainly one of the finest contemporary directors; his camera work makes the French "nouvelle vague" group look amateurish. One particularly effective scene shows the grandeur of a penitentes procession in Barcelona. The black-robed figures passing in torchlight surpass the processions in Ivan the Terrible, for Welles is always free of the episodic tableau photography that marred Eisenstein's films...