In response to Welles-related inquiries: 1. This is just speculation, but I wonder if the mysterious NO EXIT film reference might actually be to a stage or television production. It strikes me as unlikely, given Welles' tastes for less hermetic stageworks, but not impossible. If there was such a thing, I would expect some reference to it when and if Simon Callow ever gets to the next volume of his Welles biography, but I don't know when or if that book will be available. 2. As to the other inquiry: > I wonder if anybody can help me find a particular version of Welles's _Mr. > Arkadin_. Jonathan Rosenbaum talks about three English-language versions > of the film. One is the European version, which is called _Confidential > Report_, another is the most readily-available American version, which was > edfited by an idiot. Rosenbaum claims there's another version, the one > that was released in America in the early sixties by Corinth films, that > comes closest to Welles's conception. It allegedly begins, like > _Confidential report_ and unlike the slahed-up American version, at Zouk's > flat. Anybody have anybody idea where I can get a copy of this third > version? CONFIDENTIAL REPORT was the British/European title. According to the filmographies in the revised editions of James Naremore's THE MAGIC WORLD OF ORSON WELLES and Joseph McBride's ORSON WELLES, there were *2* versions filmed: one in English and one in Spanish (which also had a different editor and actors). Both list the official running time at 100 minutes, which is also the running time of the version listed in a 1984 Corinth catalogue I still have on hand. The video version listed on www.reel.com is described as being 99 minutes long, which may or may not be significant. Naremore makes reference to a filmography by (?) Moret in ECRAN, but I can't seem to find the specific reference. The filmography in Bogdanovich's THIS IS ORSON WELLES has what seems to be the most definitive statement I can find with the books on hand (pp 514-515). He refers to 4 (!) versions: 1) the Corinth version, which he claims is closest to Welles' intentions and now "widely available" on video (perhaps the same as the one for sale on reel.com), the badly-edited video/tv version, the original European release version (CONFIDENTIAL REPORT), and the Spanish-language version. There seem to be two scenes missing from all available versions. For more, he directs readers to his article in the Jan.-Feb. 1992 FILM COMMENT. Strangely, his own filmography times the film at 95 minutes, which I have to assume is using the bad cut. Don Larsson ---------------------- Donald Larsson Minnesota State U, Mankato [log in to unmask] ---- To sign off Screen-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF Screen-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]