Mr. Arkadin

---

On December 25, an airplane

was sighted off the coast of Barcelona.

It was flying empty.

Investigation of this case

reached into the highest circles...

and the scandal

was very nearly responsible...

for the fall

of at least one European government.

This motion picture is

a fictionalized reconstruction...

of the events leading up to the murder...

and to the appearance

last Christmas morning...

of the empty plane.

Jakob Zouk?

Jakob Zouk?

I'm sorry, but you're gonna

have to talk to me.

We gotta get out of here.

Look, if we don't start moving right away,

you're gonna be killed.

I mean that - murdered!

I'm a dying man with no money.

Somebody wants to kill me?

- He's wasting his time.

- No money, huh?

Well, you could use some dough,

couldn't you?

- How would you like to earn 500 marks?

- Earn?

Or even a thousand.

We could go to my hotel.

No, that's no good. He might find us.

We go to another hotel.

I'll get you a fine room with a nice bed

and lots of warm, big, thick, heavy blankets.

Yeah?

And who are you, Santa Claus?

I am the one who's gonna keep you

from getting murdered.

Oh, I know you, Zouk.

You're an old jailbird.

Yeah, just out of stir.

An ex-dope pusher.

The world's forgotten you.

I wouldn't give you a thought if I didn't have to,

if my own life didn't depend on it.

- I'd better tell you my story.

- Who are you?

My name's Van Stratten.

Just a little while ago, when they caught me,

I was running American cigarettes in Italy.

A lot of us were doin' it after the war.

So what's this got to do with me?

I'm dying.

- Nothing, but will you listen -

- Leave me alone!

Will you shut up and listen!

There's hardly any time left.

You've gotta get this straight.

If I'm gonna save your miserable life for you,

you're gonna have to understand this story, see?

It all began one night last spring...

in the harbor at Naples.

Mily- that's my girl.

She was asleep on board the boat.

I'd been in town.

I was just coming back along the docks...

when suddenly I see this character

with a peg leg.

Seemed like he was in an awful hurry

to get away from there.

Then, a couple of minutes later...

I see this other guy.

At first I thought he was drunk.

Who is this man?

You know we can't afford any trouble.

- Go get a doctor, quick.

- Too late for a doctor.

- But the police!

- Try to keep them away.

I don't want to spend

my last few minutes with a lot of cops.

- I don't blame you.

- Guy, you didn't do it.

Of course not,

but we can't let him bleed to death.

No, mademoiselle.

It was another who stabbed me.

He got away.

Go see what's happening.

Must have gone, whoever it was that knifed you.

Seems like they're trying to shoot it out with the cops.

- What is your name?

- Van Stratten, Guy.

I am Bracco.

You call me Marcel.

This way I spend my last few minutes

among friends.

All right, old man. Take it easy.

I'm with you.

You're with me?

After all the friends I've had...

you, that I've known a few minutes -

you're the only one.

I want to give you something

to show you my thanks.

It's all right, fella.

- The police! They're coming this way!

The police.

What can they do to me now?

What about us?

Guy, will they put me in jail too?

- Shut up!

- Now, listen.

- What I give you is two names.

- You don't have to give me anything.

- This I didn't think I'd give to anyone.

- Here they come.

It isn't money,

but it is worth millions.

This is my gift to you.

It will make you rich.

It's Bracco.

The American -What's he doing here?

Look, I just happened by.

I got a boat here.

- Your papers.

- I'll go on board and get 'em.

We'll come with you.

Come here. Come here.

Please, I must tell you this.

Remember, it is a secret.

Give it only to your friend.

- These cigarettes are contraband!

- It's worth a great deal of money.

That's jail for you, signor! Jail!

Real smart cop.

You'll remember-

The other name too.

The woman.

Okay. So you found the cigarettes.

This girl has no connection with my business.

- Come on, Bracco. What were you saying? What?

- Is he dead?

What do you think?

Bracco was whispering something.

- Yeah, what was that message he gave you?

- Yes, Bracco was talking to you. What was it?

He wasn't making any sense.

It was just a name. He was dying.

- What name was it?

- Arkadin.

Gregory Arkadin.

There was another name, too,

that Bracco had whispered to Mily.

- But I couldn't ask her what it was-

not while the cops had me.

Bracco. Mily. Who are these people?

Mily was my girlfriend at the time.

I already told you.

Bracco I'd never even seen before.

As to what his racket was

or how he got himself stabbed...

or why he should give me

Gregory Arkadin's name, I hadn't a clue.

So why should this Bracco do you a favor

if he didn't know you before?

I don't know. Maybe he got some kind

of a sympathy for me. He was dying.

Oh, I'm dying, but I got no sympathy

for you whatsoever.

I don't know you either, but I'm doing you

a favor. I'm gonna save your life.

Oh, so all of a sudden

you're a doctor.

Will you tell me, please,

how you figure to save me?

You are going to find out, Mr. Zouk, if you'll

just try keeping your yap shut for a minute...

and your mind, if you have such a thing,

on what I'm trying to tell you!

Like I say, I had to do time

for the cigarette smuggling.

They confiscated my boat.

I was broke.

So when I got out, I had nothin' else to do

but look around and ask questions.

- Arkadin-he had a villa near Monte Carlo...

a castle in Spain,

one of the biggest yachts in the world...

and at least three passports.

But who he really was

and where all that dough came from...

nobody could tell me.

Well, Mily wasn't waiting for me

at the prison gates...

but I traced her down to Juan-les-Pins...

to a nightclub where she

was doing a bubble dance.

- We got paid to let her off for that party.

- Which party?

The party, naturally.

This season a party means just one thing -

Gregory Arkadin.

So Mily'd got next to Arkadin already.

She was a birdbrain,

but at least she had something to go on-

that- that other name

that Bracco whispered to her.

So, you've been to Arkadin's party.

How'd you make out?

Well, there must have been 50 other girls

out there on that boat.

Yeah. I hear he's sailing it

back to Spain.

And next week he's giving

a big society ball.

Why don't you try to get yourself invited?

And then we can -

To a society ball?

- On the yacht, stupid.

- All right.

Look, try and go on that cruise

he's taking.

- All right.

- Then maybe, if you can get close to him,

we can sort of throw that other name at him.

- That's the trouble.

- You forgot it, you mean?

Well, you see,

I - I couldn't hear very well.

Oh.

And right after that,

what's-his-name - Bracco - died.

So I couldn't very well

ask him to repeat it.

Okay. Okay.

- Now, look. You tell Mr. Arkadin -

- Shh.

That you have a friend

who knows somebody named Bracco.

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