Few films were made with such enthusiasm or gusto - you can feel the talent and keeness behind every frame, a talented young man playing a game. Which means technical wizardry - the opening montage, the chatting by the reporters, the song and dance routine with its long shots and very funny lyrics (my personal favourite scene in the movie), the breakfast montage, the opera montage.
It also means the film has a certain emotional hollowness. Hang me from the highest tree, sorry, but I have always felt the emotion in the scenes with Orson Welles feels forced and tacked-on. (By contrast Everett Sloane's chat about the woman with the white parasol seems genuine). All the surface stuff is there but having seen the film so many times it's a little less impressive. And towards the end it starts to drag, with the picnic and the jigsaw puzzle, etc. It's like, alright, already let's wrap it up.
Stunning achievement nonetheless - even if Welles lacks emotional depth as an actor he is charming and charismatic; Joe Cotten is very likeable; actors like Agnes Moorehead and George Coulouris are stunning. My own philistinism: I never thought Dorothy Colimore's singing was that bad.
The themes about politics, corruption, etc haven't dated a jot - the stuff about love and being wanted was dated even back then.
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