Three Versions of an Orson Welles Classic
Words like garish and tawdry come to mind when thinking about Touch of Evil (1958), which was written and directed by Orson Welles and starred him along with Charlton Heston and Janet Leigh. But Welles' mastery of visual artistry, sparkling dialogue, compelling characters and labyrinthine plot make this one of the great all-time films.
The story is a yarn about a grossly obese cop (Welles) who plants evidence and young newlyweds (Heston and Leigh) on the honeymoon from hell. The tale takes place in a sleazy town straddling the US-Mexico border, and the settings range from unpleasant to squalid.
Welles made Touch of Evil for Universal Studios, but he had a falling out with them before the movie was in final form. One of the results was that the studio came up with its own version of the film and played it in theaters in 1958. But along the way there was another cut, now known as the Preview Version, which was found in Universal's vaults in the 1970s. However, in 1998 footage from both the Theatrical Version and the Preview Version was reedited using a lengthy, detailed memo written by Welles as a guideline, and that has come to be called the Restored Version.
The two-disc Touch of Evil — 50th Anniversary Edition contains all three of these versions. All are good, but the 1998 Restored Version most clearly presents the intricate plot and is probably closest in tone to what Welles envisioned. On the other hand, the 1958 Theatrical Version is the most energetic. The Preview Version would seem to be of interest only to hardcore Welles fans.
Four Audio Commentaries
The DVD set provides four separate audio commentaries spread over the three versions of the feature film.
If you want a scholarly commentary, listen to film historians Jonathan Rosenbaum and James Naremore on the Preview Version. Rosenbaum wrote the book Discovering Orson Welles, and Naremore authored The Magic of Orson Welles. They do the best job of placing Touch of Evil in the context of Welles' body of work. They acknowledge the film is sometimes campy, but perceive that as an effective esthetic strategy.
The commentary likely to appeal most to mainstream audiences is the one on the Restored Version by Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh and restoration producer Rick Schmidlin. It was seemingly recorded in 1998, but has only now become available on DVD. They discuss the production, history and reedit of the movie. Heston and Leigh talk about filming on location, both in the part of L.A. called Venice and out at the isolated desert motel near Palmdale. They also recall working with Harry Keller, who directed a few scenes after Welles left the project.
If you're interested in the work that went into the 1998 version, listen to the commentary Schmidlin does solo. He gives a detailed account of his personal journey in producing the Restored Version, and it's worth noting that he calls it the reedited version.
The fourth commentary is by writer and critic F.X. Feeney on the Theatrical Version. He prefers this version because of its faster pace and the heavier use of Henry Mancini's music. More than the other commentators, Feeney discusses technical aspects of the filmmaking.
Two Featurettes and Welles' Memo
The DVD contains two featurettes, neither of which has been on DVD before, and both of which are worth watching.
In the 21-minute "Bringing Evil to Life" a number of people discuss the movie, notably filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich, who spent quite a bit of time with Orson Welles. Janet Leigh talks about having broken her left arm just before shooting began and doing almost every scene wearing a cast, although they were able to camouflage it. Charlton Heston says that if he were playing Miguel "Mike" Vargas today, he would probably speak with a slight Hispanic accent — a dubious idea considering Welles instructed him not to do that back in 1957.
The 17-minute "Evil Lost and Found" focuses on the creation of the 1998 version of the movie. This gives you a chance to hear from Walter Murch, who was the key man in reediting both picture and sound. Filmmaker Curtis Hanson takes us on a tour of Venice locations where the film was shot, but the once-seedy area has been spruced up so much in the interim that it's barely recognizable as the same place.
Packaged with the two DVD discs is a printed reproduction of the 58-page memo Welles sent to Universal in December, 1957, after he had viewed a now-lost cut of Touch of Evil. He wrote, "In honky-tonk districts on the border, loudspeakers are over the entrance of every joint, large or small, each blasting out its own tune." The studio put a blaring Henry Mancini number over the film's spectacular opening tracking shot, and the reedit team replaced that with source music that honors the spirit of Welles' memo.
DVD Details
Below I have listed the details for the two-disc DVD set Touch of Evil — 50th Anniversary Edition.
Release Date: October 7, 2008
Number of Discs: 2
Feature Film: Restored Version of Touch of Evil
Feature Film Runtime: 1 hour 51 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Widescreen (1.85:1), Black and White
English Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
English Captions for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
French Subtitles
Spanish Subtitles
Audio Commentary by Rick Schmidlin, Charlton Heston and Janet Leigh
Audio Commentary by Rick Schmidlin
Feature Film: Theatrical Version of Touch of Evil
Feature Film Runtime: 1 hour 35 minutes
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Widescreen (1.85:1), Black and White
English Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
English Captions for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
French Subtitles
Spanish Subtitles
Audio Commentary by F. X. Feeney
Feature Film: Preview Version of Touch of Evil
Feature Film Runtime: 1 hour 49 minutes
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Widescreen (1.85:1), Black and White
English Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
English Captions for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
French Subtitles
Spanish Subtitles
Audio Commentary by Jonathan Rosenbaum and James Naremore
Bringing Evil to Life (21 min.)
Evil Lost and Found (17 min.)
Theatrical Trailer
Reproduction of 58-Page Memo Written by Orson Welles