The disc: "Touch of Evil"
The details: The new two-disc set of "Touch of Evil" for the film's 50th anniversary includes all three versions of Orson Welles' last American film — the theatrical release of 1958, the longer "preview" version discovered in the 1970s that gradually supplanted the theatrical release and the "restored" version from 10 years ago that put into effect the editing suggestions made by Welles in a famous 58-page memo to Universal after seeing the preview version. (A version of the complete memo is included also.)
I have three points to make:
1. "Touch of Evil" is probably the best B movie ever made. Wonderful fun, dazzlingly shot, but still a B movie. The restoration improved the narrative clarity, and removing the credit titles from the legendary tracking shot that opens the film probably was a good idea, but the loss of most of the original Henry Mancini score hurts; the music tells the audience what the film is going to be: jagged, off the rails and sleazy.
2. Any memo dictated by Orson Welles at 8 at night was likely to be countermanded by a succeeding memo dictated at 10 the following morning. He had a lot of ideas but not always the will to follow through with any of them, hence the profusion of lost and abandoned films that dot his résume. I think his ability to conceptualize gradually broadened as he got older, making it harder and harder for him to finish anything, because there were always more ideas, more shooting and editing possibilities to be imagined.
3. All three versions of the film are matted at a 1:85 ratio, and the shots feel very constricted; Welles is often cropped just above his hat brim, for instance. The only widescreen ratio Welles ever used was 1:66, for "The Trial," and, I think, "The Immortal Story." The rest of the time he shot 1:33, essentially the square ratio of old TV. If "Touch of Evil" was going to be matted, it probably should have been matted at no more than 1:66.
Scott Eyman writes for The Palm Beach Post. E-mail: seyman AT pbpost.com