New TOUCH OF EVIL DVD set?

[Glenn Anders]

I don't think, Tony, there was every any doubt in Welles' mind that he was making a movie about the kind of man Americans aspired to become. For CITIZEN KANE is primarily about men. [In Welles' early young manhood, women generally were not expected to have aspirations toward power, an illusion he of course shows both the first and second Mrs. Kane exploding, in their individual ways.] Ruth Warrick, the First Mrs. Kane, on an audio documentary included in the Voyager Company's "The Theater of the Mind," notes that Welles called his CITIZEN KANE cast together one day, and told them that their film was "to be about the kind of American who people are led to admire, but should not."

I don't suppose it would make much difference if it had been called American, Citizen Kane, or The Sled and the Pleasure Dome. But CITIZEN KANE is a better title, provides a metaphor, and appeals more to our imaginations.

TOUCH OF EVIL, if we consider the film and its title, is also about the kind of man we are supposed to admire, a captain of the police homicide detail, but as we come to see, that admiration is misplaced, too.

I suppose Welles learned this lesson from the Woodward Case, if not earlier.

Glenn

[Tony]

Perhaps that's what was really underneath all the negativity that gathered against Kane: it was such a harsh criticism of American society at precisely the wrong time; Ambersons was more criticism, and so was It's All True; it's a wonder Welles lasted as long as he did.

[NoFake]

And then he went off to Europe, only to return to make a film about a corrupt American cop, and when the U.S. film industry at last saluted him, to show them clips from a film that could be seen to basically damn them and theirs --- and, as the final nail in his coffin, to have the gall to ask them to give him money to complete it!

[Glenn Anders]

Yes, Tony and NoFake, flawed himself, as he implied by most of the acting roles he took, Welles was no doubt a moralist of the male character, particularly the American male character. I can imagine his wrestling in his soul and mind with those curiously symbiotic philosophical opponents, Thomas Carlyle and Herbert Spencer. The former, Larry French has reminded me, Welles referred to directly in his introduction for FILMING OTHELLO, his last completed film.

Glenn

[Christopher]

I have just received the English language version, entitled "Orson Welles at Work," by Jean Pierre Berthome and Francois Thomas, recently published by Phaidon Press. It contains an excellent chapter on "Touch of Evil," accompanied by many production stills I had not seen before. I recomend it to all of you interested in this film. I also re-read recently Clinton Heylin's chapter on "Touch of Evil" in his book, "Despite the System," and found it most illuminating.

Finally, among the most heartbreaking words I ever read are these, written by Welles in his letter to The New Statesman, in response to a critic's savaging of "Touch of Evil:" "[A critic's] typewriter is always available; my camera is not. A typewriter needs only paper; a camera uses film, requires subsidiary equipment by the truck-load and several hundreds of technicians. That is always the central fact about the filmmaker as opposed to any other artist: he can never afford to own his own tools. The minimum kit is incredibly expensive; and one's opportunities to work with it are rather less numerous than might be supposed. In my case, I've been given the use of my tools exactly eight times in 20 years..."

[NoFake]

That is always the central fact about the filmmaker as opposed to any other artist: he can never afford to own his own tools. The minimum kit is incredibly expensive

What would Welles have done in these days of films that are made on a shoestring, yet with technology that (in the right hands) enables both budding and established cineastes to create works of innovation, imagination, and sometimes even significance? Heartbreak times two...

[filmyfan]

Heres confirmation !

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=68214



Touch of Evil 50th AE (R1) in October

Universal Studios Home Video have announced the Region 1 DVD release of Touch of Evil (50th Anniversary Edition) on 7th October 2008 priced at $26.98 SRP. Orson Welles’ film noir portrait of corruption and morally-compromised obsessions returns to DVD as a two-disc set including the restored version, the theatrical version and a preview version of the main feature complete with extras. Also included as part of the package is a replication of Orson Welles' legendary 58-page memo to the studio.

Disc 1: Restored Version
1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
English DD2.0 Mono
English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles
Bringing Evil to Life
Evil Lost & Found
Audio Commentary featuring Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh and Restoration Producer Rick Schmidlin
Audio Commentary featuring Restoration Producer Rick Schmidlin
Theatrical Trailer

Disc 2: Theatrical & Preview Versions
1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
English DD2.0 Mono
English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles
Theatrical Version: Audio Commentary featuring Writer / Filmmaker F.X. Feeny
Preview Version: Audio Commentary featuring Welles Historians Joanthan Rosenbaum and James Naremore

[C.P. Czarnecki]

Incredible news! This is the package of "Touch of Evil" that we fans always dreamed of. Wonderful to see all three versions represented, plus commentaries.

[Roger Ryan]

That is great news. For a few weeks I feared the original theatrical release and preview versions were lost in the Universal Studios' fire!

I can tell you right now, however, that the Criterion Forum folks are going to be furious that all three versions are presented in anamorphic widescreen instead of full frame!

[filmyfan]

You are right about the CC folks going mad...they are !

But that may be a mistake on the press release..these things often change before release

[Michael O'Hara]

This set looks terrfic! Very good news! I'm very excited! Touch and Don Quixote in October! Christmas comes early!

[purplepines]

Re: aspect ratio issue and the CC folks - why, what IS the correct ratio?

[Roger Ryan]

Re: aspect ratio issue and the CC folks - why, what IS the correct ratio?

That's the controversy. Some suggest that Welles and cinematographer Russell Metty composed the shots for full-frame (1.33 to 1) and some say that they composed the shots knowing that the top and bottom of the frame would be matted out for a 1.85 to 1 ratio widescreen projection. The original release and the preview version have always been shown full-frame (on TV and on VHS - which is logical); the Schmidlin reconstruction was matted to 1.85 to 1 for both its theatrical screenings and the initial DVD release.

There was no question that the reconstruction would be reissued in the widescreen format, but some had hoped that the original and preview versions would be issued in full-frame (allowing the viewer to see more image at the top and bottom of the frame).

Personally, I think Welles and Metty framed the shots to work in both aspect ratios (much like Kubrick and others did later when they realized that after the theatrical run, the films would most likely end up being shown on 4:3 televisions). Unlike every other Welles film that came before, the composition in TOUCH OF EVIL is not totally ruined by matting the image to 1.85 to 1 (I actually saw a widescreen matted version of CITIZEN KANE play at a local megaplex about ten years ago which looked horrendous - Welles' eyes and nose were eliminated from many shots). By 1957, both Welles and Metty would have realized that widescreen was becoming the standard and, I believe, changed their approach to composition accordingly.

[ToddBaesen]

Here's a link to a DVD site that has posted the artwork for the 3-sided 50th Anniversary release. I'm not terribly excited by the cover art, but given what's contained on the discs, I'm not going to complain much about that. I'm just happy Universal is releasing all three versions at a price ($26.95) that will mean it will probably go for only about $16.00 bucks online... what a bargain!

http://www.dvdactive.com/news/releases/ ... -evil.html

[NoFake]

What's the "Preview Version"?