Touch of Evil 1958 edit on r2 DVD. Maybe...

[tadao]

There's a new edition of "Touch of Evil" on region 2 DVD widely available in stores here (UK).

The new packaging features a 50s-looking green tinted image of Heston. (The previous cover had a blue tinted image of Welles).

Intriguingly, the back cover hints that this isn't just a repackage, but a new pressing with differences from the previous issue.

Of course, there's no sign of "Reconstructing Evil", or the semi-mythical Heston commentary.

The back cover lists the running time as 95 minutes (the previous edition lists a running time of 106 minutes). Both of these will be subject to PAL speedup, equating to prints of approx 99 minutes and 110 minutes respectively.

Neither 95, nor 99 minutes comfortable fit the 1958 release version, but they're closer to that than to either the preview edit, or the restoration...

The video, like the previous edition, is listed as 16x9 anamorphic.

The new edition boasts audio in English plus four European languages, while the previous edition lists only English. I'd make the assumption that the 1998 version wouldn't have dubs available in these languages, while the 1958 version might have.

However, the back cover blurb has the same copy as the previous edition, notably that this is the "restored version with extra footage" (quoting from memory).

The packaging has inaccuracies, one way or the other, but signs point to this being a new transfer of the 1958 release version. This raises a couple of points. One is that Welles connoisseurs will have the 2 cuts available in quality digital presentations for comparison. But secondly, casual movie buyers will be led to believe they're seeing the 1998 reconstruction, when they're not...

I'll try to pick up a copy and report back...

[Store Hadji]

Here's the cover:

[Jeff Wilson]

The British Board of Film Certification doesn't have a listing for any new video release of the film (the most recent is the previous release from 2004), so I would imagine it's just the previous version in a new box.

[Tony]

It's been said before, but I sure wish Universal would put out a triple box set with the 1958 release, the 105 minute version discovered in 1975, and the 1998 Rick Schmidlin "memo" version; just like the Criterion Arkadin box, with lots of commentaries and other extras, only this time the film is a masterpiece: guaranteed, they'd sell every copy they printed.

Of course, the same thing could be done for Othello: the 1952 Cannes version, the 1955 British release, and Beatrice's 1993 version: can't someone explain to her that this way she would make more money, and her version would be admitted to the canon, just as Stefan Droessler's Arkadin has been?

:laugh:

[Store Hadji]

Those would both be great boxes. I won't hold my breath for the Othello box, though. Beatrice did cause the laserdisc of the unrestored 1955 version to be pulled from the market. Whatever the reason, disputed ownership, other legal quagmire, or pure ego, it's not a good sign.

[tadao]

Bought a copy of the new edition; it's the '98 re-edit. The disc is re-authored with new audio dubs (not just a repackaged version of the old disc).

BTW, AFAIK it isn't necessary to resubmit a film to the BBFC for a new release if it's already got a valid certificate (however, most major studios will resubmit as a matter of course for safety's sake).

Having taken a look at the BBFC website, the '1975' preview edit wouldn't need to be resubmitted for a new release, but the 1958 edit would, as it doesn't hold a currently vailid certificate.

Nice as it would be to have a chunky box with all three versions (and a choice between 4:3 / 16:9 too...) I'd much rather have a digital copy of "Reconstructing Evil" plus Heston commentary... As far as "Othello" goes, let's hope money talks and that the success of the Arkadin box persuades Beatrice that there's a case for licensing a release of the three "Othello"s. Who owns "Filming Othello"?

On that note of Christmas wishes, season's greeting to all Wellesnetters.... let's hope next year brings some new discoveries / releases too...

[Store Hadji]

A Heston commentary for TOE would be great, though I fear he may be past the point of being able to do it. He looked pretty frail in the last film I saw him in.

Yeah, Reconstructing Evil should definitely be in the TOE box. It should also include a copy of the novel Badge of Evil. And the Welles screenplay too, if it survived.

[Tony]

I recently read that Welles originally wanted Chuck Heston for the role of Don Quixote; in addition, I remember that Welles and Heston were trying to get the fuinding after Touch Of Evil for a science fiction film of a superb novel Welles had the rights to: "Earth Abides". It seems they repected eachother, and enjoyed working together.

In a better world, we would have had an amazing science fiction film by Orson Welles starring Chuck, and maybe a Quixote too!

:;):

[Store Hadji]

Here's the ever-questionable Wikipedia's page on the novel Earth Abides. It contains links to parts 1 and 2 of the 1950 radio adaption. The link for part 2 appears to be dead.

[Glenn Anders]

We have discussed this subject before, gang.

Am I the only one who needs Ginko Biloba?

George Stewart, a Professor of English at UC much of his life, wrote a series of pioneer environmental novels, -- Fire, Storm, Names on the Land, and Earth Abides -- all of which lent themselves to radio adaptations. No doubt, Welles would have taken note of Stewart's work when Storm was adapted late in the 1930's for the Columbia Workshop, a series for which Welles did some pieces (notably with Norman Corwin).

Escape, the series which presented an unprecedented two part adaptation of Earth Abides, is considered by many as the most interesting series of dramas in the latter period of "Radio's Golden Age," over 300 adaptations and original productions in ten years or so, a worthy successor to The Mercury Theater on the Air and The Campbell Playhouse, albeit usually in a half hour format. Many of the productions were written and directed by William N. Robson, a colleague of Welles and Norman Corwin in the 1930's.

"Earth Abides" is often thought to be one of Escape's finest moments.

I know that both parts can be downloaded on the Net because I have them somewhere.

Like much of Stewart's output, Earth Abides now seems only too prophetic -- like a lot of Welles' things.

Glenn

[Tony]

What's "Ginko Baloba"?

[Store Hadji]

I think you're making a funny.

It's an herbal supplement which is supposed to improve memory.

[Tony]

I thought he might be an Eastern European character!
:laugh:

'Where's Ginko Baloba when you need him?'

[Glenn Anders]

Ah! Tony, your shoddy scholarship, and faulty intellectual theses, has indeed caused you to overlook KERZIC CE MERCICEN (1981), Welles' almost unknown film, based on the life of Dragutin Dimitrijevic (also known by the code name Apis (“Holy Bull”). It was this Serbian army officer and conspirator, well financed by Sir Basil Zaharoff, who founded and led the Yugslavian terrorist secret society Crna Ruka (“Black Hand”).

A young army officer and already a member of the Serbian general staff, Dimitrijevic (played in the movie by Curt Jurgens) in 1901 initiated an officers' conspiracy to assassinate the unpopular king Alexander Obrenovic (Laurence Olivier).

Oja Kodar plays Vashta, Dimitrimevic's mistress, who is also an agent for Sergie Zubatov (Christopher Lee) of the Russian Okhrana. She cannot bring herself to betray Dimitrijevic.

It is Helmut Dantine (for him, a rare later acting appearance in a film he helped finance) who takes the part of Captain Ginko Biloba (or Baloba as it is literally transliterated into English from the Cyrilic), Dimitrmevic's right hand man. He is torn between his loyalty to his boss and a wolfish lust for Vashta.

The film, for those few who saw it in rough cut, represented at a third or fourth level of Art (if one is au courant) Welles anguished but sublimated distrust of the motives held by those around him.

Some textual critics have speculated that Sylvester Stalone built the character of Rocky Balboa [you may now see the metathesis of "Baloba"] on his admiration for the character of Captain Biloba (who curiously, died in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1928).

Unfortunately, like so many other fabled Welles projects, KERZIC CE MERCICEN met with mishap in birthing. The negative was stolen from Richard Wilson, somewhere between Belgrade and Vienna on the Orient Express, when he was transporting it from Zagreb to Ealing Studios, outside of London, for post production. The Bulgarian Secret Police were implicated because they may have connected the film in some bizarre way with the then recent assassination (1979) of Georgi Markov. [See The Right Honourable Chimpanzee (with David Phillips) for more details.] The film has never been recovered, though rumors persist that dishonorable figures in the vastness of Canada, around Medicine Hat, talk of negotiating a showing of the picture at the 2009 Toronto Film Festival (which, of course, would place the film's premiere on its 30th Aniversary).

And with that, my old friends and collaborators, dare not say conspirators: I remain Obediently Yours.

Happy Hogmanay, Merry Christmas.

Glenn Anders

[Tony]

All very fascinating, Glenn, but the question is now extremely begged:

Who is Ginko Baloba, and why is he saying those terrible things about me?

And: How does he figure in the plot of "KERZIC CE MERCICEN"?????
:O