AVS Discussions
Movie and TV Discussion => Movie reviews => Topic started by: Barry on March 18, 2022, 02:31:18 PM
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I just got one of the more unusual 4K sets, “A Touch of Evil,” a 1958 film directed by Orson Welles. “A Touch of Evil” is a Film Noir tale of a detective (Charlton Heston) who witnesses a car bombing murder of two people at the U.S. Mexican border. In investigating the murder, he must confront a rotten, hard noise policeman (Orson Welles) and we don’t know really which side he is on. The film also stars Janet Leigh and Marlene Dietrich. The movie also demonstrates another reason why Janet Leigh should avoid motels.
First, a brief aside: In the 1940s and even into the 1970s, directors would direct films and the studios would often edit them without much input from the director, often changing the plot or the intent of the original movie makers. This led to a rise in “independent” films, both here and abroad, and then to a stronger band of directors who worked closely with their editors to create the film they wanted.
Sadly, this was not the case for Orson Welles. After he finished the movie, the studio not only re-edited it, but they hired another director to add scenes. They also cut 15 minutes from it.
A great example of how the studio hurt the movie is the opening sequence. Welles shot a three minute, complicated and brilliant scene that had no cuts. Just one long sequence. In releasing the film, the studio superimposed the opening credits over it, ruining the scene completely. Upon seeing this redone movie, Welles wrote a 58-page log of corrections needed.
Forty years later, In 1998, Universal studios took Welles’ notes, and to the best of their ability produced the movie he would have wanted, at the original length. So, this 4k Set has three discs, each with a different version of the movie.
Disc 1: The “Preview” Version, produced by Orson Welles as a guide to his final cut (which never came.) This version was first discovered in 1976.
Disc 2: The Theatrical Version: The film as it was released in 1958.
Disc 3: The 1998 definitive “Reconstructed” version of the movie, constructed using Welles’ notes.
I saw the Reconstructed version. The 4k, black and white image was extraordinary for it’s time. Great shading, great mood and great detail. The sound was not nearly as good. There were times I had trouble understanding the dialogue. For it’s age, the sound was okay, but not as good as the video.
My Thoughts: This was a fairly good movie, interesting, you want to see how it works out, but not very exciting. I think this is because the scenes are shot well, the actors are good but the story is not as good as the production. It also takes a lot more liberties with the plot than I am comfortable with. I hope that makes sense. It’s worth seeing but not a movie I will watch over and over again.