Restoration of "Touch Of Evil" (1958) - part 1 

'Touch of Evil' is absolutely one of Orson Welles' best movies!

As soon as Marlena says her big line, and the piano comes in..I get tears in my eyes. I love the guy that much.

I saw Welles filming the opening of Touch of Evil on Windward Ave, Venice, Ca 1958. I was there. Wide eyed and in wonder of life. I do recall seeing a big man in prosthetics.

Absolutely loved this film, better than some of the modern films, being an original one, not like a rehash of the old ones done before or a sequel.

Michael Chernik, what a fantastically vivid memory, thanks for telling us about it. This is what makes youtube wonderful.

fantastic cast, the review is helpful

The truth is when they got the finished film, the studio wouldn't let Welles in to the cutting room, and he never saw what was being cut. I've heard him say this himself. I would definitely believe Orson over the greedy lying studio. Welles pissed a lot of big name studio heads off, because Citizen Kane was so brilliant, and all done in his own way. The saying of Welles not using as much money on all his films put together, as other producers like Coppola or Spielberg waste on one production, says a hell of a lot of how adept Welles was at his craft. That, and the fact that Citizen Kane is voted the greatest movie of all time, on a consistent basis, says it all really.

With the proper backing: maybe 30 films or more were yet in him.

Actually, blue screen wasn't used that much for car shots back then. They used rear screen projection.

Welles was able to impose the same kind of hardcore expressionism to outdoor locations in this picture that he imposed on CITIZEN KANE's studio settings. The results are breathtaking. Russ Metty's finest moment.

This was the tragedy of the man's life as an artist. Also the fact that all that money was out there: and nobody wanted to back him to the hilt with his projects. He should have directed 20 or 25 films.

A great movie in any version.

Touch Of Evil was a welles masterpiece, but Universal Studios didn't know how to properly market or release the film. Today, it would have been put into a select group of art house theaters and after generating favorable reviews, it would have been a commercial success. Hitchcock's Vertigo, released the same year, wasn't a box office success either, and Sight and Sound magazine just voted it the greatest film, above Welles' Citizen Kane. I continue to regard Kane as the superior film.

Welles was a maser - an artist - never commercially successful blockbusters even with devotees of Orson Welles

This is NOT what Orson Welles says. He says the studio locked him out, shut him out and then reedited the picture and he never knew why. Someone is lying and it's either Orson or it's the studio.

I thought there was a reason that the shot of Vargas driving stirred something up inside of me. That was the first time a Hollywood production actually used an on location driving shot. Wow.

Fwiw, Welles was my favorite Edward Rochester, out of maybe ten versions of 'Jane Eyre' that I've seen. (Hinds was great, too, and - tho controversial casting, so was Timothy Dalton.) Coincidentally, Heston played him, as well, in a 50s TV iteration. He was far too young and handsome for the role, yet worth watching for those very reasons.

Maybe it's just because it was the version I saw first but I actually prefer the opening shot to the early version as opposed to the later version that followed Welles' notes. Henry Mancini's score adds a lot to it.

Good doc on a great film. I actually think it’s better than “Citizen Kane”.

did not know that was Joe Cotten :|

Gun Crazy (1950) had dialogue inside a moving car (camera in the back seat)

Don't watch it on Netflix they've got one of the shitty cuts, I just watched it and I hadn't in a long while I thought there was something wrong with it and then watched this. How is it they can debut the magnificent The Other Side Of The Wind and then only show a riff raff copy of

You know, there are shots of Welles in this getup than remind me of Trump. Certain studio 8x10's more than any particular frame. It's the perfect analogy. We're living in a nation wide Universal movie. Mueller is Vargas. Cohen is Joe Calleia's Menzies.

I actually like the studio edit best. I think it's way better that you DON'T know that Mr. Grandee owns the Mirador Motel, where Janet is being increasingly menaced, for one thing. You just think the juvenile delinquents have taken over because Dennis Weaver is nuts and ineffectual. You don't find out the entire thing's been set up till she's unconscious in the hotel in town.

There seems to be a pattern with orson , he makes a film with great expectations ,he then leaves at the pen-ultimate moment , the studio finish the film and ultimately ruin what would have been a masterpiece. Could there be just a tiny bit of defensive sabotage ; topping the greatest film ever made ( citizen kane) is a hell of a lot of pressure.

4:06 Orson Welles and Meat Loaf: separated at birth ??

Somebody seems to be smoking something in every second of this film. I think I'll skip watching the movie.

Clubhouse and Ocean Front walk, in the 1940's, perhaps as early as the late 1930's and I recall Venice in the 1950's to early '60s. I can recall seeing Orson Welles filming "Touch of Evil" at night holding the hands of my grandparents. Watching a Master of Cinema film Film Noir at night in 1950s Venice, Ca Walking Speedway with my grandparents to Westminster Ave. with dim street lights if any along Speedway which is essentially an alley, and the dim or half burnt out headlights of the few 1950's and earlier decades cars driving Speedway Ave. that night is Film Noir memory in itself.