TOUCH OF EVIL 4K UHD Masters of Cinema Overview & Comparison (The Upgrade is STUNNING!) 

I'm not an audiophile by any stretch so I think it would be unfair to definitively comment, but I had no issues with the sound personally.

I was genuinely taken aback by how good it looked haha

The Preview and Theatrical versions on the 2nd disc make use of seamless branching, I'm no expert but all three versions looked outstanding to me. The Eureka 4K was given a top notch encode from what I read. I'm interested what the appeal of the 1.37:1 aspect ratio is? I haven't gone into those on the original MoC release and am intrigued!

Perhaps it's because I'm a picture editor that I always prefer the aspect ratio that gives me the most information in the frame. I get that most people prefer a wider screen presentation and that our screens/monitors support that but I'll always favour the aspect ratio that gives me the most information in the frame. I have no problem with dead space from open matte that you sometimes find on say dvds from 10-20 years ago. I find I can allow for it. But actually for movies from the 1950s and 1960s filmmakers were composing shots in 4:3 and having their images cropped to cater for the fad in widescreen theatrical presentation following the advent of Cinemascope. For those movies I'll always try and get hold of the 4:3 presentation. Blu-ray labels often boast that they're giving us "original theatrical aspect ratio" but that's a bit disingenuous. The original aspect ratio was the 4:3 the film was composed for and shot in. Only later was the image cropped for theatrical presentation out of expediency. There are some releases that included 4:3 presentations as a bonus: MoC's Touch of Evil and Shane. Also Criterion's On the Waterfront. Why would labels give us that if the "original theatrical aspect ratio" was the best one in every case? You don't need to be a picture editor to see that the 4:3 compositions in those presentations are superior to the cropped wider screen presentations. The full frame opening shot of On the Waterfront is clearly composed for 4:3. The cropped widescreen shot looks horrible in comparison. 4:3 gives storytelling room to breathe. There have been other MoC releases where we're just offered the "original theatrical aspect ratio" presentation like for Johnny Guitar but the 1.35:1 of the standard Olive Films blu-ray is the better one in terms of composition. For me an aspect ratio that optimises composition will always trump a cropped version of better picture quality. Composition trumps picture quality in visual storytelling. There are plenty of movies that I have in blu-ray widescreen and open matte dvd where the dvd gives the more satisfying viewing experience. Movies like Marjorie Morningstar, Kings Go Forth and The Go-between. You can compare screengrabs on dvdbeaver and judge for yourself. That's just my opinion of course. But I don't think anyone should just take for granted that widescreen is always better. When I've discussed this with friends and they've asked me to show them what I mean they've all then changed their minds and said they actually preferred the fuller frame image. Test it out and tell me what you think.@@RazorwireReviews