Touch of Evil: Limited Edition Box Set – Eureka Video (4k UHD)

Theatrical Release Date: USA, 1958
Director: Orson Welles
Writer: Orson Welles
Cast: Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, Orson Welles, Joseph Calleia, Akim Tamiroff, Joanna Moo, Ray Collins, Dennis Weaver, Valentin de Vargas, Marlene Dietrich, Zsa Zsa Gabor

Release Date: September 25th, 2023
Approximate Running Times: 110 Minutes 42 Seconds (Reconstructed Version), 95 Minutes 24 Seconds (Theatrical Version), 109 Minutes 1 Second (Preview Version)
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen / 2160 Progressive / HEVC / H.265 / Dolby Vision HDR10 (All Versions)
Rating: 12 (UK)
Sound: DTS-HD Mono English (All Versions)
Subtitles: English SDH (All Versions)
Region Coding: Region Free
Retail Price: £36.99 (UK)

"Charlton Heston portrays Mike Vargas, the Mexican chief of narcotics who sets out to uncover the facts surrounding a car bomb that has killed a wealthy American businessman on the US side of the border. As Vargas investigates, his newly-wed wife Susie (Janet Leigh, two years before Hitchcock’s Psycho) is kidnapped by a gang out to exact vengeance for the prosecution of the brother of their leader (Akim Tamiroff). Meanwhile, Vargas’ enquiries become progressively more obfuscated by the American cop Hank Quinlan (played by Welles himself, in one of the most imposing and unforgettable screen performances of his career), a besotted incarnation of corruption who alternately conspires with Susie’s captors and seeks solace in the brothel of the Gypsy madame (Marlene Dietrich) who comforted him in bygone times." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 5/5

Here’s the information provided about the transfers, "4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentations of all three versions, presented in Dolby Vision HDR"

Touch of Evil, the reconstructed version, comes on a 100 GB triple-layer 4K UHD.

Disc Size: 84.2 GB

Feature: 77.1 GB

Touch of Evil, the theatrical version and the preview version, come on a 100 GB triple-layer 4K UHD.

Disc Size: 89.6 GB

Feature: 69.1 GB  (Preview Version), 60.6 GB (Theatrical Version)

This release uses seamless branching for these two versions.

All three versions look fantastic. Image clarity, contrast, and shadow detail are solid throughout. There are no issues with compression, and the grain looks organic. That said, as good as Kino Lorber’s release was, this new encode from Fidelity in Motion is the superior encode.

Audio: 5/5

Each version comes with one audio option, a DTS-HD mono mix in English, and each version comes with removable English subtitles. All three audio mixes are in excellent shape; dialog comes through clearly, everything sounds balanced, and ambient sounds are well-presented.

Extras:

Extras on the disc with the reconstructed version include a theatrical trailer (2 minutes 11 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), an archival featurette titled Evil Lost and Found (17 minutes 8 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an archival featurette titled Bringing Evil to Life (21 minutes 2 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an interview with author and film critic Kim Newman (27 minutes 17 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an interview with film critic Tim Robey (19 minutes 21 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an interview with film critic, broadcaster and cultural historian Matthew Sweet (17 minutes 9 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an archival audio commentary with actor Charlton Heston, actress Janet Leigh and restoration producer Rick Schmidlin, and an audio commentary with Rick Schmidlin.

Extras on the disc with the theatrical version and the preview version include an audio commentary with film critic F. X. Feeney for the theatrical version and an audio commentary with Orson Welles scholars James Naremore and Jonathan Rosenbaum for the preview version.

Other extras include a 100-page booklet with cast & crew information, an archival writing titled Touch of Evil written by François Truffaut, an archival writing titled At Top Speed written by André Bazin, an archival writing titled Labyrinths written by Terry Comito, an archival interview titled Orson Welles on Touch of Evil, an archival essay titled Ribbons of Dreams written by Orson Welles, On the Different Versions of Touch of Evil, an essay titled Tourists in Paradise or, Who Cares Who Killed Rudy Linnekar? written by Richard Combs, an essay titled Who’s The Jane? Now About These Women written by Richard Combs, Orson Welles’ Memo, and information about the transfer titled Notes on Viewing.

Summary:

Orson Welles's career as a director is a cautionary tale. At the age of twenty-five, he was given unprecedented power over the final cut of his films. And, despite the fact that he only received a final cut for his first film, Citizen Kane, the films he directed after Citizen Kane were all taken away from him in post-production. They all show the moments of brilliance that he exhibited in Citizen Kane.

This brings us to Touch of Evil, the last film that Orson Welles would direct in Hollywood. What began as a triumphant return to the promise he made with Citizen Kane turned out to be a disaster when the studio took the film away from Orson Welles for the second time.And though he made an attempt to minimize studio interference by writing a memo with his suggestions on how to improve Touch of Evil, none of these suggestions were considered at that time by the studio. Fortunately, the studio would revisit his memo years later and try to correct the damage they did.

From its opening moments, Touch of Evil is a visual feast for the eyes. The opening sequence is a three-and-a-half minute crane shot that follows a vehicle from one end of town to the other as it crosses the border between the United States and Mexico. This sequence epitomizes everything that is synonymous with Orson Welles' cinema. He takes what could have been a mundane sequence and elevates it with a thrilling camera shot.

Visuals are often the main focal point when discussing the cinema of Orson Welles. His films always had solid casts who delivered memorable performances, no matter how small their roles were. Two roles in particular in Touch of Evil loom large, despite only being cameos. Marlene Dietrich (A Foreign Affair) plays Tanya, an old friend of Orson Welles' character, Hank Quinlan.

That said, as good as the entire cast is in their respective roles, no performance is more commanding than Orson Welles' portrayal of Hank Quinian. The way he submerges himself into character, his physical transformation makes him unrecognizable. His performance is arguably one of his best. Another performance of note is Dennis Weaver (Gunsmoke) in the role of night manager at the Mirador Motel. He takes what is essentially a basic character and creates a memorable one.

There are three versions of Touch of Evil. The preview cut contains most of what makes Touch of Evil such an extraordinary film. This cut of Touch of Evil features new scenes not shot by Orson Welles, a main theme over the title sequence, and a narrative that’s structured differently. The theatrical cut is a shorter version of the preview cut. This version is a textbook example of how studio meddling makes a film worse. The reconstructed cut is an attempt to get as close to Orson Welles's original intentions as possible by using the memo he wrote. Two main changes in this cut are the way it's edited and the opening sequence that removes the music and replaces it with natural sound.

It's mind-blowing what Orson Welles was able to achieve with an ample amount of resources. With Touch of Evil, he would create a spectacular film that's a master class in filmmaking.

Touch of Evil gets a definitive release from Eureka Video, highly recommended.

Note: This release is limited to 3,000 copies.

Note about the 4K screenshots: It is not possible to make Dolby Vision or HDR10 screenshots that faithfully match the experience of watching a film in motion on a TV. Instead of not having any screenshots, all of the 4K screenshots are m2ts taken with a VLC player and lossless PNGs.

Written by Michael Den Boer