Touch of Evil is a damn good and compelling movie to watch. It’s not a great movie, but a fascinating one, just as everything Orson Well directed.
This was his last Hollywood movie.
The disc , however is fantastic. First, it has the three versions of the movie. The Theatrical version, The Orson Welles version, created from his notes after the studio re edited the movie and added new scenes, and the “test market” version.
The 40 minutes of bonus movies interviews are some of the best I have seen. Filmed in 2008, 50 years after the movie was created, stars Janet Leigh and Charlton Heston, along with Peter Bogdonovich give great background to the filmmaking.
Welles had seen the studio version of the film and wrote a 58 page memo telling them how to correctly edited the film. That memo is included as a booklet to this movie!
The picture and audio are just fine, but nothing special for this black and white film.
Personally, though, it still doesn’t make complete sense in certain spots, making are viewing important. Again, it’s not a great movie but a compelling one. And the restored opening scene is fantastic.
