"Touch of Evil" One thing that bothers me...

[Holly Martins]

When people talk of the many editions of "Touch of Evil," there is one thing that bothers me about the 1976 version. In '76, Welles was still alive. Why wasn't Welles involved in the rerelease? Did he not want to visit old territory? Did Universal not invite him to be involved? Any comments?

[Terry]

I think what Welles meant by "oh, how they'll love me once I'm dead" was that while he was alive not even Spielberg would pick up the bill for lunch. I'm sure Universal failed to offer the invite. Hollywood keeps its own blacklist, and Welles was on it.

[jaime marzol]

welles wasn't asked, and there was no home dvd market, no reason to ask him for anything. i think welles would have been thrilled to visit any territory that gave him a paycheck, and gave him use of an american studio. also, the version discovered in 1976 seems to be the version that was origionally intended for release, according to frank brady.

i don't remember if graver told me, or if i read it somewhere, that when it was discovered, welles sent graver to rent a 16mm copy and they watched it. i don't remember what welles' reaction was, but it was not a revealing reaction because i would have remembered. i might remember that welles just said it was not his cut.

[wellesfan66]

The 1998 October Films version , if you read Orson's memo, was very well done. I saw it on the big screen in Sacramento CA. I am looking for a copy of the script. Let me know if you know where to get one

The 70s version had its own share of problems but considering Orson's history with the studio I am not surprised that he was not consulted.

[jaime marzol]

you can get the screenplay through your local public library. it's an actual screenplay bound in book form, not a screenplay reprinted in a book, which loses all structure.

you won't be knocked out by it, and you won't find anything revealing. according to what i've read welles knocked it out in 2 weeks. it has none of the things that we admire about the film. nothing of the look of the film is in the screenplay.

there is a book from rutger's press on touch of evil that has quite a few good articles, and interviews on the film. as long as you are going to library to place your inner library loan, you might as well get the book, and the screenplay. also, you might want to check a 3 part article written by stephen heath on the film. it's the best analysis of the film i've found so far.

[Gordon]

"What Ever Happened to Reconstructing Evil?"

[jaime marzol]

reconstructing evil was a war fatality of the heston and beatrice battle. a lot of people have it, they taped it off tv and then burned it to dvd. i don't think it's an item you can buy. it's not a great documentary, it's a one time watch, so you are not missing much.

look at the documentaries that came with WHITE HEAT, MY DARLING CLEMENTINE, IVAN THE TERRIBLE I and II, SUNRISE, and 100 other films. for the reconstructing evil documentary they had so much to work with and did very little with it. maybe had it been a better documentary, universal might have fought for it, but they didn't. why fight over a pedestrian offering? though it would have been nice to dress up the dvd some. commentary track, simple documentary, and the film in wide screen, and full screen, one of those double sided dvds. but noooooo.

[Terry]

What Heston/Beatrice battle?

Have not heard I of this before.

Yeah, I taped it off TV. Worth seeing once.

It does include Heston's comment that Welles disappeared down to Mexico to shoot Quijote while Universal was looking for him concerning the postproduction of Evil. I've never heard this Heston statement elsewhere.

I wonder of they were looking for Orson to do cutting on it or to show him their preview version.

[Le Chiffre]

Tierranet thread on Heston/Beatrice

The 1998 TOE restoration was supposed to premiere at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. However, the day before the premiere the showing was canceled by Beatrice. The restored DVD was to have included a commentary as well as the RECONSTRUCTING EVIL documentary (which I think is pretty good). Both of their inclusions on the DVD were stopped by Beatrice.

[jaime marzol]

when the 1998 film was being promo-ed, they dusted off heston and leigh, and they went on a speaking tour, news shows, entertainment shows, etc. heston was talking, talking, talking, blamed welles for what happened, said ignorant stuff that angered me. so i supposed it angered beatrice too. how could it not? according to what schmidlin posted here when beatrice and heston got in the same room, sparks flew.

also, welles didn't leave for mexico till universal asked him to stay out of the editing room after they saw his cut and put the man who directed THE MOLE PEOPLE to FIX what welles messed up. welles lost it. i think it was in the brady book, some one said he started acting like a wounded elephant. he felt that old door was slammed in his face again, and off he went.

heston acted right in 1956 with welles and held out for welles to do the work needed to finish the film. he only went back because he could have been sued by universal for not going back to film the few scenes that are not welles'. but the heston of 1997 was an old crank and said the type of stuff old cranks say years after the fact, and that was that.

hadji, clinton heylin's book has the complete history of touch of evil, and i mean complete. clinton left no stone unturned. it's a worthy read.