TOE thread

[Fredric]

Probably here under a different name...

[ChristopherBanks]

What about the compositions of "The Trial" and "Chimes At Midnight"? The DVD presentations of these are letterboxed. Do these look clipped?

[jaime marzol]

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neither chimes nor trial are clipped. i have both lbx, and full screen, and they are not lying.

even full screen TOE you are missing image from tv overscan, and from what didn't make it onto the disc at all.

[ToddBaesen]

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Thanks for posting the TOE letter Jaime. It's very informative.

It would certainly have been interesting to see what Welles might have done with the CinemaScope format, but of course, he didn't like the 2.35 to 1 screen size. (OW: We much stop thinking in terms of technique. I don't think the film public deserves anything bigger of better than it has now), and Welles never made an anamorphic film. I think Universal may have actually wanted Welles to use CinemaScope on TOUCH OF EVIL, because during the wide-screen craze of the fifties, many directors, (like Fritz Lang), were forced by the studios against their wishes to use CinemaScope. Certain directors loved it - like Nicholas Ray - and others (including Alfred Hitchcock) never used it.

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[jaime marzol]

you are very welcomed, todd.

the same thoughts have cossed my mind more than a few times. the imagination runs away at the though of what welles would have done with panavision. didn't matter that he didn't like it. once he started looking through the viewfinder, that bravura style of his would have certainly been pushed to the limit.

[ToddBaesen]

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More from Charlton Heston on TOUCH OF EVIL

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March 30: I came in after dawn this morning, too full of the exhilaration of work and watching the sun come up to go to sleep. My son took his first steps one year ago today, and I almost feel I'm only beginning to do the same on this film. Orson is certainly the most exciting director I've ever worked with. God…maybe it will all really begin to happen now.

March 31: A lazy, late-sleeping, tennisy Sunday morning, filled with sun and Fray's laughter and hot cakes after four sets. After lunch and the nap this night shooting schedule seems to require, even on a day off, I drove over to Orson's to pick up EARTH ABIDES, the science fiction novel he thinks might do for a film.

April 2: Last day of shooting. We finished work with a final dawn shot, of Orson's death, in an overturned chair on a dump heap, and then had a celebrant drink or two in the trailer. Orson and I took along the last magnum of champagne and found a place still open to give us bacon and eggs to go with it. A hell of a picture to work on… I can't believe it won't be fine. It was wonderful to loaf tonight, all the same. We had steak and saw Orson's LADY FROM SHANGHAI on TV. It's good, but not as good as ours, I think.

April 3: Had a dubious conference on the sales campaign Universal plans for TOUCH OF EVIL. After driving Orson home, I gave him a copy of WASTREL. I read the script again and I still think it's damn good.

April 4: Herman Citron seemed enthusiastic about the Welles partnership: Orson was enthusiastic about WASTREL. I wasn't enthusiastic about WRITTEN ON THE WIND tonight. I was right to turn it down.

April 9: Lunch with Herman and Orson, who now feels WASTREL will take too careful a scripting job to have ready by summer, so he want to go ahead on the science fiction thing or something else first. I'm disappointed, but willing to play it his way. I still think this read is right for me.

April 12: At lunch Orson expounded the reasons why he feels WASTREL ought not be the first project we do.

April 14: Orson sent over LORD JIM and THE SINGER NOT THE SONG, but I didn't crack either one.

April 15: Orson thinks we might be well advised to find something to do at Universal, to fill the gap till we can get a script on WASTREL.

April 29: Herman has many misgivings about the Welles partnership, but I still think he's wrong. I'm fully aware of Orson's chameleon nature, but I'm more aware of his talents, and anxious to use them.

June 6: Orson's off to New York to do the Steve Allen Show, so he can hardly have anything started before I'm finished with THE ANDERSON COURT MARTIAL show for CBS.

June 17: I very nearly finished my dubbing on TOUCH OF EVIL with a long session today. Orson continues to amaze me with the ideas he has. He created a climax for me in the bar scene that wasn't in the printed footage, simply having me dub one speech in four little pieces. Whatever happens, I am in his debt.

June 28: My work at Universal consisted merely of a few off screen lines for Joe Cotton's benefit, but it was nice to be in on the windup of shooting. At lunch Orson advanced still another idea…a tele-film of DON QUIXOTE, with me as the eccentric don. What, if anything, will come of this, I can't imagine. Orson's argument is original and telling however. "All great actors, he says, "are character actors."

July 16 New York: I knew it: Just as soon as I committed to Wyler's film (THE BIG COUNTRY), Orson called in great excitement. I must come down to Mexico, immediately, to star in a tele-film of the second part of DON QUIXOTE, for God's sake! We are to make it in six shooting days and I'm somehow to get out to the Coast in time to do my fittings for both projects before the end of this week. It's too tough to bring off; yet I can't turn it down.

July 17: I spent the day trying various plans on for size, trying to get us to Detroit and me on to the Coast. Citron thinks the whole thing is madness, and so do I , really. But Orson is impossible to resist, especially with a part like this. I can manage it, driving all the way to Detroit tomorrow and cramming in all my meeting with Wyler on Friday and Saturday. What a ridiculous way to make a living!

July 19 - Los Angeles: Orson hasn't left for Mexico yet, and I was able to get him on the phone, but not able to get much out of him about DON QUIXOTE. The only reason to do it is for fun, anyway.

July 22 St. Helen, Michigan: Today flung the fat in the fire for fair, as far as DON QUIXOTE is concerned. After all the frantic gut-busting we've gone through, the elaborate device Orson had worked out whereby we'd enter on tourist permits and then pay a fine to make the film, kicked back in our faces. The bureaucratic machinery wouldn't have gotten me my passport back in time to leave Mexico Monday for THE BIG COUNTRY location. I felt bad about it, but Orson doubtless felt worse.

Sept 19 Los Angeles: They got to me today for THE BIG COUNTRY interiors. I was unable to contact Orson, before the wrap today.

Sept 20: Willy Wyler gave me a long lunch hour to talk thing over with Orson, who is a full of nineteen enthusiasms as ever.

Oct 22: Talked to Orson; he says he's turned down the Mexican film MGM wanted us to do. I'm relieved, frankly.


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[ToddBaesen]

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Just saw this interesting quote from Marlene Dietrich regarding her role in TOE - taken from a 1973 interview with Peter Bogdanovich in Esquire.

MARLENE DIETRICH: I think I never said a line as well as the last line in TOUCH OF EVIL: "What does it matter what you say about people?" Wasn't I good there? I don't know why I said it so well. And I looked so good in that dark wig. It was Elizabeth Taylor's. My part wasn't in the script, but Orson called and said he wanted me to play a kind of gypsy madam in a border town, so I went over to Paramount and found that wig. It was very funny, because I had been crazy about Orson in the forties when he was married to Rita, when we toured together doing his magic act. I was just crazy about him and we were great friends, but nothing (happened) because Orson doesn't like Blonde women. He only likes dark women. And suddenly when he saw me in this dark wig, he looked at me with new eyes. Was this Marlene?

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[L French]

Does anyone know where the comments from Mercedes McCambridge posted by Jaime above came from - only the beginning paragraph is in her autobiography. And Jaime, what happened to the rest of the article?

In the meantime, here are the liner notes from the original soundtrack album from TOUCH OF EVIL.

It's nice to know that Orson's wishes were conveyed to Henry Mancini, even though they actually never met on the film, since Orson had been barred from the lot!

* * *

THE MUSICAL SCORE FOR “TOUCH OF EVIL” is unique among motion picture scores. In the parlance of the film composer it is called “source music”, which means that the music comes from a visible source such as a juke-box, orchestra, radio, or in some cases, a player piano.

Orson Welles who not only stars in “Touch of Evil” but also directs the movie, in his discussions with the composer as to what type of music should be written, suggested that the conventional type of musical score would not be suitable for a picture of this type. In his mind, he felt an up-to-date mixture of rock and roll and Latin-jazz where needed to capture the feeling and effect of a modern Mexican border town. In this soundtrack album, you will find that his wishes were carried out and resulted in a very exciting and compelling blending of picture and music.

The music of Henry Mancini, conducted by Joseph Gershenson, with the Universal-International studio orchestra, is, in every sense the music of today.

“TOUCH OF EVIL” IS A DYNAMIC COMPELLING STORY of the narcotics underworld carried out along the United States-Mexican border. This movie packs a terrific wallop that will keep the audience continually on the edge of their seats. A series of scenes of violent intrigue, murders, and seamy characters, build up to a climax that cannot be anticipated, yet is inescapable. There are stars galore in the cast, including Charlton Heston as a special investigator for the Mexican government, and Janet Leigh as his American wife. Orson Welles in a superb make-up, is a murderous American cop. His portrayal of a thoroughly despicable character remains in the mind of the moviegoer long after the show has ended.

Co-stars are Joseph Calleia and Akim Tarmiroff with guest-stars Marlene Dietrich and Zsa Zsa Gabor. Albert Zugsmith produced and Orson Welles directed from his own screenplay, based on the novel by Whit Masterson.

[jaime marzol]

what i posted came from macambridge's bio. can't beleive that the publisher did not include the rest of the welles stuff to save on paper. if you got the book from library, maybe some anti-welles subversive ripped the page out. i think i copy pasted that from ms publisher, and didn't copy what was on the following page. will look and see if i can find the rest of her welles memories.

her recollections on nick ray, and welles are great.

no so with the ann baxter bio. i expected at least 2 or 3 pages on welles, but her bio was about 200 pages of cooking recipes, and travel stories about her and her husband. ann baxter bio is a double-yawn.

[jaime marzol]

wow, what were they smoking when they wrote this?
.............................

TOUCH OF EVIL” IS A DYNAMIC COMPELLING STORY of the narcotics underworld carried out along the United States-Mexican border. This movie packs a terrific wallop that will keep the audience continually on the edge of their seats. A series of scenes of violent intrigue, murders, and seamy characters, build up to a climax that cannot be anticipated,

........................

a dynamic compelling story? it's a trite, linear, one dimensional story at best.

the audience continually on the edge of their seat? i wonder what movie they were watching?

the film is so misrepresented in almost everything that has been written about it, except by stephen heath, and james naremore.

[Glenn Anders]

Jaime: I assume that the reference is meant to sell TOUCH OF EVIL on TV or on Video. Perhaps, it is just someone's synopsis. It is hard to tell.

Still . . .

For 1958, it is "a dynamic compelling story," somewhat ahead of its time in suggesting in such an upfront way that a police detective could be corrupt, capable of faking evidence. Past movies usually had crooked cops by implication, usually in secondary roles.

I would certainly not call the story "trite," and though it is not so convoluted some Welles' films (we usually think, CITIZEN KANE), a careful examination of the Murch's restoration suggests that it is not entirely linear. There is considerable parallel action, if not in flashback.

A "one dimensional story at best"? Not to my mind. What do others think? I see a complex story of racial and class division, political corruption, police chicanery, organized crime, the battle of the sexes. All in the "Leave It to Beaver Land" of 1958. There is also the deeply corrosive story of the story of Hank Quinlan's wife, and how her death motivated the revenge crimes by Quinlan for the next 40 years. And there is the the complex relationship of Quinlan and Menzies, one of symbiosis. Not to mention Quinlan's jealousy of Vargas' youth, education and power.

You may have a point about how exciting TOUCH OF EVIL is to modern audiences. They tend to prefer color to black and white, simplification rather than complexity. They often do not recognize the prescience and perception of a picture made nearly 60 years ago. Many film buffs who see the restored version will have had the edge taken off their excitement about the film by the two earlier botched editions.

And yet, it certainly has enough action and suspense to put the average present police procedural to shame.

At least, that's how I see it.

Glenn

[jaime marzol]

i never found any action, or suspense in TOE. i've never felt it's any more complex than an episode of any 70s cop show on tv.

i think the plot is disposable. however, it is visually stunning. dissecting it is like being in a film examination lab. it never stops giving. just when you think you have found everything welles packed into this package something new pops up.

the plot is just what welles had to follow to be able to lay this incredible visual on us.

also, you can look up what the writers of the book, and the writer of the first draft of the screenplay did after BADGE OF EVIL, and you will be able to guage how much greatness they were capable of giving.

[Glenn Anders]

Jaime: I don't mean to be obtuse; I have been often enough with Blunted. But isn't the point that, in 1958, there were no cop shows on TV except for perhaps THE NAKED CITY, a ground breaker, showing the way for what followed, but the three cops in that were great people.

And is not the point of TOUCH OF EVIL's source material what Welles added to it, and made of it? Racism and police corruption were not common currency in 1958. By the 1970's, perhaps they were becoming so.

Welles said on the BBC, several years earlier, that the job of police was to protect citizens, innocent or guilty, not to simply catch bad guys. We needed police, but a democracy was judged by how good the police were in protecting the rights of all citizens. He said later that this was the thesis he brought to TOUCH OF EVIL.

That extended to our Government, in general, is why we are in the unholy fix we are now in the World.

I quite agree with you about the technical resouces he invested in the picture, but if for you, "action and suspense" relegated to car chases, creepy music, and stock situations, perhaps you have been watching a "70's cop show" instead of the TOUCH OF EVIL that I see.

Glenn

[jaime marzol]

if you can find that in it, more power to you. that is wonderful. we all have something that keeps drawing us back to the picture. brothers devoted to welles, with liberty and justice for all visions and opinions.

[dmolson]

I'd like to throw in another element to this fascinating chat on TOE -- that Welles' story was also greatly framed by a sweaty sexual tension that passed from story to story, character to character. Whether it was in Quinlan's lusty looks at Dietrich, the suggestive stare of McCambridge, the loony fluttering of Weaver, or the licking of Uncle Joe, each player brought in a degree of sexual texture that, if not ground-breaking, was certainly a few notches higher than most 'main-stream' films (especially those starring some one of the likes of Charlton Heston) in the mid-50s.
Weaving that all into the sidestory of a mixed newlywed couple (rarely depicted in the 60s until Look Who's Coming to Dinner, nevermind the stade Eisenhower 50s) who are torn between honeymoon desires and honourable duties, and the entwined relationship of devotion and decaying respect between Quinlan and partner, all these elements add to an already fascinating canvas, as Jaime points out. I've always thought the story, in the usual Hollywood hands of a dependable director like Robert Wise (oops!) or John Sturges would have been likely an enjoyable, if somewhat one-note, potboiler. Welles created something completely Wellesian and engrossing, I think, from visuals to story to performances.
That's just my 2 Canadian cents worth...