Touch of Evil (Welles, 1958): Prince Charles Cinema, 6pm
This presentation is part of the Neo-November noir season at the Prince Charles and also screens on Novemeber 20th. Full details here.
Chicago Reader review:
After seeing the work print of his last Hollywood feature, Orson Welles
wrote a lengthy memo requesting several changes in editing and
sound—work that was carried out in 1998 by producer Rick Schmidlin and
editor Walter Murch with myself as consultant. About the original
95-minute 1958 release (superseded since the mid-70s by a 108-minute
preview version), Dave Kehr wrote, "Eternal damnation to the wretch at
Universal who printed the opening titles over the most brilliant
establishing shot in film history—a shot that establishes not only place
and main characters in its continuous movement over several city
blocks, but also the film's theme (crossing boundaries), spatial
metaphors, and peculiar bolero rhythm." These titles now appear at the
film's end—yielding a final running time of 111 minutes—and in the
opening shot Henry Mancini's music comes exclusively from speakers in
front of the nightclubs and from a car radio. Other changes involve
different sound and editing patterns and a few deletions, all of which
add up to a narrative that's easier to follow, but there's no new or
restored footage. To quote Kehr again, "Welles stars as the sheriff of a
corrupt border town who finds his nemesis in visiting Mexican narcotics
agent Charlton Heston; the witnesses to this weirdly gargantuan
struggle include Janet Leigh, Marlene Dietrich, Akim Tamiroff, and
Joseph Calleia, who holds the film's moral center with sublime
uncertainty."
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Here (and above) is the new BFI trailer for the film.
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