Rating: 
Summary: I Won't Buy This Til The Fake LetterBox Is Removed
Review: The hype surrounding the release of this DVD was that it was truer to Welles' vision. Applying black bars to the top and bottom of the screen, COVERING part of the picture, has nothing to do with Welles' vision. It's a rip-off. Compare the full-screen VHS version to this DVD and see for yourself.
Rating: 
Summary: "Visually sumptous and innovative."
Review: Blistering, brassy good fun, from the great Orson Welles, who is excellent as the bloated Hank Quinlan, along with a colorful supporting cast. Janet Leigh is her usual, effortlessly sexy self, and Charleton Heston plays his role straight as an arrow, and is effective. Also stars Joseph Calleia, Akim Tamiroff, and Marlene Dietrich, who are all great in memorable parts. This is a rare sort of film, that might have ended up just your average detective yarn, but it's Welles gift of filmmaking that elevates this from just sheer entertainment to the masterpiece it essentially is. Visaully sumptous and innovative, comparable to Citizen Kane. The tracking-shot at the beginning (the longest unbroken tracking-shot ever) is a beautiful piece of work, just showing what a genius Welles is. It's a wildly entertaining film, and a masterful achievement for Welles.
Rating: 
Summary: -blink-
Review: I've enjoyed Welles since my viewing of Citizen Kane, but Touch of Evil revealed a newer and definately better side to him, I believe, and that's the tricky one.
The beginning of the story is unforgettable, albeit cliche, although I guarantee you the lines "I've got this weird ticking sound in my head" will first sound lame, then, slightly prophetic, then downright brilliant in about a week. The movie itself unwinds and spins into an engrossing plot which made me wish I had a girlfriend to comfort, because I felt pretty cowardly myself. The movie's cineamotography is what you would expect from Welles: bordering on abstract but never confusing. The movie was fun to watch and by the time it was over, I spent nearly an hour finishing the popcorn and reflecting on it on my sallow couch. Bravo.
Rating:
Summary: May I vent?
Review: No doubt the movie is a gem, but what a dissappointing DVD. Given all the hub-bub, I expected some better support material with the movie. For instance, the hour documentary Reconstructing Evil, in which the movie's stars and Welles' admirers explain in detail the director's techniques and his desired changes for this film. This, plus the 58-page memo and perhaps a commentary by a film historian would have made this something special.
Rating:
Summary: Touch of Brilliance
Review: Orson Welles. At 25, he made "Citizen Kane", quite possibly the world's greatest movie. However, he would loose creative control of his next film "The Magnificent Ambersons". Throughout the rest of his life, he struggled to gain creative control over his film projects, rarely getting it. But when he did, the results were incredible. Touch of Evil is one such example (Some spoilers). Welles wrote, directed and acted in the movie as Hank Quinlan, a respected but corrupt detective in a border town between Mexico and the U.S. Charlton Heston is Mike Vargas, a Mexican police officer on a honeymoon with his wife (Janet Leigh). Heston suspects wrongdoing on Quinlan's part and investigates into Quinlan's past. But Vargas and his wife get mixed up with Quinlan and the brother of a man whom Vargas arrested. Through most of the film's middle, Leigh stays at a motel out in the middle of nowhere. Alfred Hitchcock must have like this movie, because fans of "Psycho" will notice similarities between that movie's Norman Bates and this movie's night watchman (Played by Dennis Weaver). Leigh also gets into trouble in this movie, this time with a biker gang, led by an uncredited Mercedes McCambridge. "All border towns bring out the worst in a country" states Charlton Heston. Whether that is true or not, it is in this movie. The unnamed town is a place of crime, drugs and sleaze. Bars are populated with strippers, criminals and about every other scum you could think of. The film's sets have an eerie dark feeling throughout. There is even a peeping tom who looks at Janet Leigh (But who could blame him?). Touch of Evil employs many of the same filmmaking techniques used in "Citizen Kane". Welles experiments in lighting, camera movement, shadows, sound, editing and particularly music. The film has been renowned for its scenes that goes on for minutes without switching to a different edit. One particular example being the much known opening shot, which goes on for three minutes unbroken, as Heston and Leigh walk down the streets of the border town. Considering that it was brilliantly made, was originally a "B-Movie" and had some dirty content, the Academy Awards, for the sake of prestige but probably also for their dislike of Welles, had to ignore this movie in every category in 1958. Over time however, the movie was examined under new light and has since been hailed as a masterpiece. Still, when the American Film Institute drew up its "100 Greatest Movies" list in 1998, Touch of Evil was ignored again (Could some of the same voters had been involved?). But some of the sins committed against Orson Welles's last masterpiece were repaid when this "Director's Cut" was released. This version includes footage restored or reedited to Welles's original specifications, including no opening credits. This restored version was also awarded by the New York Film Critics in 1998 and added to the National Film Registry in 1993.
Rating:
Summary: A Photographic Noir Marvel
Review: One of the most electrifying aspects of great noir filmmaking lies in the nuanced black and white photography, with its emphasis on shadowy effects. "Touch of Evil" reaches such a high standard in film noir that it could well be used as a cinematic text on the subject of graphically uncompromising photography. Cinematographer Russell Metty turned in a virtuoso performance in concert with director Orson Welles, who provides one of his most unforgettable dramatic performances as well. The hulking Welles portrays an embittered police captain presiding over an American town on the Mexican border. The Mexican town is suggestive of Tijuana, perched on the Southern California border, but the film was actually shot in Venice, a Southern California beach community which, in the late fifties, when this 1958 release was shot, was a part of the beatnik community. More prosperous Santa Monica was located next door. Welles constantly hops from his American province over which he presides with an iron hand to the Mexican town, seeking to rule both. He is immediately concerned over the presence of Charlton Heston, a top law enforcement official from the Mexican Government who is finishing his honeymoon with Janet Leigh before returning to Mexico City to testify in an important drug trial involving the family members of one of the leading crime figures of the border community. When Welles investigates and seeks to point the finger on a young Mexican man for starting a fire which killed his wealthy American girlfriend's father, Heston becomes immediately interested. Ironically, the young man ultimately confesses, but his arrest by the ruthless Welles is what prompts square shooter Heston to become concerned about the controversial lawman. Welles begins the movie in a highly unique manner, with 3 minutes of tracking shots and no cuts or dialogue, showing the Mexican border town in late evening, when it is a wild and dangerous place. When Welles arrives on the scene a strategic pattern is launched in the photography of showing Welles' hulking obesity from various closeup angles, revealing him psychologically as more than a dominating presence, as that of a suffocating personality who will crush all in his path who stand in his way. He openly reveals himself with being tired of his job. The only place he can relax is in the town's bordello, with madam Marlene Dietrich and the player piano which plays constantly serving as soothing as well as escapist elements. Welles, with the developed scent of a hunting dog, knows immediately that the no nonsense Mexican lawman Heston is potential trouble. Heston's respect for due process is anathema to him. Welles has been solving crimes by planting evidence after predetermining that the party or parties in question are guilty. At one point he strangles the Heston nemesis whose family members he is slated to testify against, seeking to frame Heston's new wife Leigh for the crime. Eventually Welles' most previously faithful officer, a man who idolizes him, tearfully agrees to help Heston to amass incriminating evidence against his boss, convinced that Welles has gone over the deep end and must be stopped. He receives incriminating admissions from Welles while Heston is dramatically situated beneath a bridge, listening to the admissions while he gets them down on a tape recorder. Finally Welles is stopped just before he is preparing to kill Heston. As he lies on the ground breathing his final breaths, symbolically perched next to a pool of muddy water, Dietrich arrives to deliver a tearful on the spot obituary. The action never lets up in this noir gem. Heston agreed to star in the film only after convincing Universal Studios to allow Orson Welles to direct "Touch of Evil." Dennis Weaver delivers a captivating performance as a psycho clerk and handyman of a bizarre motel on the California border where criminals involved with the local racketeer seek to torture Janet Leigh in Heston's absence.
Rating:
Summary: Orson Welles at his Peak
Review: I concur with most of the other reviewers that this is a wonderful film, but most fail to do Welles' character justice by merely describing him as a corrupt cop or villian. Welles' character is wonderfully three-dimensional. Although he breaks the rules in order to get convictions, he does so with good intentions, making it more than just another stereotypical movie about corrupt "southern justice". It is amazing watching Welles' character fall apart emotionally as he begins to be confronted by the fact that what he is doing is wrong, then, out of increasing desperation, commits worse and worse acts while trying to justify himself with the increasingly delusional belief that he is right. He has the support of his fellow police not because they are racist idiots, but because he has earned their respect in the past and they strongly believe in him. Thus, as in all good noir movies, you don't have a battle between black and white so much as a battle between various shades of grey. It is unfortunate that not long after this film, Welles lost most of the power or funding he needed to continue making good movies and was relegated to narrating poor quality movies on the supernatural, doing voices for Masters of the Universe, etc. But with films like this, he will continue to be recognized as a genius.
Rating:
Summary: The black essence of Noir!
Review: So you have two powerhouse actors-Orson Welles and Charlton Heston-and added to that is Henry Mancini's arresting orchestration, plus this is the restored, revised and corrected version, so this could not help but be a classic. This film-noir captures the essence of noir-blackness. Filmed in black in white, we see two characters in black and white, since they are both black and white. Heston the bright hero play Miguel Vargas, a tall, dark and handsome Mexican, while Welles plays Quinlan, the corrupted Caucasian cop. The ethnicities are quite misleading, but that is part of the beauty of this film. A lot of the action takes place at night-remember that unforgettable back-pan beginning rivaled only by "Star Trek: First Contact"? The mystery of night adds to the mystery of the crimes, since the city is a de facto frontier town between the US and Mexico. This gives the film almost a western feel much like "Outland," which tried to be a sci-fi western. The border is itself s border between Vargas and Quinlan-the ethnicities, the nationalities; the language at time separates them. Of course, it is filmed in black and white. Welles himself said that the best performances are in black and white, since you focus on the story, and not on what they are wearing. I agree with this up to a point, since Hoffman's 1999 "Midsummer's Night Dream" took color to new heights and highlights. Or remember the contrast of black and white with color in "The Wizard of Oz." Black and white is bold, since at times we live in a black and white world. Truth shines, and evil recoils. Black and White is the best medium of projects like this, and there is a beauty in the binary scheme. Only Satan would colorize Ansel Adams. Orson Welles has a severe eye for the beautiful. His work on "Citizen Kane" is a mouthful, and worth more than a thousand words. He is multi-talented, mega-talented, and, frankly, is a strong argument for the existence of God. Although Heston is first billed, he plays second fiddle to master Welles, but we see shades and foreshadowings of what will become in this great actor. The DVD itself is a bit skimpy-it includes a copy of Welles memo about restoring the film, several advertisements for Hitchcock films, and that is about it. But we bought the DVD for the movie and Welles, and not for nonsense.
Rating:
Summary: Not the Definitive DVD Release
Review: The aspect ratio is wrong. Now, I'm not one of these folks who just wants the picture to "fill" my screen, but I do want to see the film as it was originally shot and intended, particularly when dealing with an Orson Welles project! This release is NOT as it was originally intended. Letterbox is not appropriate here, and I can only conclude that portions of the picture are missing (?). I sincerely hope that this problem is corrected in future releases, if there are to be future releases.
Rating: 
Summary: DVD version disappointing--not really widescreen!
Review: I'd give this film 5 stars, or 10, or 20! But this DVD version is a real disappointment, because as one other reviewer put it, they added "fake widescreen" when that's not the way it was originally filmed. If you compare a full screen version on VHS to the letterboxed version on disc, you'll see that some of the picture is missing on the DVD, covered up by the black bars. What's up with that? Criterion did this to "Time Bandits," too, and who knows where else it's been done. I don't get it. I hear they did it on a couple of Kurosawa films, too. It doesn't benefit anyone or anything to do that, it just means a flawed version of these films is the only one available on disc...
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