No special
reason - for
cinephiles only
Yesterday I watched
the Blu-Ray version
of the
"reconstructed"
version of Touch of
Evil. Orson Welles
was unhappy with the
studio's 95-minute
cut of this movie
and wrote a 58-page
memo detailing his
criticisms and
recommendations. The
studio made some of
the changes he
recommended, ignored
others. The studio
later found a
108-minute version
and released that.
The "reconstructed"
112-minute version
was created in 1998
by meticulously
following Orson's
detailed notes.
Given that I haven't
watched the other
versions in many
years, I wasn't
really aware of the
changes, so I think
many of them must
have been quite
subtle - but, hey,
he's Orson Welles,
dammit, so we'll cut
him some slack.
Anyway, the point of
all this is that I
was struck by how
beautiful Marlene
Dietrich looked in
this film. She was
nearly 60 years old
when she appeared in
this film,
yet
her face had not a
single wrinkle,
not even crow's
feet around her
eyes. That
woman was some kind
of genetic freak.
