Re[2]: RARA-AVIS: Touch of Evil

Bill Hagen (billha@ionet.net)
Mon, 14 Sep 1998 09:57:35 -0500 (CDT) >
> Fred recently posted the following:
>
>"I read recently that there is scene in Touch of Evil which is actually a
>longer single shot than the opening one. It's evidently seldom noticed as
>being such. I certainly didn't realize it as I have watched it."
>
>I don't know that the opening shot is longer, but, in the new edition, it's
>shown without the opening credits or theme music played over it. The only
>music comes from the seedy night clubs the camera travels over. - Jim
>Doherty
>
------------
I believe that Walter Murch affirms that the opening shot has NOT be
altered in the re-editing. As Jim indicates, the Mancini theme and credits
have been simply stripped, so that the original street noise and,
importantly, the radio of the bomb-rigged car creates a sound continuity
leading to the explostion.

In answer to Fred's earlier question, I got my copy of ToE out and checked
the apartment interrogation scene with Sanchez, just before he is set up
with the planted sticks of dynamite. Sure enough, it is done in one shot,
with a number of pans and dollies and a doorway to vary the imagery and
framing. It clocks in at about 5 minutes, well past the 3 minute, 20
second opening. It ends with Vargas (Heston) walking out the door, saying
first "It's not my case," then "It's not my country." From what we have
seen in the crowded apartment, we suspect the kid will be set up for the
murder; and, of course, Vargas will have to make it "his case."

Wonderful film; can't wait to see it. Hope they remastered some of the
darker scenes. Like "The Third Man," or other noir films, the dark scenes
in this one tend to lose their delicate clarity as the film ages.

Bill Hagen
<billha@ionet.net>

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