Touch of Evil - Opening Scene - With Street and Theme Music

[Padster1972]

One of the best opening sequences of any movie, a one shot masterpiece from Orson Welles, and I'm afraid I'm in the Mancini camp when it comes to the score. Having only ever seen the Mancini music version, I took an instant dislike to the restored ambiant version that was aired recently. I suppose it's what you grow up with! I like it so much, I bought the soundtrack CD!

[KUTVgroucho]

Nothing against Mancini's score, but it's not what the director wanted for the opening shot. It should be the director's call, not those meddlesome creep producers from the studios that for years thought they knew better than Welles.

[elchoya100]

i like this version better

[HCCarey]

That's an astonishing opening scene still--astonishing. And Mancini's score is brilliant--fits the overstated noir tone perfectly

[hebneh]

I watched the studio release version of this on TV repeatedly in the 1970s, and yeah, Welles wanted the soundtrack to be intermingled "street" music, but I find the Mancini theme song to be far superior in terms of assisting the suspense of the time bomb in the car trunk.

I also actually LIKE having the credits onscreen in this sequence (the way I first saw it) because they emphasize the everyday activities going on, which the camera weaves in and out of, while you know the bomb is still there.

[kevstassi]

everyone who likes this version of the opening is an idiot and a moron. This opening was not at all what Welles wanted for the film, he did not want that crappy underscore song playing the whole time, he just wanted the source sounds and music to play in the scene.

[bmccarville]

@kevstassi it's still an amazing tracking shot. but yes, it would have been better with ambiant only sound.

[sUPer1upQUEEN]

@kevstassi Yeah buddy, lighten up. People are entitled to their opinions. No need to be redundant either ("an idiot and a moron")

[A01002401]

@kevstassi If you think the score to this movie is crappy, YOU'RE the idiot and the moron. It is true that it isn't what Welles wanted, but that doesn't negate the quality of the score, one of the best in cinema history.

[shaneu1]

Better tracking shot than even Godard ever attempted. Thankfully, you presented the restored version which omitted the cheesy credits Universal apparently insisted on running over this astonishing scene. TMC recently presented a version that still had the credits obscuring this masterpiece of camera work.

[scooterdooter]

Wait! Stop it! You can make a suspenseful film that keeps peoples' attention without using computer special effects? When did this happen?!

[thedeathkitty]

Brilliant!! I love long shots and this one is superb! It bothers me that these days movies are butchered and then pieced back together with editting. There are always continuity issues with hair, facial expressions, liquid levels in glasses, &c . This is incredibly elegant in comparison.

[ABALLAM3]

A few months ago, I viewed this and "The Third Man" consecutively over two days. That may be one of the few times where I viewed two spellbinding masterpieces two days in a row. I also liked both better than Welles' Citizen Kane.

[Katzone]

They dont do things like this anymore ....!

[brickbusterful]

the all time greatest opening shot in the history of cinema. There is no competition to this suspenseful, engaging, and complicated opening scene. I re watched it 3 my first viewing of the film because i loved it so much

[Qber4life]

I love the little bongo music

[littlesuzcali]

:) no edits

[littlesuzcali]

No edits! Brilliant Wells.

[CTyankee4277]

A sinister gem. First time I saw this was as an undergrad at uni 10 yrs ago. This was the version I saw w/this music & could never figure out why this wasn't used when I saw it later on TV. Most movies from this era have dated pretty badly. Not this one.

[ryanlaing]

do you realize i haven't kissed you in over an hour

[who3697cares]

At 1:58 someone walks in front of the camera from the right-hand side that looks a lot like Orson Welles. Cameo, perhaps?

[avenueqlover2122]

Orson Welles is in the movie lmfao

[DwightFry78]

@who3697cares Definitely not Welles. He has a similar figure and wears a similar coat than Welles will wear later in the movie, but if you freeze frame the image you can see it's not his face.

[bdub24j]

This film completely captures that bleak, dark, gritty feel of film noir I love. Made me want to sit in the sun for a few hours just to shake off the egrossing nature of the films setting.

[dangunningham]

Check Robert Altman's Homage at the beginning of The Player.

[TomHendricksMusea]

Woah! I don't know of another single shot quite as long and powerful.

[hiitsmewutsup09]

probably the best possible version of the opening

[danielrep]

Those heavy cameras from the period gave the sequences such a fluid and dancing beauty feeling in the movement, and those open lenses as well...

This is a gift, as we presume welles want it:

Mixing all these popular latin musics and taking away the titles.

It is really odd these Welles films had so much trouble to come out and connect, because the sense of spectacle he had was simply unparalelled. This is both exquisite and spectacular, and humorous ads hell...

[illaveyoubutler]

superior to citizen kane

[MargheritaAquarium]

AGREE!!!:):):)

[ELETTRAMARE]

GENIAL!!!

A (SÉTIMA) ARTE NO SEU EXPOENTE MÁXIMO!!!

UM DOS MELHORES FILMES DE TODOS OS TEMPOS, NATUARALMENTE, REALIZADO (e interpretado) POR UM GÉNIO!!!

[AJDFishbone4]

Most amazing opening ever. Orson Wells you are a genius.

[smorestes]

I like it - love the film already but yeah, with the theme there is something more added. Perhaps Welles thought it detracted from the morbid pacing? I think it adds contrast and fullness to an already lovely looking and well constructed scene.

[Peshkatari]

Thanks for posting this! Though I of course respect Mr. Welles original vision, the opening tracking shot sans Mr. Mancini's theme score (the best of his career, and the coolest thing he ever wrote-even better than Peter Gunn or The Pink Panther, IMO) seems....well, a bit empty and devoid of life. My congrats on managing to sync it so well with the "street sounds"!