Opening Shot (Touch of Evil, 1958)

As an example of not only technical brilliance, this long take that opens Orson Welles’ return to mainstream Hollywood, Touch of Evil (copyright Universal Pictures, 1958) is also a masterclass in cinematic story-telling. Yes, the scene’s few lines of dialogue serve to introduce us to two of the main characters, but the rest of the scene lets us know what kind of film we’re in for and what kind of place the film is about. The clashing radio stations not only pre-empt Welles’ use of layered dialogue, they also foreshadow the film’s central conflict between a young, cosmopolitan and idealistic Mexican law enforcer and an old, provincial and corrupt local cop. As an example of how much information a skilled filmmaker can pack into a 3 minute and 30 second-long SINGLE-camera take, this scene is a perfect example of the importance of looking at film not as one unit but as a collection of smaller scenes and ideas, each with their own individual beauty.

Apparently the scene took an entire night to get right, mainly because the actor playing the customs officer kept blowing his lines. It was beginning to get light on the horizon when Orson Welles made the final take of the night, saying to the cast, "All right, let's try it one more time." Then he looked at the actor and said, "If you forget your line this time, just move your lips and we'll dub it in later, but please God do NOT say, 'I'm sorry, Mr. Welles!'" This is the take seen in the film.

This is another attempt to provide a much better quality version of a scene than those already on YouTube. Scenes like this deserve to be revisited often and cleaned up so that 1000 years from now they still exist in a form pleasing to the eye. I've included a couple of seconds after the single-camera take, just for completeness of the scene.

Want to watch the whole movie? Then I recommend the fantastic, restored version that was released on blu-ray as part of the "Masters of Cinema" Collection http://amzn.to/2akSo9q

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