Page "Touch of Evil" Paragraph 47

In 1998, Walter Murch, working from all available material, re-edited the film based on the Welles memo, with Bob O ' Neil, Universal's director of film restoration, and Bill Varney, Universal's Vice President of Sound Operations, participating in the restoration.

As Welles's rough cut no longer exists, no true " director's cut " is possible, but Murch was able to assemble a version incorporating most of the existing material, omitting some of the Keller scenes ( though some were retained, either because they had replaced Welles scenes which no longer existed and were necessary to the plot, or because Welles had approved of their inclusion ).

In addition, some of Welles's complaints concerned subtle sound and editing choices, and Murch re-edited the material accordingly.

Notable changes include the removal of the credits and music from the three-minute opening shot, crosscutting between the main story and Janet Leigh's subplot, and the removal of Harry Keller's hotel lobby scene.

Rick Schmidlin produced the 1998 edit, which had a limited but successful theatrical release ( again by Universal ) and was subsequently made available on DVD.

The DVD includes a reproduction of the 58-page memo.