The_Film_That_Changed_My_Life

Touch of Evil
275
. . . and Orson hated that, so they called it Touch of Evil. They changed
it because I think in the way he wrote the script, it’s obvious that the
story is about Quinlan . . .
Oz: Absolutely.
. . . and Touch of Evil makes it more ambiguous. [laughs]
Oz: Yeah, yeah.
The story of this film is great because forty years later they recut it.
How do you feel about that notion in general? This is huge in DVDs,
and it’s being done theatrically. You worked with George Lucas on both
The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, which got rereleases.
How do you feel about rereleases and extended cuts in general?
Oz: As long as it helps the story, I don’t care. The key thing with any filmmaker
is to help the story, you know. With Orson’s stuff it’s wonderful that
they recut it the way he wanted it, as close as they could. That is great. As far
as other people recutting their stuff, you know, there is a lot of pressure in
movies during the previous stage, where the studio wants to do this and you
want to do this. Fortunately, I’ve always been in the position where, except
for two times, the studio has agreed with me, but those two times I wish I
could put those things back.
Well, that was my next obvious question: are there any prints of your
own that you would like to revisit or have revisited?
Oz: I would probably like to revisit Little Shop for a few small things. I would
love to use digital on the color on Little Shop; I wish I had the opportunity to
do it, but it wasn’t available.
Is there anything specifically, or is it just little things? I just saw that the
other day, and it holds up really well.
Oz: Yeah, I’ve always wanted it to have more of a Technicolor look, and it
didn’t quite have what I wanted, but in general it worked well. I think Dirty
Rotten Scoundrels is pretty tight. I do know that whenever I make a movie
and I finish a cut, I think, “That’s great, fine, done.” Then a year later, every
single movie I’ve made I’ve had to take five minutes out because of TV sales.