Orson Welles

3. "Touch of Evil: 50th Anniversary Edition": There are no less than three distinct incarnations of Orson Welles' final American film, a baroque crime melodrama with a brilliantly sleazy atmosphere and bravura style that burned through the studio recutting and reshoots. Universal... more brings them all together in this lovingly remastered set: the original, 96-minute cut released in 1958, the longer "preview version" discovered in the '70s, and the 1998 revision by producer Rick Schmidlin and editor Walter Murch. It's the first time those earlier versions have been released on DVD, and they look superb. The comparisons are illuminating, the commentary enlightening (there are four audio tracks), and the remastered transfers are first rate, though not without its controversies (a passionate debate about the proper aspect ratio raged across discussion boards on the Web -- I think the producers got it right, but there are many who disagree). It's living film history of the most exciting kind.

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(Universal/Everett Collection)