At last! I never did think it made any sense whatsoever that ONLY the 1998 version of the film should be available on DVD, and not the 1958 version that audiences had been appreciating, flaws and all, for so many years. Jonathan Rosenbaum mentioned this in a footnote to his recent post on 'Potential Perils of the Director's Cut', but at last, today we have the official press release:

- - -

TOUCH OF EVIL - 50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
Orson Welles' film noir masterpiece celebrates a home entertainment milestone with the release of the "Touch of Evil - 50th Anniversary Edition" DVD on October 7, 2008 from Universal Studios Home Entertainment. For the first time on DVD, audiences can experience this cinematic achievement as never before: All three versions of the film including the preview version, the theatrical version and the restored version based on Welles' vision, contained on one two-disc set for $26.98 SRP.
Also a specially printed reproduction of the complete 58-page memo Welles wrote in 1957 to the studio outlining his recommended edits after viewing the rough cut of the film, is available for the very first time with the DVD set.
PR Newswire, August 14

I can DEFINITELY afford that. I'll buy.

Coincidentally, mere minutes (well, maybe an hour or two...) after learning about the press release, I then received notification that this film would be returning to the VanCity Theatre here in Vancouver for a couple nights at the end of August -- with a guest appearance by Rick Schmidlin, who supervised the editing of the 1998 version. Could be fun.

Dave Kehr and his readers are concerned about the cropping on the so-called "restored" version of the film. Original (albeit dubbed into Italian) on the left, the "restored" version on the right:

Oh man. I just watched the first two clips side-by-side, and yeah, the cropping definitely hurts the picture. Among other things, the "fullscreen" version gives you a very clear look at the "United States Customs and Immigration" sign in the background, as the various characters (and the car with the bomb) cross the border. The "widescreen" version, by cropping the top and bottom of the frame, never EVER give you a clear look at that sign. In fact, for a few seconds, just a sliver of that sign is visible at the top of the frame -- the kind of sliver that usually lets you know that there is an object just off-frame that we were supposed to see, but now we can't, thanks to some idiot video technician.