Aldous Huxley told Welles that Venice, California, with its arched porticos and bridges had the right decayed look for what the director wanted, and in 1957 that s exactly where the movie was shot. The next spring, Touch of Evil was released as the bottom half of a double bill, an authentic B picture, a diamond in the industry rough. By 1959, all the studios had opened their vaults to television, providing the new medium with hours of programming, and all had gone into television production. That year the number of films produced by Universal Pictures dropped from 35 features in 1958 to just 18 in 1959. For its part, Republic, one of the biggest and most active B studios, shut its doors in 1959.
Critics like to call the gesture ironic.
But watching Jean-Paul Belmondo stagger endlessly to his death in the streets of Paris, on location and in front of the occasional startled passersby, it s hard to tell just how ironic Godard meant to be perhaps not very much after all. For the more literal-minded, it has also meant a magical cityscape nestled somewhere in the heart of Los Angeles, which is why even now German tourists stumble down Las Palmas Avenue in search of David Hasselhof. But whether it s a shining mirage, a chancy neighborhood, a ghost town or a conceit, Hollywood exists. At one time, it thrived. It had its golden age, a tantalizingly brief moment of glory that began with the advent of sound and endured up until the very end of the 1950s.