''Touch of Evil'' rereleased

Even though Universal spent $300,000 to bring the new, improved Touch of Evil — rejiggered to Orson Welles’ original specifications — to theaters this fall, that’s not the Touch now widely available in a VHS series called ”Universal Noir.” That edition contains the same old studio-botched cut of the 1958 thriller, and don’t expect its studio-botched rerelease to have a long shelf life, since the acclaimed retooled version seems to be heading for video. Its producer, Rick Schmidlin, reports: ”They’re doing transfers and quality control now. I’m sure it’ll be a spring release.”