Touch of Evil
Universal-International, original release 1958, review based on 1998 version that incorporated Wells notes on how he wanted the final version of the film to be.
Produced by Albert Zugsmith
Screenplay and direction: Orson Welles
Charlton Heston as Ramon Miguel Vargas
Janet Leigh as Susan Vargas
Orson Welles as Police Captain Hank Quinlan
Joseph Calleia as Pete Menzies
Akim Tamiroff as Uncle Joe Grandi
Joanna Cook Moore as Marcia Linnekar
Ray Collins as District Attorney Adair
Dennis Weaver as the Night Manager
Harry Shannon as Police Chief Pete Gould
Zsa Zsa Gabor as the Strip-club owner
Marlene Dietrich as Tanya
Touch of Evil popped up on my ‘have you seen…’ page on Netflix, and I recalled that I saw the original, chopped up by ads and edited so there would be time for all the ads, back when I was 16. The movie didn’t make a whole lot of sense. My girlfriend told me it was a great movie and she promptly dragged me off to see some snooze-fest involving the civil war and lots of wind. I decided she was too impressed by what critics had to say.
I’m not sure why I decided, on a whim, to watch it on Netflix. But I’m glad I did. Now I know what the fuss was about, and to that long-gone girl I say, “You were right, I was wrong.”
This is the last of the great noir films from the 30s through the 50s, and arguably one of the best. It takes place on the Mexican border, where a bomb goes off in the trunk of a car (following an incredible, suspenseful tracking shot over three minutes long in which a couple intersect with the car with the bomb several times). Police on both sides of the borders are anxious to avoid an international incident. Orson Wells is the corrupt, corpulent and bigoted American drunk willing to break rules to make the incident go away, and Charlton Heston is the world’s least convincing Mexican, but does a fine job of acting as the straight and honorable Mexican detective. Dennis Weaver is a comic delight as the squirrely and paranoid night manager. (Getting Touched by Evil is Serious Business, you know).
Turns out that when it isn’t getting arbitrarily edited by suits seeking a 90-minute run-time, or cable stations needing more opportunities to tell you to go see Cal, Touch of Evil is a taut, coherent movie. In fact, it’s a great film noir, and possibly Orson Welle’s finest accomplishment.