Running time: 95 minutes
Certificate: 12
Language: English
Screenplay: Orson Welles
Director: Orson Welles
Starring: Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, Orson Welles, Joseph Calleia, Akim Tamiroff, Ray Collins, Dennis Weaver
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| Setting the scene in that masterful opening sequence. |
A tale of corruption, murder and intimidation told in a queasy and disturbing, especially for 1958, way, Touch of Evil is unpleasant yet mesmerising. Opening with an infamous three-minute tracking shot, we're served, right from the start, with further proof, as if any were needed, of the astonishing filmmaking chops of Orson Welles. Re-writing the script after being given the directing job at the insistence of lead actor Charlton Heston, Welles turns a standard piece of pulp fiction into what is frequently regarded as the last great film noir.
It's worth noting that the version I watched was the re-edited version based on notes made by Welles after the film was cut by the studio on its initial release.
The said opening is set on the border of the USA and Mexico. On the Mexican side of the border a bomb is planted in the boot of a car, and we follow the car on its way through the border town, where people drop in and out of shot, and the car passes over to the US side. After a short time the car explodes, killing the occupants. You can already see the rather messy tangle that creates, jurisdiction-wise.
One of the people seen in this opening is Mike Vargas (Heston), a Mexican narcotics officer trying to enjoy his honeymoon with his American wife Susie (Janet Leigh). Hank Quinlan (Welles) is the police captain tasked with investigating the murder. I think having a heroic protagonist be a Mexican was probably 1958's version of being progressive (and based on the regressive trajectory the US has been on these past 4 years of madness, is probably 2021's version as well), but it would quite rightly be controversial to cast someone like Heston as a Mexican these days. I don't think it is worth taking issue with though, with it being 1958, and in spite of this Heston is effective enough in the role. It is Hank Quinlan that really steals the show here though; bloated, unpleasant, and corrupt so long he no longer seems to even know the difference between right and wrong, only that he judges his actions to be the means that justify the end in accordance with his own badly skewed sense of morality. Welles is equal parts magnetic and repugnant.
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| The plot; she thickens. |
Vargas notices Quinlan planting evidence regarding the investigation in order to frame his Mexican suspect, so starts to investigate the corrupt captain. Also causing trouble for Vargas is the Grandi family, a crime syndicate in Mexico City he has been building a case against. That trouble involves harassing and menacing Susie. In the battle of wills between Vargas and Quinlan, the corrupt captain accuses Vargas of covering for the suspect, and in an attempt to direct attention away from his corruption, arranges for Susie to be drugged, abducted and terrorised.
Not only does the story go to some pretty dark places, but the mastery of black and white cinematography, using shadows and jarring camera angles, makes the discomfort all the more pervasive than it might have been in lesser hands. Welles has complete command of every facet and he has me hooked from the opening show-stopper to the oppressively-filmed climactic chase.
Score: 9/10
Unsurprisingly, this is pretty much considered top tier filmmaking in most reviews - see these examples from Angie at Empire and The Twizard.
