Touch of Evil

Released: April 23, 1958

Studio: Universal

Genre: thriller/gangster/film noir

Box Office (numbers in millions):

Domestic: 2.20 Worldwide: ?

Adjusted for Inflation:

Domestic: ? Worldwide: ?

Directing: Orson Welles

Screenwriting: Orson Welles

Starring: Charlton Heston, Orson Welles, Janet Leigh, Joseph Calleia

Review:

“Welles’s last Hollywood film” ^PM is “proof that post-Kane Welles was not a downward spiral.” ^T98 It is “considered one of the finest classics-era film noir” ^MSN as well as “a technical masterpiece.” ^VD It is a “tightly directed and brilliantly scripted film.” ^A07 which “is remarkably idiosyncratic, from its legendary opening crane shot to the strangely angled setups and crosscut plotlines.” ^PM

This is “an off-beat, twisted, dark and sweaty…thriller, with murder, police corruption, kidnapping, betrayal, perversion and more” ^FS “in a seedy border town.” ^VD Hank Quinlan (Welles) is a “a big, fat, corrupt cop” ^ML “tracking down some thugs that murdered a wealthy crime lord.” ^VD He “habitually fabricates evidence to convict the guilty (even though his instincts are usually correct) and frames a young Mexican for the murder.” ^FS

This puts him in conflict with the “self-righteous” ^FS Mike Vargas (Heston), a Mexican narcotics agent. Through “persistent, perilous efforts with the cooperation of Quinlan’s long-time partner Sgt. Pete Menzies (Calleia),” ^FS Vargas is able to bring down Quinlan.

The movie opens with “cinema’s most exhilarating and complex opening-shot ever” ^T98 and ends “with the explosive, car-bomb murder of an American businessman on the American side of the border.” ^FS

Sources:

^FS Filmsite.org “100 Greatest Films”
^ML Movieline (Dec. 1995). “100 Best Movies Ever Made” by Virginia Campbell and Edward Margulies
^MSN MSN Entertainment (7/19/2018). “100 Best Movies” by Shahnaz Mahmud
^PM Premiere Magazine (Oct. 1998). “100 Most Daring Movies Ever Made”
^T98 Time Out (1998). “Readers’ Top 100 Films”
^VD Video Detective (1997). “Top 100 Films of All Time”