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About this movie

Genres:
Classics, Drama
Language:
English
Running time:
1:35:47
Partner rating:
PG-13
Released:
Quality:
480 (DVD equivalent)

Cast & Crew

Cast

  1. Orson Welles Hank Quinlan
  2. Charlton Heston Ramon Miguel Vargas
  3. Janet Leigh Susan Vargas
  4. Marlene Dietrich Tanya
  5. Zsa Zsa Gabor Owner of Nightclub
  6. Joseph Calleia Pete Menzies
  7. Akim Tamiroff Uncle Joe Grandi
  8. Joanna Moore Marcia Linnekar
  9. Ray Collins District Attorney Adair
  10. Dennis Weaver Motel Manager
  11. Val de Vargas Pancho
  12. Joseph Cotten Detective
  13. Mercedes McCambridge Hoodlum
  14. Mort Mills Schwartz
  15. Keenan Wynn Man
  16. Victor Millan Manolo Sanchez
  17. Lalo Rios Risto
  18. Phil Harvey Blaine
  19. Joi Lansing Blonde
  20. Harry Shannon Gould

Directors

  1. Orson Welles

Producers

  1. Rick Schmidlin
  2. Albert Zugsmith

Writers

  1. Orson Welles

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Touch of Evil

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Trailer for Touch of Evil

This baroque nightmare of a south-of-the-border mystery is considered to be one of the great movies of Orson Welles, who both directed and starred in it. On honeymoon with his new bride, Susan (Janet Leigh), Mexican-born policeman Mike Vargas (Charlton Heston) agrees to investigate a bomb explosion. In so doing, he incurs the wrath of local police chief Hank Quinlan (Welles), a corrupt, bullying behemoth with a perfect arrest record. Vargas su... This baroque nightmare of a south-of-the-border mystery is considered to be one of the great movies of Orson Welles, who both directed and starred in it. On honeymoon with his new bride, Susan (Janet Leigh), Mexican-born policeman Mike Vargas (Charlton Heston) agrees to investigate a bomb explosion. In so doing, he incurs the wrath of local police chief Hank Quinlan (Welles), a corrupt, bullying behemoth with a perfect arrest record. Vargas suspects that Quinlan has planted evidence to win his past convictions, and he isn't about to let the suspect in the current case be railroaded. Quinlan, whose obsession with his own brand of justice is motivated by the long-ago murder of his wife, is equally determined to get Vargas out of his hair, and he makes a deal with local crime boss Uncle Joe Grandi (Akim Tamiroff) to frame Susan on a drug rap, leading to one of the movie's many truly harrowing sequences. Touch of Evil dissects the nature of good and evil in a hallucinatory, nightmarish ambience, helped by the shadow-laden cinematography of Russell Metty and by the cast, which, along with Tamiroff and Welles includes Charlton Heston as a Mexican; Marlene Dietrich, in a brunette wig, as a brittle madam who delivers the movie's unforgettable closing words; Mercedes McCambridge as a junkie; and Dennis Weaver as a tremulous motel clerk. Touch of Evil has been released with four different running times -- 95 minutes for the 1958 original, which was taken away from Welles and brutally cut by the studio; 108 minutes and 114 minutes in later versions; and 111 minutes in the 1998 restoration. Based on a 58-page memo written by Welles after he was barred from the editing room during the film's original post-production, this restoration, among numerous other changes, removed the opening titles and Henry Mancini's music from the opening crane shot, which in either version ranks as one of the most remarkably extended long takes in movie history.

Reviews by Rotten Tomatoes

Scored 'fresh' by Rotten Tomatoes

95%Tomatometer score: 95% positive reviews from professional critics.

percent positive reviews

  1. Positive review
    David Edelstein, Slate I first saw it when I was 14 and thought it was one of the worst pictures ever -- garish, oppressive, and appallingly overacted. Grown up, I'd go with those same adjectives, except now I think it's one of the best. Full review External link
  2. Positive review
    Geoff Andrew, Time Out A sweaty thriller conundrum on character and corruption, justice and the law, worship and betrayal, it plays havoc with moral ambiguities. Full review External link
  3. Positive review
    Howard Thompson, New York Times Where Mr. Welles soundly succeeds is in generating enough sinister electricity for three such yarns and in generally staging it like a wild, murky nightmare.
  4. Positive review
    David Wood, BBC one of [Welles'] richest and most rewarding pictures Full review External link
  5. Negative review
    Todd McCarthy, Variety Touch of Evil smacks of brilliance but ultimately flounders in it. Full review External link
  6. Positive review
    Joe Baltake, Sacramento Bee Touch of Evil (1958) is back in yet another incarnation -- proving that Welles' directorial touch was so sure that there was no way anyone could bollix his work. Full review External link
  7. Positive review
    Charles Taylor, Salon.com Touch of Evil may be the sleaziest good movie ever made. Full review External link
  8. Positive review
    J. Hoberman, Village Voice the camera work and blocking have the coordination of an Olympic pole vaulter Full review External link

Read more reviews on Rotten Tomatoes

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