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Touch of Evil
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Touch of Evil (1958) More at IMDbPro »

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Touch of Evil (1958) -- Stark, perverse story of murder, kidnapping, and police corruption in Mexican border town.
Touch of Evil (1958) -- Stark, perverse story of murder, kidnapping, and police corruption in Mexican border town.

Overview

User Rating:
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Up 24% in popularity this week. See rank & trends on IMDbPro.
Director:
Orson Welles
Writers:
Orson Welles (screenplay)
Whit Masterson (novel)
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Contact:
View company contact information for Touch of Evil on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
8 June 1958 (France) more
Tagline:
The Overwhelming Drama of a Strange Vengeance more
Plot:
Stark, perverse story of murder, kidnapping, and police corruption in Mexican border town. full summary | full synopsis
Plot Keywords:
more
Awards:
3 wins more
User Comments:
A Great Detective, A Lousy Cop, And Some Kind Of Man more

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Charlton Heston ... Ramon Miguel 'Mike' Vargas

Janet Leigh ... Susan 'Susie' Vargas

Orson Welles ... Police Captain Hank Quinlan
Joseph Calleia ... Police Sergeant Pete Menzies
Akim Tamiroff ... 'Uncle' Joe Grandi
Joanna Moore ... Marcia Linnekar
Ray Collins ... District Attorney Adair

Dennis Weaver ... Mirador Motel Night Manager
Valentin de Vargas ... Pancho - Grandi Hood
Mort Mills ... Al Schwartz - District Attorney's Assistant
Victor Millan ... Manelo Sanchez
Lalo Rios ... Risto - Grandi's Nephew
Michael Sargent ... Pretty Boy
Phil Harvey ... Blaine
Joi Lansing ... Zita
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Additional Details

MPAA:
Rated PG-13 for some violence and drug content. (1988 restoration)
Runtime:
95 min | Germany:111 min (1998 alternate version) | USA:108 min (1975 alternate vesion) | USA:112 min (director's cut) | Spain:106 min (DVD edition)
Country:
USA
Language:
English | Spanish
Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono (Westrex Recording System)
Certification:
Germany:16 (restored version) (re-rating: 2005) | Netherlands:6 | South Korea:15 (2003) | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Chile:14 | Finland:K-11 (DVD rating) | Finland:K-12 (restored version) | Finland:K-16 (original rating) | Germany:18 (restored version) | Norway:15 (re-rating) (1999) | Norway:16 (1985) | Spain:13 (DVD rating) | Sweden:11 (restored version) | Sweden:15 (original rating) | UK:12 | USA:Approved (PCA #18506) (original rating) | USA:PG-13 (No. 36039) (re-rating) (1998 restoration) | USA:Unrated (restored version) | West Germany:16 (nf)

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
The film was a box office failure in the U.S. in 1958, but was well received in Europe. more
Goofs:
Crew or equipment visible: Crew and equipment reflected in the side of Vargas's car as he prepares to take his wife to the american motel. more
Quotes:
[first lines]
Border Cop: Uh, you folks American citizens?
more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in "House M.D.: Lines in the Sand (#3.4)" (2006) more
Soundtrack:
Tana's Theme more

FAQ

A Note Regarding Spoilers
Is this movie based on a novel?
Any recommendations for movies similar to "Touch of Evil"?
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8 out of 13 people found the following comment useful:-
A Great Detective, A Lousy Cop, And Some Kind Of Man, 17 December 2006
9/10
Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York

That's a great epitaph Marlene Dietrich and Mort Mills put together for Orson Welles's character police captain Hank Quinlan. In a sense, since Welles directed himself in Touch of Evil he both created the character and the circumstances that bring him down.

Two stories intersect in Touch of Evil. The first involves a particularly grisly murder in a Texas/Mexican border town of a man named Rudy Linnaker. The weapon was a car bomb, that went off just as Linnkaer and some chippie he was seeing crossed the border. Driving in the car just behind the late Mr. Linnaker was Charlton Heston as Mexican police detective Mike Vargas and his wife Janet Leigh.

Heston is returning to Mexico City where in a few days he's taking the witness stand in the trial of a local drug kingpin. The kingpin's brother is Akim Tamiroff who's the local crime lord in that border town. Heston's case against Tamiroff's brother and Welles's investigation into the car bombing are completely unrelated, but do to some cleverly worked out plot machinations they get intertwined together.

Charlton Heston has been quoted many times in saying that Orson Welles was the greatest director he ever worked for. He also rather modestly has stated that he did not give Welles his best screen performance. My own thought on it is that he really is not a terribly convincing latino. Maybe someone with Robert Mitchum's gift for dialect or a latino actor like Gilbert Roland might have been better. Still it's an earnest effort and Heston has nothing to be ashamed of.

In fact Heston says and I agree that the story is really about Welles and his destruction. Welles has great instinct as a detective, but he's not really all that scrupulous about due process. That's what has Heston's back up and it forces Welles into an unthinkable alliance with Tamiroff.

Janet Leigh gives us a sneak preview of what was in store for moviegoers in Psycho when she's trapped in that motel room with those punks that Tamiroff has sicced on her. One of the punks in fact was Mercedes McCambridge doing a little gender bending generations before Boys Don't Cry. At the motel Dennis Weaver has a marvelous bit part as the useless and feckless 'night man.'

Welles put a lot of his favorites in small roles here. Ray Collins took time away from Perry Mason on television to play the District Attorney. Joseph Cotten has a small bit as a medical examiner, Harry Shannon was the state's attorney, it was a regular Citizen Kane reunion.

Marlene Dietrich who was Welles's foil and partner in his magic act plays the owner of a border town dive and his mistress who loves him though she recognizes all his faults. This was a banner year for Dietrich because she also did her highly acclaimed role in Witness for the Prosecution.

One part though that should have been up for an Academy Award was Joseph Calleia who was Welles's devoted subordinate who in the end ironically helps to bring him down. It's a great piece of acting and Charlton Heston said that Joseph Calleia never did anything better in his entire cinema career. I wouldn't argue the point.

Now that the 'director's cut' is available we can now see Touch of Evil and realize what Welles's vision was for this film. Indifferently received when first out, it's grown to become a classic and probably one of the three or four films Welles the director gets the most acclaim for.

And now it's probably better than when first seen by the public.

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Message Boards

Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for Touch of Evil (1958)
Recent Posts (updated daily)User
That piano tune. eikiingi666
dvd sound out of sync? cellery
Heston as a Mexican? Please... hannahp1
What happens to Orson Welles in 17 years or so.. simplyfsl
where does this show up in another movie? dtatroom
Who played Rudi Linnekar? yj270
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