IMDb > Touch of Evil (1958)
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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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
Genre:
Crime | Film-Noir | Thriller 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
NewsDesk:
(22 articles)
War of the Welles: Seven Actors Who've Played Orson
 (From IFC. 26 November 2009, 7:15 AM, PST)
Me And Orson Welles Review
 (From FilmShaft.com. 25 November 2009, 11:38 AM, PST)
User Comments:
Hellish, haunting, human... more (206 total)

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)
Parents Guide:
Add content advisory for parents
Runtime:
95 min | Germany:111 min (1998 alternate version) | USA:108 min (1975 alternate version) | USA:112 min (director's cut) | Spain:106 min (DVD edition)
Country:
USA
Language:
English | Spanish
Color:
Black and White
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)
Filming Locations:
Venice, Los Angeles, California, USA
Company:
Universal International Pictures (UI) more

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
Orson Welles was originally hired only to act in the film, but due to a misunderstanding, Charlton Heston understood that Welles was to be the director. To keep Heston happy, producer Albert Zugsmith allowed Welles to direct. Welles made major changes to the already-completed script, including changing Heston's character from a white district attorney to a Mexican narcotics agent, changing Janet Leigh's character from Mexican to American, and changing the setting of the movie from a small California town to a Mexican-American border town.. more
Goofs:
Continuity: As the night-man leads Vargas to cabin seven, Vargas jumps from his right side to his left at a cut. more
Quotes:
[first lines]
Border Cop: Uh, you folks American citizens?
more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in "House M.D.: Ugly (#4.7)" (2007) 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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User Comments

   (Comment on this title)
40 out of 57 people found the following comment useful.
Hellish, haunting, human..., 1 April 2004
10/10
Author: Frank from Paris, France



There are several candidates for Welles greatest masterpiece - on odd days, this is mine; on even days I might choose The Magnificent Ambersons, Chimes at Midnight, Othello...

Welles took on this shlock noir potboiler adapted from Badge of Evil as a challenge, to prove that he could make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. His genius (so often frittered away in later years) is evident in every frame from the famous, dizzying virtuosity of the opening shot - the long tracking over crowds and streets to the no-man's-land of the Mexican border which seems to encompass all human life before exploding into the plot itself.

Welles own adaptation ditches Whit Masterson's simplistic good cop/bad cop dichotomy in favour of a swampland of moral relativism. His cop, Hank Quinlan (surely the template for M Emmet Walsh's character in Blood Simple) is gargantuan in his monstrosity, but Charlton Heston's Mike Vargas, for all his simpering goodness, is shallow, cold and deeply unlikeable and Janet Leigh is a cipher. Only Marlene Dietrich's whore-with-a-heart provides a tiny ember of compassion ("He was some kind of man, What does it matter what you say about people?").

Using the moral grey area of a border town, Welles' delves into the seamiest parts of life where everyone's future is "all used up". The pitch and tenor of the movie is really that of Shakespearean tragedy - Quinlan's tragedy - and the bleak humanity of the film is mesmerising. Even so - and even in the newly restored version which is as close to Welles intentions as we will ever get - one can't help feeling that Welles is trying to cram greatness into a plot that is too slight, too laboured.

For all its flaws (and it is a movie about human frailty) this is two hours of exquisite filmmaking, a masterpiece in a world that has cheapened the word

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Opening scene timflower
Heston as a Mexican? Please... hannahp1
Like a cubist painting fluffyburger
What happens to Orson Welles in 17 years or so.. simplyfsl
House Connection therealman
where does this show up in another movie? dtatroom
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