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Touch of Evil (1958)
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Overview
User Rating:
Director:
Writers:
Release Date:
8 June 1958 (France)
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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
Awards:
3 wins
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NewsDesk:
(20 articles)
20 Most Anticipated Period Films (Part 1)
(From The Movie Fanatic. 18 October 2009, 9:18 PM, PDT)
20 Most Anticipated Period Films (Part 1)
(From The Movie Fanatic. 18 October 2009, 9:18 PM, PDT)
(From The Movie Fanatic. 18 October 2009, 9:18 PM, PDT)
20 Most Anticipated Period Films (Part 1)
(From The Movie Fanatic. 18 October 2009, 9:18 PM, PDT)
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 |
Additional Details
MPAA:
Rated PG-13 for some violence and drug content. (1988 restoration)
Parents Guide:
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:
Color:
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:
Fun Stuff
Trivia:
The nighttime filming of the long, single tracking shot opening sequence had many retakes. It took so long that the sequence used was the last chance that night; the first light of the breaking dawn is visible in the background.
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Goofs:
Continuity: At the end of the famous opening tracking shot, you can see the sky beginning to change to daylight but the rest of the shots in the sequence happen in the dead of night.
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Quotes:
Movie Connections:
Referenced in Harry Monument (2004)
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Soundtrack:
Tana's Theme
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FAQ
A Note Regarding SpoilersIs this movie based on a novel?
Any recommendations for movies similar to "Touch of Evil"?
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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