Touch of Evil (1958)

Stark, perverse story of murder, kidnapping, and police corruption in Mexican border town.

Director:

Orson Welles

Writers:

Orson Welles (screenplay), Whit Masterson (based on the novel "Badge Of Evil" by),

Stars:

Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, Orson Welles

Top 250 #132 | 3 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Charlton Heston	...	Mike Vargas
Janet Leigh	...	Susan 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 (as Valentin De Vargas)
Mort Mills	...	Al Schwartz
Victor Millan	...	Manelo Sanchez
Lalo Rios	...	Risto
Michael Sargent	...	Pretty Boy
Phil Harvey	...	Blaine
Joi Lansing	...	Zita

Storyline

Mexican Narcotics officer Ramon Miguel 'Mike' Vargas has to interrupt his honeymoon on the Mexican-US border when an American building contractor is killed after someone places a bomb in his car. He's killed on the US side of the border but it's clear that the bomb was planted on the Mexican side. As a result, Vargas delays his return to Mexico City where he has been mounting a case against the Grandi family crime and narcotics syndicate. Police Captain Hank Quinlan is in charge on the US side and he soon has a suspect, a Mexican named Manolo Sanchez. Vargas is soon onto Quinlan and his Sergeant, Pete Menzies, when he catches them planting evidence to convict Sanchez. With his new American wife, Susie, safely tucked away in a hotel on the US side of the border - or so he thinks - he starts to review Quinlan's earlier cases. While concentrating on the corrupt policeman however, the Grandis have their own plans for Vargas and they start with his wife Susie.

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Plot Keywords:

mexican | border | honeymoon | investigation | police | 

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Taglines:

The Overwhelming Drama of a Strange Vengeance

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Genres:

Crime | Film-Noir | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for some violence and drug content

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

8 June 1958 (France)

Also Known As:

Sed de mal

Filming Locations:

Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$829,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$70,725 (USA) (11 September 1998)

Gross:

$2,237,659 (USA) (1 January 1999)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal International Pictures (UI)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min 111 min (1998 alternate) 108 min (1975 alternate) 112 min (director's cut) 106 min (DVD edition) 111 min (restored)

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Orson Welles stated that his goal with the film was to infuriate the audience with the plot, in much the same way that Howard Hawks did with The Big Sleep. The story became even more confusing once the studio re-cut the picture.

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Goofs

At about the 50-minute mark, Vargas tells Quinlan that he knows the shoebox did not contain dynamite, and that ten minutes earlier he knocked it onto the bathroom floor and it was empty. But ten minutes earlier the audience saw Vargas knock the box into the bathtub, not onto the floor.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Border Cop: Uh, you folks American citizens?

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Crazy Credits

In the 111-minute restored version, there are no credits at all until the end of the film.

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Connections

Referenced in House M.D.: Frozen (2008)

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Soundtracks

"Tana's Theme"
(1958) (uncredited)
Written by Henry Mancini
Performed by United International Orchestra
Conducted by Joseph Gershenson

User Reviews

The movie that makes substance out of style

The genius of Orson Welles (and I am only convinced of his genius and that of Eisenstein and Griffith, though I have seen thousands of movies) was so amazing that one could easily see in the reviews on the IMDb that mostly everybody got the right idea about Touch of Evil. It is almost impossible not to SEE what Welles intended to be seen in this picture, the differences of opinion come afterwards and have nothing do do with the movie itself but with the way we interpret it. We have to keep in mind that Heston himself, who was the damn actor playing the leading role had no idea what he was actually doing in here, just as Anthony Perkins will be clueless to the meaning of his role in The Trial four years later. It is obvious for everybody that the movie has style, but few understand the meaning of that style. It is not only the noirish cinematography (partially invented by Welles-Tolland in Citizen Kane) and the overall movement of the camera and the brilliant lighting and everything that means cinema that gives this picture style, but the fact that it is aware of its being the last of the mohicans, the last of the noir genre. This awareness gives a new depth to the movie that other B-flicks never had. The customary recipe with a noir movie was a gullible guy, falls for pretty, dangerous woman with a dangerous husband or boyfriend, a crime is committed and the gullible guy gets the fall. This is a story about the appearance of things not being their essence, and every noir movie shared something from this. Touch of Evil is all about this: yes, for all you frustrated Heston-haters, he was suppose to be a parody of a Mexican, just as Welles was supposed to be both a parody of his Harry Lime character and a parody of himself. And Marlene is a German actress speaking English, playing a Mexican gypsy saying "Adios" at the end. Akim Tamiroff is a Georgian playing a Mexican etc. etc. There are also the apparently transsexual...fellows at the motel. Everything is fakery in this picture and I think that this should be looked upon in the same analytic vein as we look at movies such as Alphaville or A bout de soufle. Nobody thinks Godard intended a sci-fi or a noir with those movies, then why should we think that Welles intended a noir with this one? Is it simply because the story seems to unravel in the usual noir way? I agree that the story is not so convincing if you look at it only at the surface. Any story from any noir movie more or less is filled with holes and loose ends. The main intent of those movies was never to create a perfect, novel-like story, but a cinematic account of what a story could be. Touch of Evil is one of the most cinematic movie you will ever see. Every shot is composed with a perfect understanding of what the medium can do, and in this category I think it is only matched by Welles' own Othello in the use of architecture in order to achieve a sense of space within the frame. Look at the way the shadows are projected on the walls and at the relative proportions of the characters. It is clear to the fullest that the movie develops in space and time, a conscience alone for which this movie deserves praise .