Review of Touch of Evil (1958) by D H — 17 Jul 2009

This movie had me hooked from the opening scene... I wonder what it was like to see that single shot intro sequence back in the day, when nobody else had done it before.

Orson Welles as a director is brilliant because I feel he inspires his actors and actresses to really step it up and bring their absolute best, and it was amazing to see Charlton Heston at what I would consider to be easily one of his best performances.

Touch of Evil is hard to hate, with the punched out light and shadow contrasts, the gorgeous women (janet leigh is a FOX), the magnificent plot, and the superb acting, particularly by Welles himself.

But if I had to choose something to bag on, it'd be the severe overusage of the low angle shot, where we're constantly looking up at the actors in these extremely claustrophobic scenes that just got really irritating after a while.

Overall, an amazing movie.