Review of Touch of Evil (1958) by Austin B — 08 Oct 2008

To whom it may concern, this review is of the 1998 restored version, i.e. the closest version possible to Orson Welles' original vision. From it's amazing opening track shot to it's climatic finish, Welles delievers a masterful piece suspense and drama, as well as delivering another fine performance in the process.

The story is packed with tension, at times, almost too tense for one to bear. The use of light (welll...lack thereof, really) gives the whole movie this seedy and dark tone, which is very disturbing, but would failed without it.

The one real problem with this movie, besides the aforementioned points of overbearing darkness, is Charlton Heston's casting as a Mexican! You have to point the fingers at Welles for this choice.

Heston isn't very convincing with it, no shock there, and it provides a very noticable distraction for the movie's finer points. I am anxiously awaiting my 50th Anniversary Edition to arrive in the mail, which features all the various cuts of this movie, just to see how different they are.

But, I can't imagine they are any better than this version.