Review of Touch of Evil (1958) by Darren S — 02 Jun 2008
Brilliant noir detective thriller from director/actor Orson Welles.
Set on the Mexican-US border, Touch of Evil portrays corruption and crooked cops. The car-bomb murder of an American in Mexico brings both Mexican detective Vargas (Charlton Heston) and old school American detective Quinlan (Orson Welles) in on the case. Vargas' wife Susan (Janet Leigh) becomes a pawn in the net that soon gets drawn.
The photography in this classic noir movie is to die for; the way the camera moves smoothly, unfolding the story in such a creepy way, is fantastic.
Welles' performance as the muttering, belligerent and alcoholism-prone detective, who works with gut instinct, is brilliant -- humorous, touching and a lot of other things. He's set off against Vargas -- the new guy on the block who wants to change things and clean the town up.
Aside from Welles, the other great performance came from Janet Leigh. Hers was such a strong character, with overtones preempting her performance in Psycho two years later.
Marlene Dietrich plays a minor role as tarot-reading gypsy, friend of Quinlan ... very ethereal, with Dietrich dropping her usual quotable lines and double entendres.
Absolutely recommend this movie.
This review of Touch of Evil (1958) was written by Darren S on 02 Jun 2008.
Touch of Evil has generally received very positive reviews.
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