Spring Break
New Touch of Evil captures Welles' vision
Issue date: 10/29/09
Half-stumbling, half-limping across the screen, Orson Welles, star of Touch of Evil (1958), bears little resemblance to his younger self. Fat, sweaty and constantly eating candy bars or drinking bourbon, he delivers his lines in an incoherent drawl.
An old girlfriend, played by Marlene Dietrich, fails to even recognize him.
"You're a mess honey," she says with a disgusted look on her face.
There remains a question of how much of Welles' girth was created by makeup and crafty camera angles, but there is no debate that his lifestyle had contributed to his appearance.
His films had often been unprofitable in the past and studios were therefore hesitant to give him chances to direct.
In his later years, he would abandon projects or leave them unfinished because of financial problems. Sadly, this was to be his last relevant directorial effort.
Touch of Evil is centered around the investigation of a double homicide in the town of Los Robles, which is located on the Mexican border.
The film opens with one of the greatest shots in film history: a three and a half minute, continuous take of a car driving down a crowded street towards the town's border crossing.
The audience sees that although a bomb has been placed in the trunk, the couple that drives off is unaware.
Suspense builds as the audience waits for the inevitable, and the camera shot ends with the car exploding just on the U.S. side of the border.
On the scene to investigate are Welles' character Detective Hank Quinlan and Mexican drug enforcement officer Mike Vargas (Charlton Heston, with a ridiculous fake tan and a comical moustache). A young man is found and is soon determined to be the killer.
Quinlan is lauded for his intuition and for quickly solving yet another crime. The arrest is a ruse, however, and only Vargas knows the truth: Quinlan planted key evidence and framed the suspect.
The film's plot is complicated by Vargas' upcoming testimony in Mexico City against the head of the Grandi crime family.
As luck would have it, Grandi's brother, Uncle Joe (Akim Tamiroff), happens to reside in Los Robles and he sets out to terrorize Vargas' new wife Susan (Janet Leigh). Such brief analysis only scratches the surface of a labyrinthine plot.
By the end, who committed the murder is of little importance: It simply serves as a frame in which other aspects of the plot can develop.
Indeed, the battle of wills between Quinlan and Vargas not only consumes the film, but also provides it with a unique perspective from which one can understand the story.
Touch of Evil has been notorious in the film industry for quite some time. Anecdotes abound over the film's production and distribution. The surprise appearances of movie legends Dietrich and Zsa Zsa Gabor (both humorously credited as "guest stars"), a quick cameo by Joseph Cotton and the oddity of Heston as a Mexican cop are all widely known.
An even juicier fact is that Welles was initially hired solely to play Quinlan. Only after intervention from Heston, who had agreed to join production under the impression that Welles would direct, did the studio relent and allow Welles to take control of the film.
What initially started off as a simple B-movie starring Heston evolved into an intricate and spell-binding tale of corruption and crime on the southern border. Indeed, this film is now widely viewed as one of the best examples of film-noir.
The greatest point of contention and the source of most controversy, though, is the transformation through which the film has gone over the years.
No fewer than four versions have existed. Welles' initial cut that he delivered to the studio was rejected. About 15 minutes of Welles' footage was taken out and extensive re-shooting took place under a replacement studio director.
The result was a reputedly confusing and disjointed narrative. Some critics, notably future French New Wave directors Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Goddard, recognized the innovative cinematography and rich atmosphere that had been created.
Unfortunately, though, Touch of Evil was largely a financial failure upon its initial release in 1958.
This was the only version that was in circulation until 1976 (Welles' initial version was somehow lost by the studio). After that, some of Welles' cut footage was found and restored, although the result was still more or less a mash-up of Welles' and the studio's versions.
Finally, in 1998, a 58-page memo that Welles had written after viewing the studio cut was found. Detailing how he wanted his film to be re-edited, this memo served as the basis of a new cut released that year.
Such was the path by which the current release of the film found its way to theaters.
This is the version that is now accepted as "most true" to Welles' vision. It is a masterpiece in this form, a film with wonderful performances by Welles and Joseph Calleia (as Quinlan's conflicted partner), stunning chiaroscuro cinematography and a much grittier, more graphic portrayal of crime than seen in similar films of its time.
Touch of Evil is a firm rebuttal to the idea that the only great movie Welles has ever made was Citizen Kane. He may have looked like he was a mess, but Orson Welles was never in finer form.
An old girlfriend, played by Marlene Dietrich, fails to even recognize him.
"You're a mess honey," she says with a disgusted look on her face.
There remains a question of how much of Welles' girth was created by makeup and crafty camera angles, but there is no debate that his lifestyle had contributed to his appearance.
His films had often been unprofitable in the past and studios were therefore hesitant to give him chances to direct.
In his later years, he would abandon projects or leave them unfinished because of financial problems. Sadly, this was to be his last relevant directorial effort.
Touch of Evil is centered around the investigation of a double homicide in the town of Los Robles, which is located on the Mexican border.
The film opens with one of the greatest shots in film history: a three and a half minute, continuous take of a car driving down a crowded street towards the town's border crossing.
The audience sees that although a bomb has been placed in the trunk, the couple that drives off is unaware.
Suspense builds as the audience waits for the inevitable, and the camera shot ends with the car exploding just on the U.S. side of the border.
On the scene to investigate are Welles' character Detective Hank Quinlan and Mexican drug enforcement officer Mike Vargas (Charlton Heston, with a ridiculous fake tan and a comical moustache). A young man is found and is soon determined to be the killer.
Quinlan is lauded for his intuition and for quickly solving yet another crime. The arrest is a ruse, however, and only Vargas knows the truth: Quinlan planted key evidence and framed the suspect.
The film's plot is complicated by Vargas' upcoming testimony in Mexico City against the head of the Grandi crime family.
As luck would have it, Grandi's brother, Uncle Joe (Akim Tamiroff), happens to reside in Los Robles and he sets out to terrorize Vargas' new wife Susan (Janet Leigh). Such brief analysis only scratches the surface of a labyrinthine plot.
By the end, who committed the murder is of little importance: It simply serves as a frame in which other aspects of the plot can develop.
Indeed, the battle of wills between Quinlan and Vargas not only consumes the film, but also provides it with a unique perspective from which one can understand the story.
Touch of Evil has been notorious in the film industry for quite some time. Anecdotes abound over the film's production and distribution. The surprise appearances of movie legends Dietrich and Zsa Zsa Gabor (both humorously credited as "guest stars"), a quick cameo by Joseph Cotton and the oddity of Heston as a Mexican cop are all widely known.
An even juicier fact is that Welles was initially hired solely to play Quinlan. Only after intervention from Heston, who had agreed to join production under the impression that Welles would direct, did the studio relent and allow Welles to take control of the film.
What initially started off as a simple B-movie starring Heston evolved into an intricate and spell-binding tale of corruption and crime on the southern border. Indeed, this film is now widely viewed as one of the best examples of film-noir.
The greatest point of contention and the source of most controversy, though, is the transformation through which the film has gone over the years.
No fewer than four versions have existed. Welles' initial cut that he delivered to the studio was rejected. About 15 minutes of Welles' footage was taken out and extensive re-shooting took place under a replacement studio director.
The result was a reputedly confusing and disjointed narrative. Some critics, notably future French New Wave directors Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Goddard, recognized the innovative cinematography and rich atmosphere that had been created.
Unfortunately, though, Touch of Evil was largely a financial failure upon its initial release in 1958.
This was the only version that was in circulation until 1976 (Welles' initial version was somehow lost by the studio). After that, some of Welles' cut footage was found and restored, although the result was still more or less a mash-up of Welles' and the studio's versions.
Finally, in 1998, a 58-page memo that Welles had written after viewing the studio cut was found. Detailing how he wanted his film to be re-edited, this memo served as the basis of a new cut released that year.
Such was the path by which the current release of the film found its way to theaters.
This is the version that is now accepted as "most true" to Welles' vision. It is a masterpiece in this form, a film with wonderful performances by Welles and Joseph Calleia (as Quinlan's conflicted partner), stunning chiaroscuro cinematography and a much grittier, more graphic portrayal of crime than seen in similar films of its time.
Touch of Evil is a firm rebuttal to the idea that the only great movie Welles has ever made was Citizen Kane. He may have looked like he was a mess, but Orson Welles was never in finer form.
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