Touch of Evil (film)
Touch of Evil (1958) is considered one of the last examples of film noir in the genre's classic era (from the early 1940s until the late 1950s). It was directed by Orson Welles, who appears as a corrupt U.S. police captain. The black-and-white film also features Charlton Heston as a Mexican police officer, Janet Leigh ("at her most perversely innocent" as one critic put it) as his bride, and Marlene Dietrich as a cigar-smoking gypsy brothel owner. The screenplay, loosely based on the novel Badge of Evil by Whit Masterson (a pseudonym for Robert Wade and William Miller), was written by Welles. Additional scenes were written by Paul Monash, and Franklin Coen.
Tagline : The Strangest Vengeance Ever Planned!
Quotes
From
the film
"I don't speak Mexican." (Quinlan)
"You're a mess,
honey." (Tana to Quinlan)
"A policeman's job is only easy in a police
state." (Vargas)
"Come on, read my future for me."
"You
haven't got any."
"What do you mean?"
"Your future is
all used up." (Quinlan and Tana)
"That's the second bullet I stopped
for you, partner." (Quinlan to Menzies, after the final shootout)
"He
was some kind of a man. What does it matter what you say about people?" (Tana,
about Quinlan)
Orson Welles' Hollywood career, which had started so promisingly with Citizen Kane, had gone rapidly downhill during the 1940s as a result of his falling-out with RKO. He had then earned a second chance at Columbia, but endured a torrid time making The Lady from Shanghai there and fell out with them too. After years working in Europe, television and theatre, Touch of Evil was to be his Hollywood comeback.
There are two stories about how Welles ended up directing Touch of Evil. Charlton Heston claimed that Welles was originally hired to act in the film. Universal was keen to secure Heston for the lead, but Heston wanted the studio to confirm the film's director before he signed on. When he was told Welles was in the cast, Heston suggested Welles could direct, hinting that he would be more interested in starring if Welles was directing. The other story is that Welles had recently worked with producer Albert Zugsmith, known as the "king of the B's", on a film called Pay the Devil and was interested in directing something for him. Zugsmith offered him a pile of scripts with no director attached, and to prove he could make a great film out of a bad script, he asked Zugsmith to give him the worst. This was Badge of Evil, as it was then called. Welles did a rewrite (although a comparison of drafts demonstrates that he did not rewrite it as much as he claimed) and took it into production. Keen to get back into directing, he agreed to take only an acting fee, taking on the role of Quinlan. Although Welles was overweight in later life, in the film the fat is mostly padding.
A number of notable actors popped up in minor roles. Dennis Weaver plays a mentally unbalanced night clerk at an isolated motel: Welles liked what Weaver did as Chester on TV's Gunsmoke and worked closely with him on his part, which was shot on a three-day hiatus from the TV show. Zsa Zsa Gabor, who appears briefly as the impresario of a strip club, was a friend of the producer. Welles's old friend Joseph Calleia portrays Quinlan's betrayed partner. He appears along with other members of the Welles repertory company, Joseph Cotten, Keenan Wynn, Ray Collins (the police detective on Perry Mason), and Mercedes McCambridge as a biker chick. Many of the actors worked for lower wages just to make a film with Welles. Marlene Dietrich's role was a surprise to the producers and they raised her fee so they could advertise her involvement.
Welles wrapped production
on time, delivered a rough cut to Universal, and was convinced that his Hollywood
career was back on the rails. However, the film was then re-edited (and in part
re-shot) by Universal International pictures. The editing process was protracted
and disputed, and the eventually released version was not the film Universal or
Welles had hoped for. The movie was literally a B-movie, released as the lower
half of a double feature. The A-movie was The Female Animal, starring Hedy Lamarr,
produced by Albert Zugsmith and directed by Harry Keller whom the studio had hired
to direct the re-shot material in Touch of Evil. The two films even had the same
cameraman: Russell Metty. Welles's film was given little publicity despite the
many stars in the cast. Nonetheless, even as originally released it was a film
of power and impact: though it had little commercial success in the US, it was
nonetheless quite well received in Europe, particularly by critics like future
film-maker François Truffaut.
Cast
Charlton Heston - Ramon Miguel 'Mike' Vargas
Janet Leigh - Susan 'Susie' Vargas
Orson Welles - Police Captain Hank
Quinlan
Joseph Calleia - Police Sergeant Pete Menzies
Akim Tamiroff
- 'Uncle' Joe Grandi
Joanna Cook Moore - Marcia Linnekar (as Joanna Moore)
Ray Collins - District Attorney Adair
Dennis Weaver
- Mirador Motel night manager
Valentin de Vargas - Pancho, Grandi hood (as
Valentin De Vargas)
Mort Mills - Al Schwartz, district attorney's assistant
Victor Millan - Manelo Sanchez
Lalo Rios - Risto, Grandi's nephew throwing
acid
Michael Sargent - Pretty Boy
Phil Harvey - Blaine
Joi Lansing
- Zita
Animation
- Comedy - Crime
- Documentary
-
Family - Foreign
Language - Historical
- Horror - Musical
- Political
Recommended- Romance- Science Fiction and Fantasy - Sport Movies -- Thriller - War - Western - Wildlife
A map of where different US films & TV programmes blanket across the USA are
ZANADU - A FUN BASED SITE, WITH SOME FILM RELATED SECTIONS
Flight Las Vegas Nevada - Find a flight to Las Vegas
Cheap flights Beijing - Get your tickets here Fly to Beijing
Bank Interest Rates - A Website on Bank Interest Rates
Car Cheap Insurance - Get Cheap Car Insurance from here
Flights London - Want to fly to or Visit London get your Flight and Hotel place here
Get
your fave music here for your IPOD
Buy DVD Rent DVD Get your DVDs from here