Touch of Evil

Pros: Welles as director. Sturdy supporting cast. Great cameos. Terrifically shot and scored.
Cons: Beware studio edited versions.

Note: This is an update of my earlier review, written August 13, 2002, which I felt was missing some things. So enjoy!

Before I start this review, there are two points I would like to make:

1. Don’t confuse this movie...

Pros: The finest Noir available and a great re-mastered print!
Cons: Sometimes over the top...

Exponential Noir is "Touch of Evil", written and directed by Orson Welles in 1958, based on the novel "Badge of Evil" by Whit Masterson, and it is a dark and gothic journey through a police investigation in a Mexican border town. Starring Charlton ...

Pros: Orson Welles' studio swan song has been restored to its director's vision.
Cons: It took 40 years.

It may have taken over forty years, but Orson Welles' classic film noir has finally been released on video according to the director's exact specifications. Re-edited in 1998 following the discovery of a 58-page memo that Welles wrote upon seeing how...

Pros: Welles' most complete Hollywood film (excepting KANE); a striking early examination of Civil Rights.
Cons: We must forget botched versions; try to see Welles' vision fresh in Murch's restoration.

It took Orson Welles his entire adult life to create 1958's nightmarish TOUCH OF EVIL, and an additional 40 year struggle to realize the Civil Rights theme of the film. He did not live to see it restored to his vision, but, thanks to Editor Walter...

Pros: only one of the best 20 movies ever
Cons: duh I can't come up with any

You don't have to know a lot of background information to enjoy Touch of Evil. It's one of those few films that's entertaining for any average schmoe or schmoe-ette as it is nourishing for a historian who's screening it for the 30th time. If you...

Pros: Welles, Dietrich, the Camera. The sleazy, grim-filled mood.
Cons: Junkie teenagers sequence is laughable.

Orson Welles' last American picture as a director begins with a bang. Literally. Utilizing one of the greatest opening sequences ever filmed, Welles begins his expressionistic exploration with a single edited tracking shot that snakes its way through the ...

Pros: Great acting, excellent plot work.
Cons: Some oddball portrayals from the gang members, like druggy West Side Story extras.

Go buy Orson Welles' Touch of Evil. It's meaty, morally ambiguous noir. The characters are people you've probably met, only with screwier lives. Charleton Heston's raw charisma is nearly overshadowed by the monolithic Welle's slouching silhouette in ...

Pros: Terrific acting- and great story-
Cons: Welles isn't recognized as he should be

Orson Welles classic thriller, Touch of Evil, is his personal Jules Verne.
I mean to see Welles vision is hauntingly familiar of modern day- although back then would have seen as possible but not common.

I would like to further my...

Pros: Welles, Heston, Leigh, and Dietrich all perform beautifully. Great editing and cinematography, wonderful music. Touch Of Evil is a remarkable film.
Cons: None really

Touch Of Evil is a bit of a contradiction. A 1950's b film, it has risen above its roots to be considered a great work of art, and deservedly so.

Orson Welles came to direct mostly by accident, or misunderstanding. When Charlton Heston was...

Pros: Acting, directing, screenplay
Cons: A little too dark

Orson Welles and Charlton Heston headline this dark mystery thriller as cops from opposite sides of the U.S./Mexican border who also seem to be on opposite sides of the law. The distinction is often very blurry throughout the course of this gripping ...

Pros: characters, sets, cinematography
Cons: weird, sometimes muddled

"Touch of Evil" is an excellent movie. It is also one of Universal Studio's strangest films from the 1950s. It is dark, lurid, and weird.

Charlton Heston plays a high-ranking Mexican law officer. He is on his honeymoon with Janet...

Pros: Brilliant sleaze, raised to the level of art!
Cons: no cons

If you’re at all a lover of film, either highbrow or lowbrow, sooner or later you will meet in the middle and discover Orson Welles’ masterpiece, “Touch of Evil” (1958). For some reason, Walter Murch’s 1998 re-edit of the film--which made the story...

Pros: Slick direction and cinematography, complex characters.
Cons: Takes a while to get going. Confusing at first.

"How many Hank?" "I told you, nobody. Nobody who wasn't guilty." Those defiant words sum up the moral philosophy of police chief Hank Quinlan, Welles' tragic villain in his superb film noir, "Touch of Evil". Quinlan is a man whose obsessive ...

Pros: Welles' acting & directing
Cons: cheesy characterization, dialog

"Touch of Evil" is considered my many to be the quintessential "film noir". Shot in startling black and white by legendary director Orson Welles, the film proves that it can hold up after all these years-however, in some respects,...

Pros: Some decent acting performances, direction
Cons: Heston as a Mexican is the biggest joke ever!

Apparently (I do not really know!), there are many different versions of the film out there. The one I watched was the 1987 restored version.

Orson Welles will always be remembered as a Hollywood legend for Citizen Kane. If it...