Touch of Evil

1958

Action / Crime / Drama / Film-Noir / Thriller

36
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Certified Fresh 95% · 87 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 92% · 25K ratings
IMDb Rating 8.0/10 10 109401 109.4K

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Plot summary

When a car bomb explodes on the American side of the U.S./Mexico border, Mexican drug enforcement agent Miguel Vargas begins his investigation, along with American police captain Hank Quinlan. When Vargas begins to suspect that Quinlan and his shady partner, Menzies, are planting evidence to frame an innocent man, his investigations into their possible corruption quickly put himself and his new bride, Susie, in jeopardy.


Uploaded by: FREEMAN
April 17, 2019 at 09:01 AM

Director

Top cast

Janet Leigh as Susan Vargas
Orson Welles as Police Captain Hank Quinlan
Charlton Heston as Mike Vargas
Joanna Moore as Marcia Linnekar
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU
930.74 MB
978*720
English 2.0
PG-13
23.976 fps
1 hr 35 min
Seeds 29
1.76 GB
1456*1072
English 2.0
PG-13
23.976 fps
1 hr 35 min
Seeds 38

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by ma-cortes 8 / 10

Dark Noir film masterfully played and directed by Welles dealing with killing and corruption in the Mexican/US border

This suspense movie contains intrigue , thrills , plot twists and layered dialog prevail . A stark , perverse tale of murder , treason , kidnapping , and police corruption in a sleazy Mexican border town . As starring 'Mike' Vargas (Charlton Heston who cited not doing a Hispanic accent for his Mexican role as one of the biggest mistakes he ever made as an actor) has to interrupt his honeymoon along with his wife (Janet Leigh who initially rejected her participation in this film due to the low salary offered without even consulting the actress ) when an American building contractor is murdered . Idolized alcoholic Police Captain Hank Quinlan (Orson Welles) and his Sergeant, Pete Menzies (Joseph Calleia), are in charge on the US side and Hank soon has a suspect . But things go wrong when Vargas discovers Quinlan puts fake evidences against the prime suspect . Quinlan joins forces with Grandi (Akim Tamiroff) , who seeks revenge against Mike , to impugn Vargas's proofs .

This overwhelming masterpiece of the strangest vengeance ever planned is plenty of suspense and twisted intrigue from start to finish . Awesome opening , justifiable known , shot in stylistic way begins this over-the-top picture . ¨Touch of evil¨ failed in the U.S. but won a prize at the 1958 Brussels World's Fair , here director/player proved that he was still a filmmaking genius . Excellent acting by the great maestro Orson Welles playing the life of yet another ruthless character , he stars a corrupt inspector with a shady past and obscure present , planting evidences to detain suspects . Orson Welles was originally hired only to act in the film , but due to a misunderstanding, Charlton Heston thought that Welles was to be the director , to keep Heston happy, producer Albert Zugsmith allowed Welles to direct . Support cast is frankly magnificent , such as : Akim Tamiroff , Joseph Calliea , Dennis Weaver , Ray Collins , Joanna Moore , Marlene Dietrich , Zsa Zsa Gabor , among others . Oscar winner Mercedes McCambridge only appears in the film because she was having lunch with Orson Welles during filming and Welles convinced her to film a scene . Attractive and dazzlingly photographed in black and white by Russell Metty . The entire film was shot on real locations, apart from the infamous ten-minute take in the Mexican shoe store clerk's apartment, which is actually a set , Welles and Metty insisted on filming in a real city , settling for Venice, California, when he couldn't get his initial choice of Tijuana . Rousing jazzy musical score by the maestro composer Henry Mancini , including Latin rock sounds . Although much of the music used throughout the movie was from sound sources that pertained to the film: radio transmissions, jukeboxes, player piano . And being ulteriorly reconstructed according to Welles'notes in 1988 .

The motion picture was stunningly directed by Orson Welles who shot predominantly at night in order to fend off meddlesome studio suits . Welles was a genius who had a large and problematic career . In 1938 he produced "The Mercury Theatre on the Air", famous for its broadcast version of "The War of the Worlds" . His first film to be seen by the public was Ciudadano Kane (1941), a commercial failure , but regarded by many as the best film ever made , along with his following movie , The magnificent Ambersons . He subsequently directed Shakespeare adaptation such as Macbeth , Othelo and Chimes at Midnight or Falstaff . Many of his next films were commercial flops and he exiled himself to Europe in 1948 . In 1956 he directed this great masterpiece Touch of evil (1958) but Orson was fired as director during post-production, and the film was recut contrary to his wishes ; before his death, he left instructions on how he wanted the film to be edited, and in 1998 a version was made the way he intended . In 1975, in spite of all his box-office flops , he received the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 1984 the Directors Guild of America awarded him its highest honor, the D.W. Griffith Award . His reputation as a film maker has climbed steadily ever since.

Reviewed by claudio_carvalho 10 / 10

A Masterpiece of Malevolence and Loss of Humanity

After crossing the border of Mexico to the United States of America, the bomb planted in the car of the wealthy businessman Rudy Linneker blows up in Los Robles. The Mexican Chief of Narcotics Miguel Vargas (Charlton Heston) is spending honeymoon with his American wife Susan Vargas (Janet Leigh) in the border town and will testify in the case of the drug dealer Grandi that is arrested in Mexico City. The idolized ex-alcoholic American Police Captain Hank Quinlan (Orson Welles) is in charge of the investigation since the murder happened in the American side of the border, but Mike Vargas participates as observer since the Mexican citizen Sanchez (Victor Millan) is the prime suspect. Meanwhile, Uncle Joe Grandi (Akim Tamitoff) unsuccessfully presses Susie, trying to convince her husband to drop the case. When Hank plants two dynamites in the house of Sanchez in a shoe box that Vargas had seen empty ten minutes before, he confronts Hanks. Joe Grandi witnesses their argument and associates to Hank to discredit Vargas, dishonoring Susie.

"Touch of Evil" is a masterpiece of malevolence and loss of humanity and one of my favorite movies ever. The long sequence in the beginning is in my opinion the best in cinema history, with a perfect timing. The black and white cinematography is amazing, with the perfect use of shadows and lighting. The story is fantastic and Orson Welles is awesome in the role of a despicable policeman that believes in his hunches, eternally grieves the loss of his wife and wishes to bring justice no matter the means and without any ethic. Janet Leigh performs a strong female character unusual in the 50's. Charlton Heston has also an unforgettable performance in the role of an ethical police office that is the opposite of Hank and prioritizes his work to his family, leaving his wife alone to seek the truth about his opponent. My vote is ten.

Title (Brazil): "A Marca da Maldade" ("The Mark of the Malevolence")

Reviewed by bkoganbing 9 / 10

A Great Detective, A Lousy Cop, And Some Kind Of Man

That's a great epitaph Marlene Dietrich and Mort Mills put together for Orson Welles's character police captain Hank Quinlan. In a sense, since Welles directed himself in Touch of Evil he both created the character and the circumstances that bring him down.

Two stories intersect in Touch of Evil. The first involves a particularly grisly murder in a Texas/Mexican border town of a man named Rudy Linnaker. The weapon was a car bomb, that went off just as Linnkaer and some chippie he was seeing crossed the border. Driving in the car just behind the late Mr. Linnaker was Charlton Heston as Mexican police detective Mike Vargas and his wife Janet Leigh.

Heston is returning to Mexico City where in a few days he's taking the witness stand in the trial of a local drug kingpin. The kingpin's brother is Akim Tamiroff who's the local crime lord in that border town. Heston's case against Tamiroff's brother and Welles's investigation into the car bombing are completely unrelated, but do to some cleverly worked out plot machinations they get intertwined together.

Charlton Heston has been quoted many times in saying that Orson Welles was the greatest director he ever worked for. He also rather modestly has stated that he did not give Welles his best screen performance. My own thought on it is that he really is not a terribly convincing latino. Maybe someone with Robert Mitchum's gift for dialect or a latino actor like Gilbert Roland might have been better. Still it's an earnest effort and Heston has nothing to be ashamed of.

In fact Heston says and I agree that the story is really about Welles and his destruction. Welles has great instinct as a detective, but he's not really all that scrupulous about due process. That's what has Heston's back up and it forces Welles into an unthinkable alliance with Tamiroff.

Janet Leigh gives us a sneak preview of what was in store for moviegoers in Psycho when she's trapped in that motel room with those punks that Tamiroff has sicced on her. One of the punks in fact was Mercedes McCambridge doing a little gender bending generations before Boys Don't Cry. At the motel Dennis Weaver has a marvelous bit part as the useless and feckless 'night man.'

Welles put a lot of his favorites in small roles here. Ray Collins took time away from Perry Mason on television to play the District Attorney. Joseph Cotten has a small bit as a medical examiner, Harry Shannon was the state's attorney, it was a regular Citizen Kane reunion.

Marlene Dietrich who was Welles's foil and partner in his magic act plays the owner of a border town dive and his mistress who loves him though she recognizes all his faults. This was a banner year for Dietrich because she also did her highly acclaimed role in Witness for the Prosecution.

One part though that should have been up for an Academy Award was Joseph Calleia who was Welles's devoted subordinate who in the end ironically helps to bring him down. It's a great piece of acting and Charlton Heston said that Joseph Calleia never did anything better in his entire cinema career. I wouldn't argue the point.

Now that the 'director's cut' is available we can now see Touch of Evil and realize what Welles's vision was for this film. Indifferently received when first out, it's grown to become a classic and probably one of the three or four films Welles the director gets the most acclaim for.

And now it's probably better than when first seen by the public.

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