Movie Minx

Starring: Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, Orson Welles
Directed by: Orson Welles

Plot: A Mexican narcotics expert and his young American wife put their honeymoon on hold in an American border town when they become embroiled in a frame-up.

But is it any good?

I am the kind of person who will physically tie someone down and make them watch Citizen Kane, because I love it so much that I think everyone else should too. But that doesn’t mean I’m automatically taken by other Orson Welles films. The Magnificent Ambersons bored me silly, so it was with a bit of reluctance that I sat down to watch this last night.

And the majority of Touch of Evil didn’t grab me. Charlton Heston may be a fine actor, but I can’t look at the man without hearing a “…from my cold, dead hands!” voiceover (See Bowling for Columbine). I felt no empathy with his Vargas character, who dumps his new wife in the middle of nowhere while he does his moral thing (see High Noon for another example of this). I also didn’t give a shit about the whiney Mrs Vargas either.

But a number of things did impress me, the main one being Welles’ character, Quinlan. A sweaty, repugnant, drunk, lazy and, er, evil cop. Was that really what Orson Welles looked like in 1958? Because he would only have been in his early 40s, but looked about 60. Also Marlene Dietrich has a tiny part but rules the screen whenever she’s on it (and she gets the best line at the end of the movie). Quinlan’s adoring sidekick has more emotion in his little finger than Heston has in his entire pompous act, and the twichy night guy at the motel is hilarious - yes, the motel, with Leigh in it, definitely has shades of Psycho.

Touch of Evil is a freakish film noir, filled with shadows and slashes of light illuminating nasty faces. The shots are jerky, and the audience is janked from one scene to another. Welles’ fondness for weighty, overlapping dialogue irks at times as the characters all talk over one another.

But the best part of the film is actually its opening scene, and there is a story behind it for those who don’t know. The version I watched - the DVD version, restored in 1998 - was done in an attempt to be faithful to Welles’ vision. When the film was first made, the studio freaked out a bit and fired Welles during post-production so they could make changes. Welles wrote a 58-page plea after viewing their changes, but they remained firm. I haven’t seen the studio version, so can’t give too much detail, but I know they felt his four-minute opening scene was too much and added credits and music to break it down. The version I saw had removed these, and follows a timebomb being hidden in a car at night, the car driving off with a man and woman inside past Heston and Leigh walking down the street, background music, chatter and traffic behind their light conversation. The KABOOM a few minutes later sets the scene for the rest of the film.

So the verdict: it’s entertaining, it has some fine acting and some fine moments, but overall it leaves little to be remembered by. I feel a little sorry for Orson Welles - he achieved perfection at such a young age with Citizen Kane, there was nowhere to go for him but down, and apparently straight to the booze and the donuts.

Imdb’s rating: 8.4/10
My rating: 7/10

Next movie to be reviewed: The Great Escape

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