Mon 24 Nov 2014
Reviewed by Dan Stumpf: TOUCH OF EVIL (Book and Film).
Posted by Steve under Crime Films , Reviews[9] Comments
TOUCH OF EVIL. Universal, 1958. Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, Orson Welles, Joseph Calleia, Akim Tamiroff, Joanna Moore, Ray Collins, Dennis Weaver, Marlene Dietrich, Zsa Zsa Gabor. Screenplay: Orson Welles, based on the novel Badge of Evil, by Whit Masterson. Director: Orson Welles.
WHIT MASTERSON – Badge of Evil. Dodd Mead, hardcover, 1955. Reprinted as Touch of Evil, Bantam A1699, paperback, 1958; Carroll & Graf, paperback, 1992.
In contrast to The Long Wait, reviewed here, Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil, now available in a restored Director’s Cut, begins its cinematic fireworks with the first shot and never pauses for the smoke to clear. The tale of bigoted cops and a corrupt investigation unfolds in scene after scene of sheer cinematic brilliance —
— and I have to say it gets a bit tiring after a while; like watching unending MTV videos or Previews of Coming Attractions that never stop. The eye tires after forty minutes or so (This eye did, anyway.) and I was glad for the relative quiet of a few reflective moments with Marlene Dietrich at her weary best as a Gypsy fortune-teller (“Your future’s all used up.”) just one of a number of cameo appearances that include Ray Collins and Joseph Cotton from Citizen Kane, and Mercedes McCambridge as a lesbian biker.
On the other hand, Whit Masterson’s book that this was based on, Badge of Evil, is so bland as to be resolutely unreadable. The flat prose recounts little but a few cardboard characters moving slowly through an unremarkable plot to no discernible end. But perhaps I shouldn’t be too hard on this book, since I couldn’t finish it; maybe things really picked up after the first fifty-odd pages.
November 24th, 2014 at 12:29 am
I remember seeing this for the first time at a movie theater in Atlanta back in the 1990s when it had been restored (or something) for viewing again. It was only years later that I realized it was filmed in Venice, California. The first camera shot, of course, is the most famous, but I happen to like the last 15-20 minutes or so of the movie more than the beginning.
November 24th, 2014 at 12:57 am
Drags a bit in the middle but the opening and ending are worth it and I loved Joseph Calleia as Welles partner.
Welles famously trashed the Whit Masterson novel too. Frankly I thought Bill Miller and Bob Wade were a better writing team as Wade Miller though the Masterson team did some good suspense.
November 24th, 2014 at 2:31 am
Out of curiosity, has anyone else seen Welles in the 1957 film MAN IN THE SHADOWS (also starring Jeff Chandler). It has the same sort of feel to it and also concerns the California-Mexico border. It’s a lesser known crime film, but one that made an impression on me
November 24th, 2014 at 3:25 pm
Jonathan
I think MAN IN THE SHADOWS is very underrated, no TOUCH OF EVIL, but a damn good crime film though perhaps not as striking as this one.
I also like another Chandler crime drama of the era set in a small town, THE TATTERED DRESS with Gail Russell’s last performance and a good bit from Jack Carson as the local law.
But MAN IN THE SHADOWS is very good, and at the time they were filmed Boss Rule, as it was called, still ran rampant in parts of the Southwest on the border. It wasn’t until the sixties that a Texas Ranger brought down the last true Boss in Duval County Texas ending the century old hold on that region from California to Texas, by the big landowners like Welles character.
November 25th, 2014 at 3:14 am
The story may actually apply to ‘Lady from Shanghai’, but it goes that Wells needed to raise money for some project of his he was filming so was offering himself and a property to make a movie from and may have just plucked this paperback off of a book rack near the pay phone he was trying calling the producer to make a deal that he had a great book to make a movie from.
Anyway, I like the long scene in the suspect’s apartment, where Heston’s character finds the empty shoebox and then a few minutes later the dynamite is found in it. Wells’ reaction to Heston’s disbelief of the evidence is the whole movie. “I know how you feel”, says the sheriff, trying to calm the younger man down.
November 25th, 2014 at 1:11 pm
The British paperback film-tie-in edition of BADGE OF EVIL has Orson Welles as Harry Lime on the front
November 25th, 2014 at 9:21 pm
Right you are, Jamie. I found this on the Internet:
November 25th, 2014 at 9:53 pm
What might have been an ordinary but interesting film through self-conscious over-direction and the miscasting of Heston has evolved into a much discussed but seldom seen by actual filmgoer’s, an appalling pretentious picture in which Orson Welles manages to out belch Lee J. Cobb. Another film fantasy for Lew Landers to have produced with Preston Foster and Wayne Morris. In six succinct days.
December 19th, 2014 at 2:15 pm
I’m a big fan of the original studio-version of the film (which was mistakenly considered the original by dint of the length of time it was the primary print) as well being as being a fan of the re-cut (which is confusingly considered the real original because it was more true to Welles’ vision). That version’s been out for a while now. But thereafter I get confused because it seems they *keep* coming out with new re-cuts? I’ve given up any interest in the film because I can’t follow the technical issues anymore…its become a distraction!