Touch of Evil

Orson Welles made this film over 15 years after "Citizen Kane", but even though it doesn't reach the level of "Kane", he never lost his genius touch. With a basic story and regular budget he made the most famous B-film ever. His majesty in the camera control and the editing jump out of the screen. His director geniality is seen through the outstanding performances by great actors like himself, Janet Leigh and Marlene Dietricht, and actors not that great, like Charlton Heston. Several lines of this motion picture are amongst the greatest of all times, specially the Dietrich ones. The credits scene, that runs uncut for about 3 minutes, is one of the greatest moments in the film history, along with the pianola tune at Tanya's place. Some might say that "Touch of Evil" is banal and boring, but these are the people that don't like real motion pictures, and we all know that, so we don't care about them.

I like Orson Welles' movies a lot. Touch of Evil for me is one of his best and one of the all-time great American masterworks. Welles himself deserves a lot of credit for making this movie work. He is a superb director and his direction here is never less than extremely effective. Acting-wise also, Welles also gives one of his career's greatest performances as Hank Quinlin, possibly his career's most interesting character too because he is so corrupt and corpulent. The look of the film is wonderful and holds up so well with innovative camera work and brooding production values. The music is unusual but memorable and fitting, and the writing and characterisations are first rate as is the deeply disturbing story right from the opening sequence-one of the best opening sequences on film- to the grisly finale and while Charlton Heston and Janet Leigh are great in their roles I think it's Welles that makes Touch of Evil work so well. Overall, a masterpiece. 10/10 Bethany Cox