Touch of Evil (1958)
TOMATOMETER
AUDIENCE SCORE
Critic Consensus: Artistically innovative and emotionally gripping, Orson Welles' classic noir is a visual treat, as well as a dark, sinister thriller.
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Cast
as Hank Quinlan
as Ramon Miguel `Mike' Vargas
as Susan Vargas
as Tanya
as Pete Menzies
as Uncle Joe Grandi

as Pancho
as District Attorney Adair
as Motel Clerk
as Marcia Linnekar
as Schwartz

as Manolo Sanchez

as Risto

as Pretty Boy
as Gang Leader
as Detective
as Strip Joint Owner

as Blaine
as Blonde
as Gould

as Casey

as Gang Member

as Gang Member

as Gang Member

as Ginnie

as Lackey

as Young Delinquent

as Jackie

as Bobbie

as Lia
as Man
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Critic Reviews for Touch of Evil
All Critics (70) | Top Critics (16) | Fresh (67) | Rotten (3) | DVD (8)
Expressionistic in the extreme, filled with shadows, angles and cinematic flourishes, the film raises the usual brooding nightmare ambiance of film noir to a level few other pictures have attempted.
Having the Touch of Evil envisioned by our most creative filmmaker, is a wondrous gift no movie lover should miss.
[Welles'] scenes with brothel-keeper Marlene Dietrich have nothing to do with the plot and everything to do with the rotting heart of this amazing fable: the apotheosis of pulp.
Indeed, just to see and hear the extraordinary 3 minute and 20 second opening sequence -- a fluid tour de force tracking shot -- without impediment of opening credits and street-sound-masking movie score is accomplishment enough.
I first saw it when I was 14 and thought it was one of the worst pictures ever -- garish, oppressive, and appallingly overacted. Grown up, I'd go with those same adjectives, except now I think it's one of the best.
A sweaty thriller conundrum on character and corruption, justice and the law, worship and betrayal, it plays havoc with moral ambiguities.

Audience Reviews for Touch of Evil
Even the bad in this, and there's plenty of that, plenty, is better than most of the poop you usually digest. Excellent performances throughout. Janet Leigh's amazing until you see what Dietrich could do with a single shot.
Super Reviewer
It is great to be able to see this film now as Welles first intended it to be, a very complex character study (and also visually dazzling, opening with a gorgeous long tracking shot) about a corrupted man strongly convinced that any means are justifiable to achieve his idea of justice.
Super Reviewer
An iconic, misanthropic, film noir, "Touch of Evil" is one of Orson Welles' last Hollywood ventures and one of his best and critically received films of all time. Welles has his memorable directing style, choice of mis-en-scene, and elaborate choices in acting covering this film from top to bottom. From the bleak atmosphere, to the dark and seedy undercurrent of violence in the police department, to the cultural differences between Mexico and America on a border town, every choice in this film is magnificent. Welles also made the interesting choice to make all the music used within the film diegetic, so it plays from radios and passing cars, and not from a score. Even the plot of the film seems strangely unordinary, as it starts as an explosive (literally) investigation into a car bombing. It quickly becomes clear that the rather robust Hank Quinlan (Welles) is a culprit in the framing of a Mexican youth, and Mexican narcotics' agent Vargas (Heston) has to play a decadent game of cat and mouse in order to save his new wife Susan (Leigh) and entrap Quinlan. Every role in this film feels like a piece of a puzzle that fits together with glue like accuracy. Welles wore padding and prosthetics to play the bull-figure that he would ultimately become, and the transformation makes his gluttonous behavior seem less than coincidental with his end game. Heston, though out of his depth as a Mexican and miscast by a mile, does a convincing job of being the hero without reigning down moralistic virtues as he does in former films. Leigh is a little too agog at the world of crime for her performance to be anything but bothersome, yet she does stand up for her husband at every turn. There are many side performances that would make anyone squeal with glee, including Dennis Weaver ("Gunsmoke") as a hotel manager, Zsa Zsa Gabor as a strip club owner, and Marlene Dietrich as a gypsy madame who falls into sympathy for Quinlan, though strangely she isn't the only one who does so. Welles, as a visionary director, does some interesting things with a pulpy noir that make it resemble an art house thriller more than anything, and does so with little background noise to complicate things, something very few directors have been able to replicate.
Super Reviewer
Touch of Evil Quotes
Ramon Miguel Vargas: | A policeman's job is only easy in a police state... |
Hank Quinlan: | Intuition |
Hank Quinlan: | Intuition. |
Tanya: | He was some kind of a man. What does it matter what you say about people? |
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