Displaying all 2 Review

• Black is Black ! — for Touch of Evil
  Written by lezard on 08.02.2020

  A lost motel run by a misfit. Janet leigh, undressed. Does it ring a bell ?

  This scene was watched by Alfred Hitchcock (who must have been inspired) before he actually shot it and made a masterpiece out of it. But the movie we are talking about is « Touch of Evil » by another genius: Orson Welles.

  The movie begins with a piece of anthology : a 3-minute-12 long sequence shot. Of course, every movie-maker would gulp at the sheer virtuosity of the scene, but rather than the very performance it highlights, it is its absolute relevance and the way it heralds the whole movie which fascinates. It starts with the timing of a bomb and ends up on a kiss, which litterally triggers the explosion, a brilliant idea. Between the 2 moments, a carnival of sound and pictures unfolds, illustrating what the movie is about : the crossing of (all) borders. Seldom have we heard such an invading and essential soudtrack as well.

  The movie is set in a border-town between the USA and Mexico. Corruption, smuggling, violence are everywhere. Vargas (C. Heston), a Mexican cop married to an American (J. Leigh) comes to help detective Quinlan (O. Welles) in an investigation.

  The plot is thin but matters much less than the toxic, stifling atmosphere. The picture itself seems corrupted and many framings are twisted. Everything looks as excessive, distorted and fat as Quinlan's body. It is a theatre of shadows, a carnival of lost souls, the sunset of a decaying world. Gang rape, hallucinations, drugs. Very rare and stunning scenes in the puritan America of the 50's.

  « Touch of Evil » is the baroque poem of the night, a somnambulic ambulation between 2 worlds : a hybrid border-town, a grey zone between law and order, good and evil, rough bars, sleazy motels, industrial no-man's land. Borderline characters flirting with insanity, silhouettes, nightmares.

  Final scenes among oil-wells where machines, like Welles himself, fumble deep into the world's heart to dig out the blackness/darkness it hosts.

  Welles, as usual is a monster of an actor. His funeral oration is recited by Marlene Dietrich, like a ghost right out of a Von Sternberg movie : « He was some kind of a man ! »

  This movie has the beauty of the devil.

• "That's the second bullet I stopped for you." — for Touch of Evil
  Written by them00ch on 24.07.2010

  This B-movie film noir has many faults, but at the same time is a defining example of what makes a film-noir truly noir. The film captures the seedy, grimy aspects of human nature in a film with such brilliantly crafted “shades-of-grey” characters, blurring the line between good and evil.

  Welles puts in a brilliant performance, his monumental stomach adding to the powerful dominating presence of his internally tortured, corrupt detective Hank Quinlan. Heston is great (I’ll leave the arguments about a white American playing a Mexican out of this for now) as the idealistic law official determined to expose Quinlan. Star turns also from Janet Leigh, Akim Tamiroff and Marlene Dietrich help drive the shadowy, intricate plot forward. The film’s opening scene is the stuff of legends, and rightly so, with a long, complex tracking shot which lasts 3 and half minutes minutes and introduces to us the some of the main players and kickstarts the film’s plot. It’s not just the opening shot that impresses – throughout the film, Welles’ influence is felt behind the camera, with trademark POV shots and twisted camera angles. Mancini’s score, while hitting a few “elevator muzak” moments, generally compliments the on-screen action adequately, and in a few key moments (the murder of Mexican gang boss Grandi) steps up to the level of perfection.

  On the negative side, B-movie production values sometimes creep to the foreground. Wobbly set design and a very awkward, weirdly overacted performance from Dennis Weaver as a mentally-challenged motel Night Man, for my money hold the film back from its potential as a masterpiece. While there are also a few strange cuts and pacing decisions in the first third of the film, these may have been introduced when the studios infamously butchered the final edit. I watched the version which has been reconstructed based on Welles’ furious memo to the studio execs, but it is likely there are still remnants of their interference in this cut.

  Overall it is testament to Welles’ skill that a second-billing B-movie is as accomplished as this. A few weak moments and lapses in production values (no doubt budget-related) do not stop this being about as dark, grimy and intricate as film-noir gets and comes highly recommended.