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Touch
Of Evil (1958)
In Orson Welles' off-beat, twisted, dark and sweaty,
film noirish thriller (considered the last official film noir), with
the themes of murder, police corruption,
kidnapping, betrayal, perversion and more:
- the film's celebrated credits-opening (appearing
only in the 1958 version, not in the restored version) was a continuous-action,
spectacular 3-minute and 30 second tracking and panning crane shot
- an audacious, incredible, breathtaking, uninterrupted view following
a convertible (after a timed explosive dynamite device had been
placed in its trunk as it was parked in Mexico), as it crossed
the US/Mexico border into the squalid Mexican-American border town
of Los Robles (TX); the car was driven
by wealthy local American businessman involved in construction
- Rudy Linnekar (Jeffrey Green) who was with his blonde mistress-girlfriend
Zita (Joi Lansing), a striptease dancer
- the car's route was intertwined with views of a
newly-married couple: Mexico City narcotics investigator Ramon
Miguel "Mike" Vargas
(Charlton Heston) and his blonde American bride Susan (Janet Leigh)
walking to the border crossing; as the inter-racial newlyweds kissed,
the sound of the sudden and violent explosion of the detonated car
overlapped on the soundtrack, and they turned their faces toward
the blast
- at a low-angled shot, a grotesque,
cigar-smoking, candy-chewing bloated and obese local detective Hank
Quinlan (Orson Welles) first appeared as he rolled out of his car
at the scene of the car bombing
- acid was splashed on a peeling poster on
a crumbling wall of stripper performer Zita (an echo of her death
in the burning car explosion)
- as a narcotics commission
expert, Vargas became snarled in the local investigation
with the racist Quinlan, at the behest of Quinlan's loyal partner
Police Sgt. Pete Menzies (Joseph Calleia), and DA Adair (Ray
Collins). Vargas in particular suspected that the local Grandi
narcotics ring, run by local crime boss Uncle Joe Grandi (Akim
Tamiroff), was somehow involved
- meanwhile, Vargas entirely ignored his young honeymooning
bride; in a continuing series of sexual terrorization, she was first
harrassed in Grandi's sleazy, dark motel in town by a peeping
tom with a flashlight that shone on her as she removed her cashmere
sweater
- Grandi was interested in intimidating
Susan to pressure her to have her husband Vargas end his prosecution
of Grandi's drug-dealing brother who was imprisoned and awaiting
trial in Mexico
- while Quinlan was on the Mexican side of the border
during the case, he visited with cigar-smoking, Mexican gypsy
and brothel manager Tanya (Marlene Dietrich in a memorable cameo),
a former lover and femme fatale; she engaged in verbal
foreplay with Quinlan: (To Quinlan: "I didn't recognize you.
You should lay off those candy bars....You're a mess, honey")
- then, while Susan was sequestered in
a room of a deserted, out-of-the-way and remote motel on the outskirts
of the Texas town (not knowing it was owned by Grandi), she was
attacked by menacing thugs (also members of the Grandi gang), and had
to endure the care of the weirdo, nervous and twitchy motel manager/night watchman (Dennis
Weaver)
Susan Caught in a Flashlight's Beam
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Mexican Gypsy and Brothel manager Tanya (Marlene
Dietrich)
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Weird Motel Manager (Dennis Weaver)
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- during this and many other past investigations, the
experienced, old-time cop Quinlan habitually fabricated or planted
evidence to convict the guilty (even though his instincts were
usually correct and he had a perfect arrest record). He framed
young Mexican shoe clerk Sanchez (Victor Millan) who had secretly
married Marcia (Joanna Moore), Linnekar's daughter. Quinlan had
surreptitiously placed two sticks of dynamite in a shoe box in
Sanchez' apartment - in a long and second unedited sequence. (Vargas
knew of the deception, putting him into conflict with Quinlan.)
- behind the scenes, Grandi plotted with Quinlan to
discredit and destroy Vargas professionally and personally by framing
Susan for drug use; at the motel, Susan was shot up with drugs
and then brought back to a room in Grandi's downtown hotel,
to appear like she had experienced a drug overdose
- in addition, Quinlan had chillingly strangled Uncle
Joe Grandi to death in the hotel room next to a semi-unconscious
Susan, in an attempt to frame Susan for his murder - and she was arrested
- as the film wound to its climactic conclusion, Sgt.
Menzies revealed to Vargas that Quinlan was implicated when his
cane was found at Grandi's murder scene, and he agreed to wear
a wire to try and entrap his partner
- in the gripping climax, Quinlan began to confess
his wrong-doings - but then realized that Menzies was betraying
him and recording him; he heard the echo of his
own voice as it was recorded on a transmitter held by Vargas under
a bridge, and realized he had been taped and everything about the frame-up
had been revealed by his partner Sgt. Pete Menzes
- Quinlan angrily shot Menzies and lethally wounded
him. To protect the unarmed Vargas from also being shot by Quinlan,
Menzies shot Quinlan before dying. The corrupt police captain was
finally brought down; the final image was of Quinlan lying
dead and floating whale-like in dark and stagnant gutter-canal water
and garbage
- Vargas was informed that Sanchez
had confessed to the crime, and then he was reunited with Susie.
Tanya arrived to deliver Quinlan's epitaph in the film's final
line: "He
was some kind of a man. What does it matter what you say about people?...Adios!"
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Bomb with Timer
The Convertible With a Bomb in Trunk
Mike Vargas with Bride Susan at the Moment of the Blast
Detective Hank Quinlan's (Orson Welles) First Appearance
Susan Terrorized by Gang in Motel - and Shot Up with Drugs
The Strangulation Death of Uncle Joe Grandi by Quinlan,
to Frame Susan
Tanya's Epitaph for Quinlan
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