TOUCH OF EVIL A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 1998 Steve Rhodes RATING (0 TO ****): ***
In 1958 Orson Wells turned his latest picture, TOUCH OF EVIL, over to the studio and left the country to work on another movie. The studio, expecting a solid B movie did not know what to do with the print Wells gave them. Essentially a B movie with an avant-garde look, the film, which was re-edited by the studio, got mixed reviews when it was released. After dying at the box office, it was later deemed a classic even though the critics and the public at the time did not care much for it.
Against this historical backdrop, Academy Award winning editor Walter Murch (THE ENGLISH PATIENT) has used Wells's 58 page memo on how he wanted to change the studio cut as the basis for a re-edit for the film's re-release to the theaters on its fortieth anniversary. Whether TOUCH OF EVIL is a masterpiece as many have called it or just an intriguing, confusing and avant-garde B movie is the question. Probably the movie's fans will be pleased with the new version, but those less attached to the original film may find the redo an interesting movie albeit far from a great one.
The major change to the picture occurs during the long opening sequence of a moving car with a bomb in the trunk, which is the one of most important scenes in the move. In the original release the studio obscured the images by overlaying them with the opening credits and changing the natural street sounds Wells wanted to a heavy Henry Mancini score. Wells's vision for the opening is superior, this much is certain.
Wells not only directed the film, he also completely rewrote Paul Monash's original script, and he chose himself to star in the movie opposite Charlton Heston, who had just finished his successful role in THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.
Welles plays Hank Quinlan, an American law enforcement officer in a Mexican border town. Hank, an "ex-lush," who is in such poor health that he seems certain to die of a heart attack at any moment, has trouble staying on the wagon. His sweaty face chomps so hard at his cigar that he almost pulverizes it, and his rumpled clothes look like he's been wearing them for weeks. The audience can almost smell him coming. Everyone has their specialties, and Hank's is planting evidence in order to ensure convictions.
In complete contrast to Wells, Heston plays a Mexican narcotics agent named Mike Vargas, who has "near cabinet level rank" within the Mexican government. Clean-cut and aristocratic looking, Mike is as honest as the day is long. Janet Leigh plays Mike's American-born wife, Susan, who, quite unbelievably, knows basically no Spanish. The purpose of her character in the cliched plot is to be kidnapped and abused. Whether she is gang-raped or not is left ambiguous. Mercedes McCambridge plays a leader of the young Mexican drug users, who look like actors you might expect to find in REEFER MADNESS.
The script revels in ambiguities and oblique sexual references. Trying constantly to be more than just your average B movie, it throws in bits of everything from westerns to Shakespeare.
The story has the two law officers join forces at first to find the bomber, but they quickly become adversaries. The movie is filled with quirky characters from Dennis Weaver as an imbecilic motel manager to Marlene Dietrich as a cliched madam named Tanya.
Filmed in black and white with heavy use of shadows to denote the omnipresence of evil, the movie has a look popular in 1950's Saturday matinee double features. The difference is that TOUCH OF EVIL has a stellar cast and a deliciously oblique script.
"He was some kind of man," Tanya says at the end. "What does it matter what you say about people?" She was speaking of Wells's character, but the quote would be even more appropriately spoken of Wells himself. His brilliance shows in his greater works as well as his more modest ones.
Were the reviewers at the time of its initial release wrong? Or was this really an unrecognized masterpiece? You can be your own judge. As for me, it wasn't even the best movie I saw this week. Still, a Wells movie is always something well worth savoring.
TOUCH OF EVIL runs 1:13. It is not rated but probably would be PG-13 for adult themes and violence and would be fine for kids around 12 and up.
Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com Web: www.InternetReviews.com
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