Movie Review: Touch Of Evil

8/10

Chuck and Orson.... weren't they two of the characters in Animaniacs?

Anyhoo, here we have a classic piece of cinema from everyone's favourite Jupiter-sized, sweaty genius advert voiceover guy, Orson Welles. It tells the story of a destructive clash of heads between two policemen with wildly different outlooks on the world and their jobs.

One, newly married Mexican big cheese Mike Vargas (Charlton Heston) is keen on sticking to the book, as he has shown recently in the anti-gang bust he pulled off against the Grandè family in Mexico City.

The other; rotund, ex-lush American maverick Hank Quinlan (Orson Welles) is a hunch-driven, flawed, legend - so powerful he has all the American cops hanging on his every word, they flock round him like starving children around the one hunk of meat they have.

The film opens with a typically bravura piece of filmmaking from Welles, as the camera tracks across most of a frontier town in a legendary single shot tracing the path of a car that we know has a bomb in the boot (one that was referenced stylistically and in dialogue in Robert Altman's The Player).

This is only the beginning of the problems though, since because the bomb was planted in Mexico, but exploded in America, both Vargas and Quinlan have legitimate claims to the case.

I've never been a big Heston fan personally, since I frequently find him one dimensional and dull. Here he does nothing to overcome my prior opinion - despite the dark make up he has not any trace of a Mexican accent and never convinces in the part.

This is a shame, because it undermines Welles' bigoted performance since for example; while it feels while he clearly detests young Sanchez, a suspect, because of his race, his dislike of Vargas is more to do with police procedure than anything else. This is the gut feeling I got, knowing full well in my head its a racial thing too, but the miscasting of Heston destroyed the illusion.

So it would have been far preferable to cast an actual Mexican actor in the role of Vargas, but clearly this was not viable at the time for whatever reason.

As we follow Quinlan down the path of darkness things get worse and worse for Vargas and his sole ally, Al Schwartz (perhaps to show some Jewish solidarity against all bigotry) as his wife becomes a victim of a nefarious plot by the Grandè family to discredit Vargas before he can prosecute the one he has in custody.

Janet Leigh is good as ever in this part, though it affords little in the way of depth or development, much like the rest of the supporting cast's parts don't.

Oh hell no, this is Welles' movie - his is the only character to get much in the way of backstory or development. We are given tantalising glimpses of his past - either through the stories told by his closest pal and partner, Menzies, or by the hints given by Marlene Dietrich's character (this is a cameo performance demanding little more than soft focus close ups).

Welles conveys perfectly the sense that this is a colossus of a man - a herculean figure, but one who has become poisoned by expectations and his own personal demons to become a terrible mockery of the man he once clearly was. At turns savage, childish, lost and shrewd - it is not at all difficult to appreciate the power this larger than life presence has on those who fall under his spell.

For the sheer power and skill of this performance alone this film deserves its place in any list of essential Noir - Welles' direction as well is a cut above almost any contemporary you care to name, shaping outstanding set pieces throughout (like the final "chase" sequence) or discomfiting close ups to pull you right into the action.

Worth seeing for anyone, but Welles' better work (Kane) and most eye catching performance (Third Man) are found elsewhere. Plus I truly feel Chuck is miscast badly, and this significantly damages the movie's impact. That I still gvie an 8/10 shows just how good the other factors are.

Oh, and Zsa Zsa Gabor has a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo too. I mention that since you may think I wasn't paying attention.

A