Actors - Touch of Evil

Home > Listing Index > Actors > Touch of Evil

	Actors - Touch of Evil

Touch of Evil (1958), is considered one of the last examples of film noir in the classic era (from the early 1940s until the late 1950s). It was directed by Orson Welles, who also appeared as corrupt policeman, Captain Hank Quinlan. The black-and-white film also features Charlton Heston as Mike Vargas, a Mexican narcotics agent on his honeymoon, Janet Leigh ("at her most perversely innocent" as one critic put it) as his bride, and Marlene Dietrich as Tana, a cigar-smoking Mexican gypsy brothel owner. The movie was written in two weeks by Welles based on Whit Masterson's novel Badge of Evil.

The plot

The movie opens with a famous two minute continuous tracking shot, which shows a man placing a bomb in a car and then the journey of the car to the US/Mexican border crossing. The scene ends with Mike Vargas (Charlton Heston) and Susie Vargas (Janet Leigh), newlyweds, kissing. The scene then cuts to the car, containing a man and a stripper friend, exploding, and the rising action of the movie begins. Mike Vargas, an important police official within the Mexican government, realizes the implications of a Mexican bomb exploding on US soil and begins to investigate. The police chief Pete Gould (harry Shannon) and district attorney Adair (Ray Collins) arrive shortly on the scene, as well as police Captain Hank Quinlan (Orson Welles) and Quinlan's friend and partner, Pete Menzies (Joseph Callia). The scene sets up all the important characters, as well as introduces the idea that Quinlan doesn't like Vargas, primarily because Vargas is Mexican. The scene also reveals that Vargas has been on the hunt of a large dope ring led by the Grandi family, and that Vargas will testify at the trial of Vick Grandi later in the week.

In the meantime, Susie wanders the streets of the border town and eventually is escorted by a man she nicknames Pancho (Valentin de Vargas) to meet Uncle Joe Grandi (Akim Taminroff). Uncle Joe shows Susie a gun, and tells her that her husband better "lay off my brother Vick", but then releases Susie to return to her hotel. Vargas, Quinlin, and company travel south of the border to investigate the strip club that the murdered man had visited. One of Uncle Joe's henchman throws acid at Vargas (and misses), and Quinlin visits with an old friend Tana (Marlene Dietrich). Tana uses a crystal ball to read the future and cooks chili for her patrons. At this point the audience is reintroduced to Quinlin's "intuition", which comes from Quinlin's bad leg and tells Quinlin that a member of Uncle Joe's gang threw acid at Vargas. Vargas returns to the hotel where Susie and Vargas were to stay on their honeymoon, and before Vargas arrives a Grandi henchman harasses her by shining a light threw her window from across the street as Susie dresses. Susie hides her fears of the stalking men and Grandi's threat from her husband, and asks that Vargas take her to an American motel while Vargas sorts through the bombing affair. Vargas begins to drive his wife to the motel, and Uncle Joe follows the couple and says, "He's got a reputation...he's got a young bride...he'll leave this town wishing he'd never been born".

On the way to the motel, Menzies stops Vargas, tells Vargas to go on ahead where Quinlin plans to interrogate a suspect, and that Menzies will drive his wife to the hotel. Menzies notices Uncle Joe following his car, and arrests Uncle Joe at the hotel and leaves Susie to get a room. Susie meets the very unusuall night man of the Mirador motel (Dennis Weaver), a character reportedly used by Alfred Hitchcock as a basis of Anthony Perkin's Norman Bates character in Psycho.

While Menzies travels back to meet up with Quinlin, Quinlin meets Marcia Linneker (Joanna Moore), daughter of the dead man in the explosion, and her lover Manelo Sanchez (Victor Millan). The daughter's lawywer wisks her away, but Sanchez remains to receive a harsh interrogation by Quinlin that includes a punch to the stomach. Vargas, who has an extreme distaste for police brutality, travels across the street to call his wife to ensure her safety at the motel. When Vargas arrives back at the room, Vargas discovers Menzies has arrived with Uncle Joe in tow and that Quinlin has request Menzies to continue his search of the apartment. Menzies discovers two sticks of dynomite in a box in the bathroom, and Menzies believes that he has discovered a breakthrough in the case. Vargas, who had previously looked through the box and saw nothing, accuses Quinlin of planting evidence. Vargas leaves with assistant D.A. Al Schwartz (Mort Mills) to look for evidence of Quinlin's corruption and perhaps another guilty party. Uncle Joe invites Quinlin to join with him to take down Vargas, a mutual enemy according to Uncle Joe. Vargas researches Quinlin's ranch and Quinlin's previous arrest records. Back at the Mirador Motel, it appears that Uncle Joe owns the Mirador and his hoods run the place. Uncle Joe's gangsters engage in a drug party, using at least marijuanna and possibly other drugs. The gangster then invade Susie's room, possibly rape her, and then drug her. Meanwhile, Quinlin agrees to Uncle Joe's proposal with a drink of alcohol, an especially meaningful method of agreeing because Quinlin had been a reformed alcoholic for many years.Vargas discovers that Quinlin had purchased dynomite recently, and that Quinlin had not used all of the dynomite. Vargas calls a meeting of the police chief and the district attorney in order to show these inconsitancies to the men. Menzies discovers Quinlin drunk, and informs Quinlin of the meeting. Quinlin arrives at the meeting and throws a fit at the accusations, and threatens to resign. The district attorney and chief of police dismiss Vargas, and subsequently Quinlin accuses Vargas of using drugs himself and of using his position within the Mexican government to cover his own drug use. Vargas confronts Menzies about the suspicious fact that so many murders have been solved by Quinlin and Menzies where the defense claims the primary evidence was fabricated. In all those cases, Menzies discovered the evidence. Menzies dismisses Vargas's claim.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Touch of Evil ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Touch of Evil; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Actors - Touch of Evil

The plot

Searches on eBay

Related searches on eBay