Charlton Heston Week: Touch of Evil

Hello and welcome to Day 5 of Charlton Heston Week and I grabbed an Orson Welles classic according to most.  Lost love, police corruption, treachery and possibly murder and the most terrifying portrayal of all, Heston as a Mexican Narcotics cop?   So get some fireworks, avoid the donkey shows and never drink the water.  This is Touch of Evil.

Mexican Norman Bates is worried if you have fresh towels.

This is where spoilers go to die.

Newlywed honeymooners Miguel (Charlton Heston of Ben-Hur, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Anthony and Cleopatra, The Omega Man and Skyjacked) and Susan (Janet Leigh of Psycho, The Manchurian Candidate, Night of the Lepus, The Fog and Halloween H20: 20 Years Later) Vargas are on their honeymoon when a Mexican bomb goes off on American soil killing two people.  Realizing how this could be bad PR for the Mexican Government, Vargas takes his own interest into the investigation. 

 Chief of Police Pete Gould (Harry Shannon of Citizen Kane, High Noon and Gypsy) and D.A. Adair (Ray Collins of Citizen Kane, The Best Years of Our Lives, Perry Mason and Science Fiction Theatre) are first on the scene followed by Captain Quinlan (Orson Welles of Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons, The Lady of Shanghai, Mr. Arkadin, F for Fake and Catch-22) with his partner of many years Sergeant Pete Menzies (Joseph Calleia of Gilda, Lured, Branded, Vendetta and When in Rome) and you get the feel that they want this incident to be taken care of and over with ASAP. 

Mexican accent? Um, how about Greek instead?

This is a major embarrassment for both countries and Vargas offers to assist as both Quinlan and Menzies want to look over a fella who is their prime suspect Sanchez who is secretly married to the victim’s daughter.  Quinlan and Menzies grill Sanchez and Vargas has a look around Sanchez’s pad, accidently knocks over an empty shoe box and gets back to the interview.  Menzies “finds” that same shoebox but this time it has two sticks of dynamite in it.   Hmm that seems a bit fishy…in the same way the Atlantic Ocean is. 

Vargas is concerned about this being a smear job and starts looking into further if a man he has been investigating prior, Joe Grandi (Akim Tamiroff of for Whom the Bell Tolls, Anastasia, Alphaville and the Great Bank Robbery) a suspected small-time boss for rum running, racketeering, protection and numbers man.   Taking the investigation across the border Quinlan and Vargas hit a brothel of Grandi’s ran by a former lover of Quinlan’s Tanya (Marlene Dietrich of Angel, The Lady is Willing, Kismet, Jigsaw, Stage Fright and Judgment at Nuremberg) who not only didn’t recognize Quinlan but suggests he lay off the candy bars for a time.

Speaking of smokin' hot...saaaaaaay....

I have just a few bits of nitpicking and observation if you don’t mind.  It was shot 35mm Spherical Imperial arc for the whole film and coming in at 112 minutes.  Orson Welles viewed this as his pinnacle crowning achievement throughout his acting, producing and directing career for being both the writer and director for this movie.  The film opens with a continuous tracking shot for up to three minutes and 20 some odd seconds making it one of the longest takes in cinema history.   

Mexican Gigolo makes his move.

The rebuttals and racist remarks are mildly subtle but once again we have to justify the protagonist’s heritage and wither or not he or she is up for the task at hand.   Learn from the wisdom of John Sturges’ Mystery Street, Welles.  The diversity of race isn’t even covered by the cops in that brilliant Film Noir. 

I prefer the black& white version over Technicolor myself but that is just me.  This film is well written, the cast is very impressive but to be honest I really did not want to see Gringo Heston playing the lead in this one.  Sorry Chuck but that did see a bit off you playing brown face.