Orson Welles plays it big in noir masterpiece TOUCH OF EVIL
TOUCH OF EVIL (Orson Welles, 1958)
Museum of the Moving Image
35th Ave. at 36th St., Astoria
Friday, March 16, $12, 7:00; Saturday, March 17, free with museum admission, 7:00
718-777-6800
www.movingimage.us
They don’t come much bigger than Orson Welles in Touch of Evil, as he nearly bursts through the frame as spectacularly dastardly police captain Hank Quinlan. So it is appropriate that the film is screening as part of the Museum of the Moving Image’s ongoing “See It Big!” series, where audiences can best appreciate the size and scope of Welles’s dark potboiler. A deliciously devious corrupt lawman, Quinlan is an enormous drunk who has no trouble breaking the rules to get his man. Charlton Heston took a lot of criticism playing Mike Vargas, a Mexican drug enforcement agent newly married to beautiful blonde Susan (Janet Leigh), who soon finds herself menaced by a dangerous gang as a weak-kneed, pre-McCloud Dennis Weaver looks the other way. The film famously opens with a remarkable crane shot that goes on for more than three minutes, setting the stage like no other establishing shot in the history of cinema. And the final scene with Marlene Dietrich as sultry hooker Tana is a lulu as well, highlighted by one of the great all-time movie lines. What goes on in between is a lurid tale of murder and revenge filled with unexpected twists and turns, featuring appearances by such Welles regulars as Joseph Cotten, Akim Tamiroff, Joseph Calleia, and Ray Collins. There was a lot of hype surrounding the film when it was recently restored to match Welles’s original desires, but the final product lives up to its billing. Touch of Evil is a deeply affecting noir masterpiece.