Orson Welles noir masterpiece TOUCH OF EVIL is part of Universal Pictures centennial celebration at Film Forum
TOUCH OF EVIL (Orson Welles, 1958)
Film Forum
209 West Houston St.
Saturday, July 14, 1:30, 3:30, 7:30, 9:30
Series runs July 13 – August 9
212-727-8110
www.filmforum.org
They don’t come much bigger than Orson Welles in his dark potboiler Touch of Evil, as he nearly bursts through the frame as spectacularly dastardly police captain Hank Quinlan. 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 a few years ago when it was restored to match Welles’s original desires, but the final product lives up to its billing. A deeply affecting noir masterpiece, Touch of Evil is screening July 14 as part of Film Forum’s “Universal 100” festival, paying tribute to the major studio’s centennial with four weeks of double features and special presentations, opening on Friday the thirteenth with the original Frankenstein and Dracula and continuing with such other fine dual bills as Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt and Saboteur, John Stahl’s Imitation of Life and Magnificent Obsession, Douglas Sirk’s Imitation of Life and All That Heaven Allows, and Monte Hellman’s Two-Lane Blacktop and Steven Spielberg’s Duel, in addition to the July 29-30 triple shot of The Wolf Man, The Invisible Man, and The Mummy.