Touch of Evil (1958)

Voti degli utenti:

8.4/10   

Regista:

Orson Welles

Scrittori:

Orson Welles (screenplay)
Whit Masterson (novel)

Data di uscita:

8 giugno 1958 (France)

Genere:

Crimine | Film-Noir | Thriller

Slogan:

The Overwhelming Drama of a Strange Vengeance

Plot:

Stark, perverse story of murder, kidnapping, and police corruption in Mexican border town.

Plot Keywords:

Mexican | Border | Investigation | Honeymoon | Motel

Premi:

3 wins

Recensioni degli utenti:

So many eyes, so little vision

Cast

Charlton Heston	...	Ramon Miguel 'Mike' Vargas
Janet Leigh	...	Susan 'Susie' Vargas
Orson Welles	...	Police Captain Hank Quinlan
Joseph Calleia	...	Police Sergeant Pete Menzies
Akim Tamiroff	...	'Uncle' Joe Grandi
Joanna Moore	...	Marcia Linnekar
Ray Collins	...	District Attorney Adair
Dennis Weaver	...	Mirador Motel Night Manager
Valentin de Vargas	...	Pancho - Grandi Hood
Mort Mills	...	Al Schwartz - District Attorney's Assistant
Victor Millan	...	Manelo Sanchez
Lalo Rios	...	Risto - Grandi's Nephew
Michael Sargent	...	Pretty Boy
Phil Harvey	...	Blaine
Joi Lansing	...	Zita

Alias:

L'infernale Quinlan (Italy) [it]

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for some violence and drug content. (1988 restoration)

Durata:

95 min | Germany:111 min (1998 alternate version) | USA:108 min (1975 alternate vesion) | USA:112 min (director's cut) | Spain:106 min (DVD edition)

Nazionalità:

USA

Lingua:

Inglese | Spagnolo

Colore:

Bianco e nero

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sonoro:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Divieti:

Germany:16 (restored version) (re-rating: 2005) | Netherlands:6 | South Korea:15 (2003) | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Chile:14 | Finland:K-11 (DVD rating) | Finland:K-12 (restored version) | Finland:K-16 (original rating) | Germany:18 (restored version) | Norway:15 (re-rating) (1999) | Norway:16 (1985) | Spain:13 (DVD rating) | Sweden:11 (restored version) | Sweden:15 (original rating) | UK:12 | USA:Approved (PCA #18506) (original rating) | USA:PG-13 (No. 36039) (re-rating) (1998 restoration) | USA:Unrated (restored version) | West Germany:16 (nf)

Luoghi riprese:

Venice, Los Angeles, California, USA

Compagnia:

Universal International Pictures (UI)

Curiosità:

Orson Welles was said to have based the drug scenes on his own experiences, with the Grandi kids' use of marijuana symbolizing his own indifference towards the legality of the drug, and the violent use of heroin representing his feeling that anything harder than that was just "suicide", as he once put it.

Errori:

Continuità: At the end of the famous opening tracking shot, you can see the sky beginning to change to daylight but the rest of the shots in the sequence happen in the dead of night.

Citazioni:

[first lines]
Border Cop: Uh, you folks American citizens?

Collegamenti:

incluso in 'Duel': A Conversation with Director Steven Spielberg (2004) (V)

Colonna sonora:

Tana's Theme

So many eyes, so little vision

Seldom have I seen so many comments with so little understanding. The movie is not about Heston's "Mexican-ness" or lack of it. The movie is not about the 5 or 8 or 10 minute opening shot. The movie is not even, god help us, about Welles' descent from the heights into "slumming it" in a "Grade B" flick.

The movie is about two things : film-making, and character. Every shot worth remembering (and there are few that aren't) is an exercise in the possibilities of film, particularly black and white film. Woody Allen makes movies in black and white that are all conversation. Welles made movies in black and white because that's where the colors of the characters, the location and ultimately the meaning of the movie are possible. Black and white film is about the infinite possibilities of shadow. Touch of Evil is about the infinite possibilities of human nature.

Heston, for those of you who just can't see past a "bad" accent is about rigidity and short-sightedness. What kind of idiot would leave his wife in all those threatening situations? The kind of idiot who can't imagine that anyone would harm HIS wife, simply because she IS his wife! Akim Tamiroff's Grandi is about flexibility to the point of breakage. Always playing ALL ends against the middle he is the essence of "harmless" corruption, that ultimately harms everyone.

And Welles' Hank Quinlan ... I just don't have the time or space to explain that Quinlan is about the true cost of police work when the humanity has gone out of it. Ultimately Quinlan would kill his best and only friend, the only one, as Dietrich has it, who really loves him. At one time, perhaps, Quinlan WAS the image that Pete Menzies saw. But the man behind that image was eaten up long ago with alcohol and frustrated grief. It's all about winning and losing now, and things he would never do. Until he does them.

There are so many other moments and characters that I'm afraid you'll just have to watch the film with your eyes and your mind open instead of shut to "get it". Pay attention to what's on the screen instead of the smart, cynical, hip comments you can make about an actual work of heart.

Well, what the hell. Joan Didion said it best. Film criticism is petit point on kleenex.

Raoul Duke