Touch of Evil 4K 1958 THEATRICAL Ultra HD 2160p

Story Movie

A small town on the U.S.-Mexican border is marked by the seal of evil. Its imprint falls on the main characters of this grim thriller.

In particular, Mexican narcotics agent Miguel Vargas, who turns from a law-abiding husband and policeman into a vengeful madman, his innocent wife Susan, plunged by criminals into the abyss of a drug trance, and American policeman Hank Quinlan, who sold his soul to the devil for a profit.

Review 4K Movie

"Touch of Evil" is the last classic noir to see the light of day. Let me remind you that classic noirs are those that were released from the 1940s to the late 1950s. In addition, the film became a bone of contention between studio officials and Orson Welles, the studio considered the film too provocative and remounted it in its own way and only years later audiences saw the film as the director saw it. Besides, the film is remarkable in its opening scene when the camera hovers for almost three minutes showing a long mise-en-scene, capturing the crowd and the characters and all that without a single montage.

And why is the film called "Touch of Evil"? The answer is very simple - because a small town on the Mexican-American border is as if marked by evil - constant strife, murder, drugs and other unconscious elements of society flooded it. Even the movie begins with a car explosion which kills two people, and further it gets worse and worse - the viewer sees Mexican crime, people leading immoral lives and even the brightest man in the American police force who turns out to be engaged in falsifying evidence all his career.

The investigation of the explosion that happened at the beginning of the movie brings together seemingly very different characters - the Mexican policeman Miguel Vargas and his young wife, the American investigator to be caught up in corrupt machinations, the local Mexican "Don Calleone" Joe Grandy and his boys and even Tana, the owner of a local entertainment place.

To tell the truth, the camerawork and editing techniques used in the movie in the beginning seem very unusual as the camera either in flight covers the panorama of what is going on, periodically focusing on details, or is constantly in statics, which is obviously not typical for classic film noirs, and for cinema of the 50s in general, as usually there is a smooth and unhurried action. But with time you get used to it, and there are some pluses.

Welles has chosen a very interesting role for himself, not being a good-looking man as he was at the dawn of his career, but a fat and not very handsome fellow, he has played a corrupt policeman who arouses antipathy both visually and as a leading character. Heston, on the contrary, represents the opposite of Welles' character, but his performance is a bit impersonal, although that was the director's intention. Well, it is also worth mentioning a few minutes appearance of the diva Marlene Dietrich, not having many lines she only appears on the screen and makes you understand that her years are not in the past and she can even make you concentrate on her character with a minimum of screen time.

As a conclusion, if the film noir genre is close to you, don't miss "Touch of Evil." In fact, anyone interested in the classic American cinema is highly recommended to watch this film.

One wonders how a film like this went without significant awards and nominations. And only after a while the movie became a property of cinematography entering the national register of American films and the American Film Institute included it in the list of 100 best American thrillers.