I happily discovered this was playing when I got home (early) today. So, I'm going to talk about it.

This is Orson Welles' 1958 film-noir classic Touch of Evil (8.3 stars, #130 on IMDb's Top 250 List). It stars Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, Marlene Dietrich, and, of course, Welles. It's about a high-ranking narcotics official (Heston) who has to interrupt his honeymoon when an American building contractor is killed by a bomb in his car. He's drawn into the investigation, but he's also working on another case that could be connected. He soon must battle a corrupt sheriff in addition to the bad guys on his case.

This is also considered to be the last proper film-noir. I've seen where L.A. Confidential and Chinatown are considered film noirs, but they really aren't. They're considered neo-noir. One important element—black and white film—is missing for these newer movies to be film noir.

The opening scene is amazing. It's done in one take, and it follows the doomed car throughout the streets of this Mexican border town. It's an amazing tracking shot, starting from a close-up of the car and the ticking bomb in the backseat, to crane shots of the car driving around. I'm not a big fan of Orson Welles, but I do admit that he was a genius director.

Welles was originally supposed to be an actor in this movie, and that's it. However, a misunderstanding happened, and Heston thought that Welles was supposed to direct, and that was the reason he agreed to be in this movie. To keep Heston happy, Welles was made the director of a virtually completed script. However, Welles made major changes to the script, the biggest being that Heston's character went from being a white district attorney to a Mexican narcotics officer (even with dyed black hair in a black and white movie, I'm sorry, but I can't see Charlton Heston as a Mexican.)

Unfortunately, after principal shooting finished, Welles was fired. The studio re-edited the film to how they wanted it. Welles was not happy. He sent a memo to the studios, with specific instructions on how the film should be edited. But, since he was fired, the studios did what they wanted, and the memo was thought to be lost. A copy was found in Charlton Heston's possessions in 1998, and the restoration of this film used this copy of Welles' memo to put out a movie that Welles may be proud of.

Here's the thing about this movie: the plot is pretty complicated. You have to watch it pretty closely, and, I gotta be honest with you here: I don't always do that. I tend to drift away, particularly when the plot focuses on Janet Leigh's character.

But, one big thing about this movie: it's visually stunning. As I said, Welles really was a genius when it came to directing. There's a murder scene at the climax which is absolutely incredible—it's right out of a nightmare. I think it meanders through the first half of the movie (although the film's visuals are stunning). It's not until the second half of the movie that things get interesting (at least, in my opinion.)

But you do need to have the first half to understand the second half.

All right. Until next time.

Kat