Hacker Cinema
Touch of Evil
1958 · Film · 111 min
Directed by Orson Welles
A border-town bombing draws Mexican investigator Miguel Vargas into a corruption-ridden police investigation led by crooked captain Hank Quinlan, setting off a deadly struggle over power, justice, and truth.
2 positive1 mixed6 neutralfrom 9 commenters
Where to watch
No streaming data for this title.
9 comments on Hacker News
Thanks! Here's the full list: 2001: A Space Odyssey, 8½, Aguirre the Wrath of God, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, All That Heaven Allows, Apocalypse Now, Ashes and Diamonds, A Woman Under the Influence, Barry Lyndon, Bicycle Thieves, Breathless, Casablanca, Céline and Julie Go Boating, Chinatown, Chinese Roulette, Citizen Kane, City Lights, City of Pirates, Contempt, Daisies, Damnation, Dishonored, Earth, Electra My Love, El Topo, Eraserhead, Eyes Wide Shut, Film Socialisme, Fitzcarraldo, Fuego en Castilla, Hiroshima Mon Amour, Holy Motors, Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome, In a Year with 13 Moons, India Song, Inland Empire, Irma Vep, Koyaanisqatsi, La Dolce Vita, La Jetée, Late Spring, L'Eau de la Seine, Le Voyage dans la Lune, Lolita, Los Olvidados, Lost Highway, Lucifer Rising, Man with a Movie Camera, Metropolis, Mirror, Mulholland Drive, Night Music, Ordet, Orpheus, Persona, Pickpocket, Playtime, Psycho, Rebecca, Rosemary's Baby, Rumble Fish, Scarface, Seven Samurai, Sherlock Jr., Singin' in the Rain, Stalker, Sunset Boulevard, Taste of Cherry, Taxi Driver, Testament of Orpheus, The 400 Blows, The Blood of a Poet, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The Color of Pomegranates, The Green Ray, The Holy Mountain, The Isle, The Lady from Shanghai, The Night of the Hunter, The Passion of Joan of Arc, The Seventh Seal, The Spirit of the Beehive, The Tales of Hoffmann, The Tree of Life, The Turin Horse, Time of the Gypsies, Tokyo Story, Touch of Evil, Trans-Europ-Express, Ugetsu, Un Chien Andalou, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, Vampyr, Videodrome, Wavelength, Werckmeister Harmonies, Wild Strawberries, Moonlight Sonata, Stellar, The Haunted House Biased toward European art cinema, experimental work, and directors who broke conventional narrative rules.
"A policeman's job is only easy in a police state."
* Touch of Evil, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052311/quotes/?item=qt0321627
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touch_of_Evil
> being the police and having to let someone you know is a murderer or terrorist go because you can't prove what they did
"A policeman's job is only easy in a police state." — https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Touch_of_Evil
> as a genuinely terrifying prospect in plenty of TV shows.
Probably for a reason:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copaganda
Paramount Television is in the credits. It's tempting to think directing is easy until you read Orson Welles' memo on edits to Touch of Evil.
It would take longer to read his memo out loud than to watch the movie.
Netflix's classic movies selection is pretty terrible though, isn't it? I know I checked a couple of months back on the UK library for some noirs and I can't remember exactly but I think there may have only been 1 (Touch of Evil iirc)
The best Disney movies are in my opinion sublime artistic creations surpassing most "art movies" in quality and depth of the craft and art of visual storytelling. Just look at Bambi, Pinocchio or Fantasia. They also happen to be some of the most popular movies of all time. So I reject the premise that entertainment is in opposition to artistic or that popular means "lowest common denominator". And what is wrong with car chases and explosions? Some of the best films of all times have featured car chases and explosions. Just take the car bomb and explosion at the beginning of Touch of Evil - this is recognized as one of best scenes ever.
The problem with the Little Mermaid is that she is suffering all the way through and kills herself in the end, and then the story ends with the moral that every kid who misbehaves will prolong the suffering of this mermaids soul. I don't think even Lars von Trier could make that into a successful movie.
> his first and only masterpiece, Citizen Kane
Only masterpiece? What about The Magnificent Ambersons? Touch of Evil? Chimes at Midnight? Calling his first film his only masterpiece gives the article a better story arc, but it's not true.
General note: he made ONE great film (Kane), a few good ones (Ambersons, F For Fake, Chimes) and the rest were howlers or just dull. I can't watch Lady From Shanghai because of of his awful accent, plus it's s bit dull. Touch of Evil was almost good but 45 minutes too long. Genius? Nah.
That's certainly true. Film buffs and insiders lovelong complex single-take shots (the opening of Orson Welles' Touch of Evil is still a high-water-mark of technical craft), but over the length of a whole film (eg Russian Ark, where magazine changes in the camera were done when ducking behind actors or furniture) it become exhausting.