1958
Director: Orson Welles
BEFORE THE FILM
Corruption in the Criminal Justice system
The criminal jusrice system contains a great deal of power in it and the potential for corruption is quite strong. It may be witin the police department (graft, falsifying evidence, payoffs etc, see fimls like Serpico, Cruising) or with private investigators (remember Mr. Blore in And Then There Were None) in the courts where lawyers, judges, district attorneys may all have personal reasons for doing things illegally) , or in prisons where sheer power over prisoners is possible (Brute Force, etc.) The question of corruption in the police is what leads us to the cateory of "bad" good guy - the cop who wants to catch the bad guy by any means possible and thereby goes over the edge into illegal acticity. In Touch of Evil there are three "cops", Sgt, Pete Menzies (Jooseph Calleia), Captain Quinlan (Orsib Welles) and .Mike Vargas (Charleton Heston) a Mexican law enforcement officer who staus and rank remain unknown. Orson Welles is considered one of the great directors/writers/actors of all times by many people, and it is inconceivable that any film student not know his name or some of the famous films he has made. His first film Citizen Kane is seen as a masterpiece by most and possibly the best film ever made by some. Despite this, Welles’ career was beset with difficulties with studio heads overriding his creative decisions. His inability to get funding was always a major hassle in his life.
Welles took on this film which most people had rejected and both starred in and directed the film.
Considered bizarre on many accounts, the casting of Charleton Heston as a Mexican is noted even in the film “Ed Wood”.
Welles is noted as a director for his camera work which is rather spectacular – sometimes, according to some, to the point of overpowering the rest of the picture and sometimes to the point of being excessive and having a kind of “look what I can do!”. approach to film.
This film particularly is noted for it “long takes”, in which the camera is allowed to run for quite some time before the director yells “cut”. One of the longest occurs at the very start of the film, and another occurs in the house when the police are searching for the dynamite. These shots contain a great deal of camera movement which makes them rather spectacular. They are among the longest takes on film. Longer shots can be found on film in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope and in many shots on videotape, but these are among the most complex and longest.
Among the performers in small roles are Zsa Zsa Gabor as the woman who runs the STrip Tease Club; Keenan Wynn as the lawyer and Dennis Weaver as the night manager who would go on to play Chester on T.V.'s Gunsmoke. Watch for Mort Mills who will appear with Janet Leigh in Psycho where he plays the Highway Patrolman. and Joseph Cotton.as the coroner. Mercedes McCambridge appears here too (Many actors had worked with Welles before or wanted to be in a Welles film. Alfred Hitchcock said that it was seeing Janet Leigh under attack in a mortel that caused him to use her in Psycho
AFTER THE FILM
The three law enforcement officers fall along a spectrum: Vargas (the good good guy but somewhat stupid and incompetent), Menzies - also a good good guy but somewhat gullible and Quinlan the bad good guy.. Vargas suspect Farnus (the wrong guy), does not notice his wife yelling for help, loses his pistol and gets the prrof he needs about Quinlan only through Menzies. Vargas seems more concerned with getting Quinlin because the matter has become personal. At taht point he stops being a "police officer" and becomes a "husband" and attacks the Mexicans in the bar, thus resorting to non legal means to acquire iformation. This parallels Quniland whose wife has been murdered and whose killer has never been caught. In a sense we can see Vargas almost as an incipient Quinlan.
Menzies on the other hand does not realize that Quinlan has been planting evidence for him to find and believes this is all true. When it becomes apparent taht Quinlan has "gone bad" Menzies helps Vargas get him, but it costs his his life.
What is the film about?
Welles is interested in many of his films in power and corruption. (Look at courses on “director’s cinema”). Compare this film with other’s like Citizen Kane.
One might well wonder about the back story to Quinlan and what the relationship was between him, his wife and Tanya and the murer of his wife, but this would be just speculation.
Long shots:
There are two very long shots in the film. The opening shot is the much more complex of the two. The shot is not only long, but with a great deal of movement and interaction between people and things. The shot establishes by its unity the interconnection between the car bomb, the Grandes, Vargas as well as the “unified” border which people cross over regularly in the film. It is a virtuoso shot full of meaning.
Film Noir
Film noir has many elements to it. One of its stylistic characteristics (as opposed to its narrative characteristics) is it high key lighting with strong contrast between light and shadow (called chiaroscuro lighting). Shots are often low angle and ceilings are visible. People are often trapped in frames within frames and people are seem in mirrors often indicating duplicity.
Low Shots:
Low shote make the characters more imposing. Compare the initial shots of Charleton Heston (Vargas) with those of Orson Welles (Quinlan). How do they compare?
Frames within Frames
People appear entrapped in frames within frames. By enclosing a person in a frame (a window, a door way, prison bars, bridge structures) which appears within the frame of the screen itself, the person is symbolically hemmed in.
Note for example the seen where Heston (Vargas) is on the phone with the blind woman (Heston/Vargas “can’t see” either) while there is a great deal of activity going on outside the window.
Is Quinlan right or wrong?
He gets the right guy for the bombing. He “assists” justice. His techniques are wrong (ends do not justify the means, and certainly not when the means are “hunches”). Vargas is more preoccupied with getting Quinlan and finding his wife (whom he in effect deserts) than in solving the problem of the bomb.