RS Throwback- Touch of Evil

A new segment on this new blog called Throwback which takes a look at older movies (pre-2005) that I missed and maybe you did too...probably not though.

This time Throwback will be looking at Touch of Evil, a 1958 Noir movie starring Orson Wells and Charlton Heston. I heard about this movie on the web comic Multiplex along with a few other oldies that may turn up on Throwback. I didn't think much of it at the time until about a year later when I was in a film class and the teacher used a clip from Touch of Evil as an example for suspense or something. It looked interesting so I made a mental note to check it out. Unfortunately I could never find it to rent and I couldn't bring myself to buy it since I'd never heard anything else about it. So it sat in the back of my mind that I needed to watch it at some point. Luckily now I have a Netflix account, and Touch of Evil came in.
So at long last I sat down to watch this movie that I had hyped up in my mind. I have to say I really enjoyed it. I had no idea as to the plot or the characters going in and I still found it a very compelling and thought provoking movie. So as usual if you don't want various parts of the movie ruined for you just know it's worth checking out if you've never seen it before.
Touch of Evil starts us off in Mexico with a couple going to America for their Honeymoon, Mike Vargas played by Charlton Heston, and Susan Vargas played by Janet Leigh. While walking in the streets a car explodes in front of them near the border and the victim is an American politician so the American police are called in, this is when we meet Captain Hank Quinian played by Orson Wells. From the beginning Wells plays Hank kind of on the rough edge but he's looked up to by all the other cops for his record of solved cases. Mike, being a Mexican detective, gets in on the case to help Wells.

Eventually the team tracks down a suspect and Mike catches Hank planting evidence against the suspect. Mike attempts to tell every one this but no one believes him.
Distraught with guilt Hank crawls into a bottle of whiskey which leads him down a dark road until the final confrontation with Mike, who has spent the movie attempting to prove Hank's guilt.
This is the best part to me, it shows how crooked Hank has become simply by shifting the camera angles, and steadily through out the movie his face becomes more and more covered by shadow. Until his confrontation with Mike on the bridge when (SPOILERS!!!!) Hank shoots his best friend and goes into such denial that he at first blames Mike but then ends up shot himself and starts claiming he'll die a hero since he took a bullet for his best friend. (SPOILERS OVER!!!!)
I feel weird commenting on this but I really do like the make up job on Heston to make him look Mexican. I didn't even know it was him until literally the ending credits. Also I loved Wells performance in his drunken stupor. How deep he crawls into denial just so his reputation won't be tarnished.
I will admit that the movie does get a little slow in between the first scene and the planting of the evidence, but if you stick with it the movie will take you to some pretty dark and surreal places.
I would recommend this if you enjoy movies by Alfred Hitchcock or if you just like Film Noir type movies. I'm not very learned on Noir but it has that kind of feel to it, and Orson Wells (also director and writer) did a great job conveying that.