Touch of Evil - The Masters of Cinema Series

Touch of Evil begins with one of the most brilliant sequences in the history of cinema; and ends with one of the most brilliant final scenes ever committed to celluloid. In between unfurls a picture whose moral, sexual, racial, and aesthetic attitudes remain so radical as to cross borders established not only in 1958, but in the present age also. Charlton Heston portrays Mike Vargas, the Mexican chief of narcotics who sets out to uncover the facts surrounding a car bomb that has killed a wealthy American businessman on the US side of the border. As Vargas investigates, his newly-wed wife Susie (Janet Leigh, two years before Hitchcock's Psycho) is kidnapped by a gang out to exact vengeance for the prosecution of the brother of their leader (Akim Tamiroff). Meanwhile, Vargas' enquiries become progressively more obfuscated by the American cop Hank Quinlan (played by Welles himself, in one of the most imposing and unforgettable screen performances of his career), a besotted incarnation of corruption who alternately conspires with Susie's captors and seeks solace in the brothel of the Gypsy madame (Marlene Dietrich) who comforted him in bygone times. Welles' final studio-system picture has at last become secure in its status as one of the greatest films ever made. It remains a testament to the genius of Welles - a film of Shakespearean richness, inexhaustible.

Special Features

Booklet, Bonus Footage, Commentary: Reconstructed version: Rick Schmidlin (restoration producer); Charlton Heston and Janet Leigh (actors); Theatrical version: F.X. Feeney (critic); Preview version: James Naremore and Jonathan Rosenbaum (Welles scholars), Documentaries: 'Bringing Evil to Life'; 'Evil Lost and Found', Interviews: Matthew Sweet (critic/broadcaster); Tim Robey (critic); Kim Newman (author/critic), Theatrical version (95 min), Preview version (109 min) and 1998 Reconstruction (110 min) all included, Trailers

Actors: Akim Tamiroff, Keenan Wynn, Mercedes McCambridge, Dennis Weaver, Marlene Dietrich, Joseph Cotten, Joseph Calleia, Janet Leigh, Orson Welles, Lalo Rios, Charlton Heston, Zsa Zsa Gabor

Audio Languages: English

Duration: 95 minutes

Number of Discs: 2

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