Touch of Evil (1958) is an American crime drama film, written, directed by, and co-starring Orson Welles. Paul Monash and Franklin Coen also wrote scenes for the film. The screenplay was loosely based on the novel Badge of Evil by Whit Masterson. The cast includes Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, Joseph Calleia, Akim Tamiroff, and Marlene Dietrich. Touch of Evil is one of the last examples of film noir in the genre's classic era (from the early 1940...
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Touch of Evil (1958) is an American crime drama film, written, directed by, and co-starring Orson Welles. Paul Monash and Franklin Coen also wrote scenes for the film. The screenplay was loosely based on the novel Badge of Evil by Whit Masterson. The cast includes Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, Joseph Calleia, Akim Tamiroff, and Marlene Dietrich. Touch of Evil is one of the last examples of film noir in the genre's classic era (from the early 1940s until the late 1950s).
The movie opens with a three-minute, thirty second continuous tracking shot widely considered by critics to be one of the greatest long takes in cinematic history. Beginning on the Mexico/US border, the shot shows a man placing a bomb in a car and then the journey of the car into the United States. The shot ends with newlyweds Miguel ("Mike") (Charlton Heston) and Susie Vargas (Janet Leigh) kissing. The scene then cuts to the car, containing a man and a woman, exploding.
Vargas, a drug enforcement official within the...
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