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Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9781558804227
Format: Black & White, HiFi Sound, NTSC
ISBN: 1558804226
Label: Universal Studios
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Universal Studios
Release Date: March 01, 1992
Running Time: 95 minutes
Sales Rank: 21188
Studio: Universal Studios
Theatrical Release Date: 1958
Editorial Review:
Amazon.com essential video:
Considered by many to be the greatest B movie ever made, the original-release version of Orson Welles's film noir masterpiece Touch of Evil was, ironically, never intended as a B movie at all--it merely suffered that fate after it was taken away from writer-director Welles, then reedited and released in 1958 as the second half of a double feature. Time and critical acclaim would eventually elevate the film to classic status (and Welles's original vision was meticulously followed for the film's 1998 restoration), but for four decades this original version stood as a testament to Welles's directorial genius. From its astonishing, miraculously choreographed opening shot (lasting over three minutes) to Marlene Dietrich's classic final line of dialogue, this sordid tale of murder and police corruption is like a valentine for the cinematic medium, with Welles as its love-struck suitor. As the corpulent cop who may be involved in a border-town murder, Welles faces opposition from a narcotics officer (Charlton Heston) whose wife (Janet Leigh) is abducted and held as the pawn in a struggle between Heston's quest for truth and Welles's control of carefully hidden secrets. The twisting plot is wildly entertaining (even though it's harder to follow in this original version), but even greater pleasure is found in the pulpy dialogue and the sheer exuberance of the dazzling directorial style. --Jeff Shannon
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Worth the Upgrade
Containing all video versions and the script of Welles's revisions, this update of the noir classic is certainly worth the money (or trade-in for your old version). I'm biased, of course, as this is one of my favorite film noir classics, one of the last official examples of the style. Welles, Heston, Leigh, Dietrich,in great roles, alone makes it worth the price. Akim Tamiroff as the Mexican crime boss and, in smaller roles, Dennis Weaver, Zsa Zsa Gabor and Mercedes McCambridge (!) add even more ... Read More
Rating: - film noir meets shakespeare
film noir may have gotten out of style or petered out of existence due to its over-exposition, then welles came and made touch of evil, and re-invented the genre by adding a touch of shakespeare with a truly decadent, distorted, depraved energy. i would even dare say a grotesque baroque energy. and when i read or utter the word grotesque i immediately think of another movie, get shorty, where the main character goes to the movie to see touch of evil. how fitting!
we all know of the ... Read More
Rating: - Borderline noir
Yes, this is the sleaze-noir Orson Welles classic with THAT famous tracking shot, Charlton Heston as a Mexican police detective, and Janet Leigh in various stages of undress. Welles casts himself as Hank Quinlan, a morally bankrupt police captain who lords over a corrupt border town. Quinlan is the most hideous grotesquerie Welles ever created as an actor, and certainly stands as one the most unique and complex heavies in all of film noir. The film features one of the last great roles for Marlene Dietrich, ... Read More
Rating:  - Another Sorry Mess. Highly regrettable. Bad storytelling.
A big "Citizen Kane" fan in my youth, I saw Touch of Evil in 1981 and thought it was simply awful. Then recently I heard of this reissue, and thought I'd buy it and watch it again. I discovered that in our youth we often know what's right, but often doubt ourselves. The movie is still awful. It may be more true to Welle's vision, but it's still awful. His talent had gone, quite obviously, by this time.
Many of us want so desperately to find Welles' later work important that we'll do almost anything ... Read More
Rating: - unleashes an electrical charge!
A bomb goes off in a car across the Mexican border and a man is chosen to take the rap. Meanwhile another man of the law who's on his way to his honeymoon with his bride, suspects a police frame-up. Forced by his conscience, he takes on the corrupt and the criminal and puts himself and his newlywed wife in grave danger. Welles' Touch Of Evil is a cruel-realized poem of corruption, greed and murder. It's a dark, vicious, chaotic world and from the first scene to the last, Welles holds it together, pulls it apart ... Read More
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