“Charlton Heston (starring here as Mexican border cop Mike Vargas) was apparently instrumental in persuading B-movie producer Albert Zugsmith to hire Orson Welles—who hadn’t directed in Hollywood for a decade—to make Touch of Evil.
Beginning with one of the most celebrated tracking shots in cinema history, a bravura three-minute take in which a bomb is planted in a car that then explodes after crossing the U.S. border, Welles created a baroque, highly stylized masterpiece from inauspiciously pulpy source material. With its story of murder, marijuana and police corruption, Touch of Evil is considered among the last of the 1940s/50s cycle of crime thrillers known as film noir. Welles’ vivid turn as corpulent bent cop Quinlan provided one of the genre’s most memorable villains.” – BFI
In English and Spanish, with English subtitles.
TICKETS (+HST)
General: $15
Members: $10, $8, FREE
