I have thought it convenient to see again "Touch of Evil", before daring to comment this main work in the history of cinema. I don't pretend to be original saying that this movie attains the highest levels of visual beauty, and not just in cinema, but in the whole art of the 20th century. The lights and shadows, the photography, the camera motions, the backgrounds... it's all too stunning to be described: pure work of genius. There is enough matter for a thousand Ph. D's in cinematographic techniques.
The part of the story concerned with Quinlan and his evil deeds is quite good. Quinlan is a very interesting character, superbly interpreted by Orson Welles. It should be noted that he is by far the nicest character in the movie, and it's almost impossible not to root for him: perhaps this is a precise artistic choice by the author Orson Welles.
Now forgive me for criticizing the heavy improbabilities and flaws we find in the story of "Touch of Evil". The whole sub-plot about Vargas' wife Susan (Janet Leigh) is just nonsense from the very beginning. The celebrated Mexican policeman Vargas (Charlton Heston) neglects his spouse, in their very wedding day (!), to investigate a crime which by no means concerns him, and furthermore committed in the USA territory (I guess this is an unacceptable impropriety)... And then Susan is openly threatened and pursued by his mortal enemies, the Grandi's, and the cunning Vargas finds nothing better than leaving her alone at a deserted motel (owned by the Grandi's!)... By the way, also Susan looks incredibly stupid... When, finally, Vargas remembers that he's a married man, runs to the motel in anxiety for his wife and searches her room, he neither looks in the bathroom to check if, say, Susan's corpse is not in the bath-tub, cut to pieces or something... Really a great job by a first-rate policeman! And the audience (even in 1958) could wonder why the Grandi's don't ACTUALLY rape and drug Susan, instead of just faking it. I realize that such stuff would have been too hot for the censorship of the 1950s: but then it would have been much better to delete the sub-plot with Susan. In the finale we find further absurdities, still regarding Vargas and spouse.
I regret to say that these flaws of the plot seriously damage "Touch of Evil", a great masterpiece from any other point of view.
The part of the story concerned with Quinlan and his evil deeds is quite good. Quinlan is a very interesting character, superbly interpreted by Orson Welles. It should be noted that he is by far the nicest character in the movie, and it's almost impossible not to root for him: perhaps this is a precise artistic choice by the author Orson Welles.
Now forgive me for criticizing the heavy improbabilities and flaws we find in the story of "Touch of Evil". The whole sub-plot about Vargas' wife Susan (Janet Leigh) is just nonsense from the very beginning. The celebrated Mexican policeman Vargas (Charlton Heston) neglects his spouse, in their very wedding day (!), to investigate a crime which by no means concerns him, and furthermore committed in the USA territory (I guess this is an unacceptable impropriety)... And then Susan is openly threatened and pursued by his mortal enemies, the Grandi's, and the cunning Vargas finds nothing better than leaving her alone at a deserted motel (owned by the Grandi's!)... By the way, also Susan looks incredibly stupid... When, finally, Vargas remembers that he's a married man, runs to the motel in anxiety for his wife and searches her room, he neither looks in the bathroom to check if, say, Susan's corpse is not in the bath-tub, cut to pieces or something... Really a great job by a first-rate policeman! And the audience (even in 1958) could wonder why the Grandi's don't ACTUALLY rape and drug Susan, instead of just faking it. I realize that such stuff would have been too hot for the censorship of the 1950s: but then it would have been much better to delete the sub-plot with Susan. In the finale we find further absurdities, still regarding Vargas and spouse.
I regret to say that these flaws of the plot seriously damage "Touch of Evil", a great masterpiece from any other point of view.