Touch of Evil

Directed by Orsen Welles, Touch of Evil was released in 1958 and is widely regarded as the last true Film Noir.
There's no doubt this is a noir. The narrative is your typical crime drama. There's a corrupted police chief, an alienated narcotic detective and his wife and even a sex obsessed motel manager. Betrayal, corruption, murder and revenge are all themes here and common themes of film noir.


What is particularly interesting about Touch of Evil is its visual noir elements. Many extreme and uncomfortable close ups, particularly of Orsen Welles's character are often used. Also shots at low angles (see picture above), shots with smoke and flashing lights and a shot with a mirror and a person in the back ground appear throughout the film.

Two women feature throughout the film. First off is the detectives wife who although becomes a victim, is to begin with a strong and defiant character. The second is a lady who runs a small bar where our police chief is seen drinking near the end of the film. Here she is working in the dark side of the town and seems to be also a strong woman.

One particular noir element I like which appears in the famous opening long take (a 3 minute long uncut opening take) is a shot where a person holding a bomb runs of screen and a second later his shadow can be seen flying along the wall (this can be seen at 23 seconds in the bellow video). For me this one moment really captures the essence of film noir, a shadow without a person visible connected to it running along a dark alleyway.


All the usual harsh lighting and long shadows appear throughout the film though they only appear at the moments in the narrative when something particularly related to crime happens or is happening. Most clearly this is happening in the long finally where the corrupt police chief is revealing his unlawfulness to a bugged police officer while our hero, the detective, is following and hiding with the receiver. It's all happening at night with long shadows being cast by the street lamps and as the police chief is becoming more worried the camera gets closer and closer to his sweaty face.

Another particularly interesting couple of scenes take place inside the apartment of a possible suspect, then a bar, then back at the apartment. All three scenes are uncut and in the apartment the camera moves throughout three different rooms of the house. While logistically these are interesting scenes what is particularly fascinating is why these scenes where chosen. In the first scene the police chief is clearly quite brutal to the suspect and the detective become aware of this and starts to distrust him. In the bar scene we the audience see how he is not to be trusted and is planning on setting up the detective. Back in the apartment we see how the suspect is then set up so the police chief look good and the detective realises this. Could these be uncut as these three scenes setup the rest of the events in the film therefore are particularly interesting or perhaps Orsen Welles just like long takes. (The two apartment scenes can be seen in the video bellow).

One thing's for sure, Touch of Evil remains a thrilling and gripping film and a great ending to the noir era.