Touch of Evil

Touch of Evil is a classic 1958 film noir thriller. Written by, directed by, and co-starring Orson Welles, it also stars Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, Akim Tamiroff, Marlene Dietrich, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Dennis Weaver, Ray Collins, and Joseph Cotten. It is the story of crime and corruption in a Mexican border town. A car bomb and drugs and a newlywed couple are plot elements.

This film is almost universally praised, finding a place on everybody's best-of lists, and I feel foolish criticising it; but at every point along the way if there's a stupid decision to make the character does that. It's downright painful. I kept talking to the screen. "Don't do that! Anything but that!"

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The Guardian gives it 5 out of 5 stars and calls it "brilliant". Empire Online opens with this: "For over 40 years critics and filmmakers from Francois Truffaut to Paul Schrader to Curtis Hanson (citing its influence on LA Confidential) have paid homage to the technical mastery and I inspiration of Orson Welles' potent 50s noir." Time Out gives it 5 out of 5 stars and calls it a masterpiece that gets better with age.

A 1958 NYT review says, "THANKS to Orson Welles, nobody, and we mean nobody, will nap during "Touch of Evil,"". Roger Ebert gives it a spot on his Best Movies list. Rotten Tomatoes has a critics score of 96%.