Touch of Evil (1958) [50th Anniversary Edition]
A Film by Orson Welles
2xDVD9 | ISO+MDS | NTSC 16:9 | 1:50:36, 1:48:48, 1:35:15 (see below) | 7,77 Gb + 8,18 Gb
Audio: English AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps | Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French | Cover + DVD Scans
Genre: Crime, Film-Noir, Thriller
A wonderfully offhand genesis (Welles adopting and adapting a shelved Paul Monash script for B-king Albert Zugsmith without ever reading the novel by Whit Masterson it was based on) marked this brief and unexpected return to Hollywood film-making for Welles. And the result more than justified the arrogance of the gesture. A sweaty thriller conundrum on character and corruption, justice and the law, worship and betrayal, it plays havoc with moral ambiguities as self-righteous Mexican cop Heston goes up against Welles' monumental Hank Quinlan, the old-time detective of vast and wearied experience who goes by instinct, gets it right, but fabricates evidence to make his case. Set in the backwater border hell-hole of Los Robles, inhabited almost solely by patented Wellesian grotesques, it's shot to resemble a nightscape from Kafka.