Touch of Evil

Orson Welles’ terrific, stylish noir melodrama is a lurid tale of corruption and betrayal set in a seedy Mexican border town. Welles himself gives one of his towering screen performances as Hank Quinlan, the shambling, unscrupulous chief investigator. He also entirely reinvented the screenplay from the pulp novel Badge of Evil by Whit Masterson and orchestrated astonishing feats of cinematography with Director of Photography Russell Metty, including a bravura one shot opening sequence unmatched in Hollywood’s entire history.

‘A masterclass in tension, visual panache and B-movie excess.’ Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out

‘It is typical of Orson Welles that he takes a B-movie thriller set on the Mexican border and gives it a Shakespearian grandeur.’ Geoffrey Macnab, The Independent