CULT MOVIE:TOUCH OF EVIL(1958)

Orson Welles is Hank Quinlan, a corrupt cop who asks Marlene Dietrich to read his future. "You're all used up, you haven't got any," she tells him-but you don't need to be Mystic Meg to see that. By then he is almost friendless, pursued by his old sidekick and by do-gooding Mexican lawyer Heston. But the plot is almost incidental in this study of corruption and menace in a small border town. The scene where Janet Leigh retreats up her hotel bed while a gang prepare to pump her with what the viewer thinks is heroin sticks in the memory. Ironies abound on and off-screen. Heston insisted that Welles direct but Welles' character takes over the movie, which is peculiarly ironic as the focus on Quinlan unbalances the film and underlines the fact that as an actor Welles is not on top form here. Quinlan is too much a monster, and Heston's lawyer is more convicing.
Dirctor:Orson Welles Cast:Orson Welles, Charlton Heston

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