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Film details
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Featuring
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Director
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Country
USA
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Year
1958
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Genre
Film noir
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Type
Film
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Category
Fiction
Alternative titles
- Badge of Evil Alternative
Introduction
“A brilliant fusion of pulp art with continental sophistication; it has all the energetic cruddiness of a Sammy Fuller ‘B’ picture, and all the self-consciousness of a New Wave melodrama.”
James Naremore, The Magic World of Orson Welles, 1978
Charlton Heston (starring here as Mexican border cop Mike Vargas) was apparently instrumental in persuading B-movie producer Albert Zugsmith to hire Orson Welles – who hadn’t directed in Hollywood for a decade – to make Touch of Evil.
Beginning with one of the most celebrated tracking shots in cinema history, a bravura three-minute take in which a bomb is planted in a car that then explodes after crossing the US border, Welles created a baroque, highly stylised masterpiece from inauspiciously pulpy source material.
With its story of murder, marijuana and police corruption, Touch of Evil is considered among the last of the 1940s/50s cycle of crime thrillers known as film noir. Welles’ vivid turn as corpulent bent cop Quinlan provided one of the genre’s most memorable villains.
Iniquity south of the border also colours Welles’ prior film noir, The Lady from Shanghai (1947), starring his then-wife Rita Hayworth.
Cast & Credits
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Cast
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Ramon Miguel 'Mike' Vargas
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Susan Vargas
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Hank Quinlan
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Pete Menzies
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'Uncle' Joe Grandi
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Marcia Linnekar
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District Attorney Adair
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Mirador Motel night man
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'Pancho'
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Al Schwartz
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Manolo Sanchez
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Risto
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Pretty Boy
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Blaine
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Zita, blonde in car
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Chief Gould
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Tanya
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stripclub owner
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[customs officer]
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[police surgeon]
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[man at the accident]
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[young delinquent]
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[Eddie Farnum]
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[Linnekar Construction foreman]
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[Casey]
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[gang member]
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[gang member]
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[gang member]
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[gang leader]
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[Ginnie]
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[Bobbie]
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[Jackie]
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[Lia]
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[lawyer]
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[lackey]
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Credits
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Direction:
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Director
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[Director - Additional Material]
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Assistant Director
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[2nd Assistant Director]
Production:
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Production Company
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Producer
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[Production Manager]
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Studio
Writing:
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Screenplay by
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[Screenplay]
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Based on the novel 'Badge of Evil' by
Photography:
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Director of Photography
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[Camera Operator]
Editing:
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Film Editor
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Film Editor
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[Editor]
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[Editor]
Design:
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Art Direction
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Art Direction
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Set Decorations
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Set Decorations
Costumes:
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Gowns
Make-up:
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Make-up
Music:
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Music
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Music Supervisor
Sound:
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Sound
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Sound
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Sound System
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The Greatest Films of All Time 2012
Ranked 57th in the critics’ poll