TOUCH OF EVIL (1958)
Randwick Ritz, Sydney:
7:10 PM
Friday May 02
3:40 PM
Monday May 05
11:30 AM
Tuesday May 06
Lido Cinemas, Melbourne:
7:15 PM
Friday May 09
3:30 PM
Tuesday May 13
Rating: M
Duration: 111 minutes
Country: United States
Language: English
Cast: Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, Orson Welles, Marlene Dietrich
Director: Orson Welles
SYDNEY TICKETS ⟶
MELBOURNE TICKETS ⟶
7:10 PM
Friday May 02
3:40 PM
Monday May 05
11:30 AM
Tuesday May 06
Lido Cinemas, Melbourne:
7:15 PM
Friday May 09
3:30 PM
Tuesday May 13
Rating: M
Duration: 111 minutes
Country: United States
Language: English
Cast: Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, Orson Welles, Marlene Dietrich
Director: Orson Welles
SYDNEY TICKETS ⟶
MELBOURNE TICKETS ⟶
4K RESTORATION – AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE
“Touch of Evil is one of the standard-bearers for the kind of eye-catching, bravura camera work Welles favoured. Expressionistic in the extreme, filled with shadows, angles and cinematic flourishes, the film raises the usual brooding nightmare ambience of film noir to a level few other pictures have attempted”. – Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
“Beginning with one of the most celebrated tracking shots in cinema history, a 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.” (BFI citation for the Greatest Films of All Time Poll, 2022)
Welles returned to Hollywood after a decade long absence first to accept the part of Police Chief Hank Quinlan who solves his cases with … just a touch of evil, but eventually to take on the job of re-writing the script and directing the movie. Cut and re-edited by the studio, it took decades before the film was first reconstructed and even longer for a 4K restoration was made and premiered at Bologna’s Il Cinema Ritrovato in June 2024.
Introduced by Claude Gonzalez at Ritz Cinemas and Adrian Danks at Lido Cinemas
“Touch of Evil is one of the standard-bearers for the kind of eye-catching, bravura camera work Welles favoured. Expressionistic in the extreme, filled with shadows, angles and cinematic flourishes, the film raises the usual brooding nightmare ambience of film noir to a level few other pictures have attempted”. – Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
“Beginning with one of the most celebrated tracking shots in cinema history, a 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.” (BFI citation for the Greatest Films of All Time Poll, 2022)
Welles returned to Hollywood after a decade long absence first to accept the part of Police Chief Hank Quinlan who solves his cases with … just a touch of evil, but eventually to take on the job of re-writing the script and directing the movie. Cut and re-edited by the studio, it took decades before the film was first reconstructed and even longer for a 4K restoration was made and premiered at Bologna’s Il Cinema Ritrovato in June 2024.
Introduced by Claude Gonzalez at Ritz Cinemas and Adrian Danks at Lido Cinemas
THE RESTORATION
4K Restoration by Universal Pictures from the 35mm Original Negative and 35mm Dialogue/Music/Effects Track. Restoration services conducted by NBCUniversal StudioPost.
Director: Orson Welles; Production Company: Universal-International Pictures Co., Inc.; Producer: Albert Zugsmith; Script: Orson Welles based on Badge of Evil (1956) by Whit Masterson; Photography: Russell Metty; Editor: Virgil Vogel, Aaron Stell, Edward Curtiss; Production Design: Alexander Golitzen, Robert Clatworthy; Music: Henry Mancini
Cast: Charlton Heston (Ramon Miguel ‘Mike’ Vargas), Janet Leigh (Susan Vargas), Orson Welles (Hank Quinlan), Joseph Calleia (Pete Menzies), Marlene Dietrich (Tanya), Akim Tamiroff (Joe Grandi), Dennis Weaver (Motel clerk), Ray Collins (Adair)
USA | 1958 | 111 Mins | 4K DCP | B&W| English | M
Director: Orson Welles; Production Company: Universal-International Pictures Co., Inc.; Producer: Albert Zugsmith; Script: Orson Welles based on Badge of Evil (1956) by Whit Masterson; Photography: Russell Metty; Editor: Virgil Vogel, Aaron Stell, Edward Curtiss; Production Design: Alexander Golitzen, Robert Clatworthy; Music: Henry Mancini
Cast: Charlton Heston (Ramon Miguel ‘Mike’ Vargas), Janet Leigh (Susan Vargas), Orson Welles (Hank Quinlan), Joseph Calleia (Pete Menzies), Marlene Dietrich (Tanya), Akim Tamiroff (Joe Grandi), Dennis Weaver (Motel clerk), Ray Collins (Adair)
USA | 1958 | 111 Mins | 4K DCP | B&W| English | M