March 11, 2001

TOUCH OF EVIL U.S., 1958. Black & White. Not Rated. 111 Minutes. Directed by Orson Welles. Starring Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, Orson Welles, Marlene Dietrich.

Touch of Evil, now available in a 111-minute "restored version" recut according to director Orson Welles' original intentions, begins with what may be the greatest single shot in motion picture history. "[It follows] a car with a bomb in its trunk for three minutes and 20 seconds," writes Roger Ebert. "And [Touch of Evil] has other virtuoso camera movements, including an unbroken interrogation in a cramped room, and one that begins in the street and follows the characters through a lobby and into an elevator.… Welles and his cinematographer, Russell Metty, were not simply showing off. The destinies of all of the main characters are tangled from beginning to end, and the photography makes that point by trapping them in the same shots, or tying them together through cuts that match and resonate. The story moves not in a straight line, but as a series of loops and coils."