Touch of Evil (VHS, 2000)

One thing's certain about this classic film noir ala Orson Welles: the man who wore so many hats to make the original gave his all to his project, to the degree of rebelling to the original film being cut to pieces by the studio that Universal fired him! So, yes, this is the version of Welles' classic that should have been his masterpiece, almost half a century before most of his version was ever recognized.

So typical of Welles, t/his restored version "Touch of Evil," presents an intellectual's delight of complexities of very dark characters & morals. The story centers around Capt. Hank Quinlan (Welles). Unlike Paul Newman's loveable "Judge Roy Bean," who used a heavy hand & a light heart to govern his town, Welles takes Quinlan's racism to the extremes of supremacism. He tortures the very spirit of the law with gross distortions of ethics & power-over once under the control of Quinlan, the vulgar brute.

(Unfortunately) Charlton Heston (ugh, in real life) attempts to exemplify the very antitheses of all that Quinlan represents, as Mike Vargas, the almost virtuous Mexican detective, who's on the trail of the dangerous Grandis family, a cartel of drug-smuggling dealers. It's rather difficult to view the real life supremacist, Heston, as the white knight in shining armor, so to speak; at least, knowing his history as a leading participant, even if unwittingly due to senility, in perpetuating US supremacist violence. But, this film begs to be viewed in its historical context without juxtaposing it in what is now known about the actor-turned-lobbyist.

(Fortunately) Janet Leigh plays Susie Vargas, the detective's bride. Leigh's blonde beauty itself provides the necessary contrast to Heston's character's obsession with overcoming the evils of both the Grandis & Quinlan. Much like the real Heston, who couldn't notice the forest for the trees, Susie's husband doesn't notice his utter consumption with the law leaves his beloved in mortal danger. In that sense, it's interesting that Mike Vargas' character becomes Heston's persona!

Led by the magnificent performance by Marlene Dietrich, who was written off as a special guest star, along with Zsa Zsa Gabor, Dennis Weaver & Joseph Cotten, "Touch of Evil's" supporting cast are the shock troops Welles deploys to expose 1 of the darkest aspects of US history. Like it's been shown about great people, great societies also have tragic flaws. Dietrich's corpus of films reveals that the Grand Dame of films noir took on some of the most tragic social flaws in modern history.

Add that to the destiny of this film's editions, a contemporary viewer is left begging to know the rationale behind the studio's scouring of another Welles film noir. Did Universal's studio heads believe that the US public were too frail to view ourselves in this looking glass of a film?~