Flick of The Day: Touch of Evil

Orson Welles is one of the great figures of Hollywood cinema. A child prodigy, he created a masterpiece with his feature debut, Citizen Kane, aged just 26. There is a certain revisionist view in vogue at the moment, which attempts to lessen the importance of the film, but it is so wrong. Even the most myopic of modern viewers can see how far ahead of its time it was in style, narrative structure and technique. However, Kane was a commercial failure and a controversial one at that. Thereafter, Welles was never given the chance to make a film in Hollywood without interference, and never lived up to the early promise of his debut. However the closest he came was today's flick of the day, Touch of Evil.

Touch Of Evil (50th Anniversary Edition)

After a long period in the wilderness, Welles was hired to play the role of Captain Quinlan, a corrupt local police captain in a town on the American side of the Mexican border. As was often the case, he was soon directing and writing the feature, largely at the behest of star Charlton Heston. The film opens with a much imitated and lauded tracking shot in a rough and tumble Mexican border town, as a bomb is placed in the back of a car of a local businessman and his girlfriend. We follow the car as it moves to the border crossing, along the way we meet Mexican narcotics officer Ramon Vargas, played by Heston and his new bride Susan, played by Janet Leigh as they walk back to their Hotel on the American side. Just over the border, the bomb explodes in a fiery ball, killing the passengers. Of course, as the man on the spot, Vargas feels the need to get involved. Before long, Quinlan is on the scene and doesn't react well to Vargas' involvement. Together they investigate the crime, with Quinlan suspecting a local Mexican employee of the murdered man of planting the bomb. However he chooses to plant evidence on him rather then find proof, setting him on a collision course with Vargas. The film is classic noir, with an ending to match.

Welles is brilliant himself as the malevolent Quinlan, the big fish in the small pond used to getting his way all the time. As one of his former paramour's Tanya played Marlene Dietrich, puts it at the end of the film:

He was some kind of a man... What does it matter what you say about people?

While Heston is not believable as a Mexican, his straight laced approach to the role of the narcotics officer Vargas is well suited and he plays it well throughout. Janet Leigh isn't given a whole lot to do as his wife, apart from being set upon by a band of "marijuana fiends", in a scene that is funny in an unintended manner. 

The plot is no more then your average potboiler then, but it is made then the material by Welles direction. The opening tracking shot, which lasts nearly 3 and a half minutes is just one of a number of technically daring shots in the film and Welles assembled  a great supporting cast including cameo appearances from Zsa-Zsa Gabor and Joseph Cotten. Welles was always famous for his ability to work with actors, seeking their input which was something the likes of Janet Leigh has not experienced before:

"It started with rehearsals. We rehearsed two weeks prior to shooting, which was unusual. We rewrote most of the dialogue, all of us, which was also unusual, and Mr. Welles always wanted our input. It was a collective effort, and there was such a surge of participation, of creativity, of energy. You could feel the pulse growing as we rehearsed. You felt you were inventing something as you went along. Mr. Welles wanted to seize every moment. He didn't want one bland moment. He made you feel you were involved in a wonderful event that was happening before your eyes."

The film should have gone on to great critical acclaim, however when Welles presented his cut to Univeral Internation Pictures, they took the film away from and re-shot and edited it to the point where the plot was incomprehensible and robbed it of the style and wit he had wanted. It was released as a B movie and it largely disappeared from view thereafter until in 1998, the film was re-edited as per Welles wishes and released again on DVD where it found the audience it deserved.

Ultimately Welles never made another film for a major studio, and his relationship with Hollywood was frosty in general. Viewed today, it is a fine film, an entertaining story which is driven by strong performances from Welles and Heston. While not a masterpiece, it is a fine example of the talent of Orson Welles as a director, producing a silk purse of a film out of a sows ear of a b-movie story. Oh, what might have been...

Flick of The Day: 55 Days At Peking

Ah, the historical epic, something which we have explored before here on Daily Flick. Unlike some of the swords and sandals epics we have previously looked at, this film details an event in history which is today largely forgotten if many know of it all though it is in fact much more relevant, The Boxer Rebellion of 1901. 

55 Days at Peking

Starring Ben Hur himself, the reliable star of so many epics Charlton Heston as an American soldier, 55 Days tells the story of a nationalist uprising in China in 1901 when the eight most powerful western nations of the day, which up until that point had been unimpeded in their attempts to carve China up were caught unawares by a grass roots Chinese rebellion. So it was that the Eight-Nation Alliance, for the record Japan, Russia, United Kingdom, United States, Germany, Austria-Hugary, France and Italy, held out at the city of Peking for 55 days despite being massively outnumbered. The film does take some liberties with this history but the basic tale is largely accurate with an added romantic subplot involving the character of Baroness Natalie Ivanoff, played by the gorgeous Ava Gardner to keep the audience involved and who can complain about that.

David Niven is perfectly cast as the British Ambassador, bringing his natural charm to the role of Sir Arthur Robinson, the man who insisted on staying and defending Peking, making the character light hearted and witty. A special mention must also be made of Flora Robson who is excellent as the Chinese Empress. There is much to admire apart from the performances of the central characters though, the sets and production values are extravagant even by the standards of the day. Filmed on location in Spain, everything was built from scratch including a full scale 60 acre set of Peking circa 1901 including a working sewer system on the plains outside Madrid. So many Chinese extras were hired for the crowd scenes that "for several months there was scarcely a Chinese restaurant to be found open in the entire country". Extravagance like that has to be seen to be believed.

The historical context of the story is of interest, how many times have you seen the most powerful nations on earth roll their interests together and work toward a common goal? The interplay between the different countries representatives is entertaining particularly between Niven and Heston. Interestingly, Charlton Heston is on record that he enjoyed working with David Niven in sharp contrast to his poisonous relationship with Ava Gardner, something which he blamed on her being unreasonable. 

This was the last film directed by Nicholas Ray, best remembered today for Rebel Without A Cause. If the direction is at times uneven, it is because Ray was replaced halfway through filming after collapsing on set having had a premonition that the epic scale of the film would ruin him and that he would never direct again, as it proved.

Ray pops up as the American Ambassador in a small cameo. He would never receive another directing commission after 55 days and he passed away of lung cancer in 1979.

In summary this is a fine film, with a number of interesting elements from the historical story to the strong leading performances from David Niven and Charlton Heston. It's well worth a look.