Touch of Evil (1958)

Third viewing (first: May 01, 1991; second: May 20, 1996).
First viewing of the restored version.

The murder of a wealthy man and his mistress near the American-Mexican border puts a veteran policeman with little regard for proper incriminating procedure in conflict with a Mexican policeman who happens to be in the neighborhood on his honeymoon.

A superb film, which perhaps, in some indirect manner, is of some topical relevance in view of the present situation at the U.S.A.-Mexico border. Unfortunately for this blog, much has been written about Touch of Evil, ruling out any possibility for a relevant contribution from me. I will only note two things of mostly subjective nature. One: perhaps on account of this being my third viewing (although I could remember very little of it from my previous ones), or as a result of the restauration improvements, in my experience the plot was not hard to follow, nor in any way deliberately confusing. Two: although it is for the most part well filmed, I did get a little (just a little) sick of the tilted-up shots, at some point along the movie. I will leave it at that, and direct you to two pieces of criticism which I liked (not that I have read many others). One is Ebert's intelligent and informative review. The other is anonymous and was written for TV Guide. Although it contains some minor inaccuracies, no other review (Ebert's included) I came across gives as good an idea of what the movie is really like.

Rating: 91 (unchanged)