# I watched Touch of Evil today **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 15, 2010, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-watched-touch-of-evil-today/546824 "2010-07-15T20:02:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![lexi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lexi/32/6806_2.png) [@lexi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lexi)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-watched-touch-of-evil-today/546824/21 "2010-07-16T22:17:13Z")
For me this movie is about the visuals, and everything from camera angles to the crane shot at the beginning are just a work of art. It is a very gritty, and depressing plot, and being an older movie the paces is slower, but I love it so much, I have both versions of the movie. > **[Amazon.com: Touch of Evil : Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, Orson Welles, Marlene...](https://www.amazon.com/Touch-Evil-Anniversary-Charlton-Heston/dp/B001CC7PQ2)** > > Product Description Experience director Orson Welles' masterpiece Touch of Evil like never before in an all-new 50th Anniversary Edition DVD! Starring Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh and Orson Welles himself, this exceptional film noir portrait... ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-watched-touch-of-evil-today/546824/22 "2010-07-17T00:16:10Z")
> [@teela\_brown](#): > > This is about my impression. I recognize that the film is brilliant, but there is so much that is loathsome in the film that watching it is an unpleasant experience. > [@In\_Winnipeg](#): > > I agree; my description of it was that it was “tawdry, very tawdry”, “oily” and “somewhat slimy”. Welcome to the wonderful world of film noir. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Rrose\_Selavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bcef8e/32.png) [@Rrose\_Selavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rrose_Selavy)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-watched-touch-of-evil-today/546824/23 "2010-07-18T16:40:51Z")
What’s remarkable and rare about the Welles character and performance is that he is without “glamour/glamor” or “charm” in the usual Hollywood sense. It’s almost too easy in film generally to make an unpleasant character actually quite likeable/glamorous or at least palatable or evoking some easy sympathy. He’s so uncomfortable to watch it’s visceral. He probably has bad breath too. Certainly the film is dark and claustrophobic. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-watched-touch-of-evil-today/546824/24 "2010-07-18T19:43:43Z")
Are you sure? Did you forget something? ---
**Author:** ![Rrose\_Selavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bcef8e/32.png) [@Rrose\_Selavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rrose_Selavy)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-watched-touch-of-evil-today/546824/25 "2010-07-18T19:56:51Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > Are you sure? Did you forget something? You tell me . It’s ages since I saw the film. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-watched-touch-of-evil-today/546824/26 "2010-07-18T21:05:17Z")
Then you need to watch it again, or you will be done in by your own touch of evil. ---
**Author:** ![Rrose\_Selavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bcef8e/32.png) [@Rrose\_Selavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rrose_Selavy)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-watched-touch-of-evil-today/546824/27 "2010-07-18T21:11:25Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > Then you need to watch it again, or you will be done in by your own touch of evil. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-watched-touch-of-evil-today/546824/28 "2010-07-18T23:27:46Z")
> [@Short\_Guy](#): > > Short answer: I love it, mainly for visual reasons, although it is helped by a much more engaging story than, say, Citizen Kane was. What? I agree with everything you said visually, but storywise-- Touch of Evil is a genre film. There’s really nothing that special going on there. _Kane_ is the greatest story Hollywood ever told. I guess I can kind of see where you’re coming from if you watched them both once, passively. But go back and watch CK a couple more times. It’s so much deeper and more rewarding. ToE really is not even in the same league. Not even close. ---
**Author:** ![Short\_Guy\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9adbd/32.png) [@Short\_Guy\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Short_Guy_1)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-watched-touch-of-evil-today/546824/29 "2010-07-18T23:56:44Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > What? I agree with everything you said visually, but storywise-- Touch of Evil is a genre film. There’s really nothing that special going on there. _Kane_ is the greatest story Hollywood ever told. > > I guess I can kind of see where you’re coming from if you watched them both once, passively. But go back and watch CK a couple more times. It’s so much deeper and more rewarding. ToE really is not even in the same league. Not even close. I’ve seen both films many, many times, and all but passively at that. I’ve never been able to connect emotionally with Kane, whereas Quinlan just struck a chord with me from the first time I watched ToE. I agree that CK has some better emotional scenes than ToE (the one where one of the characters tells a story about a girl he only met once, fleetingly, is fantastic) but to me, ToE is much more the story of the moral decline of a man, even if the scope is more limited. In fact, maybe it’s precisely the limited scope that glues ToE together better IMO. And even conceding that CK is deeper and more rewarding, the “genre” type story of ToE is still more likely to interest a casual viewer (as you said) who isn’t interested in the visual impact, which was why I compared the stories in the first place. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-watched-touch-of-evil-today/546824.md?page=1)