Touch of Evil (1958)

Orson Welles, Marlene Dietrich, Charlton Heston, Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh star in Welles’ cinematic, bravura, borderline unhinged, Mexican border noir.

We kick off the festival with a bang, on screen and off, with one of cinema’s great auteurs and a film that many argue rivals Citizen Kane as Welles’ masterpiece (you can argue this out afterwards). Opening with one of the most famous, influential and lengthy tracking shots in cinema history (cited in Altman’s The Player), this moody, thrilling, sweat-beaded pulp fiction is loaded with movie icons, infused with visionary direction and cinematography, all soundtracked by the great Henry Mancini. This is Orson Welles as performer and director turned up to eleven.

Showing in the 1998 version reconstructed by acclaimed editor Walter Murch (working to a memo from Welles himself) which – unlike the initial studio release – brings the film closest to Welles’ original vision. Chris Chibnall

USA, 1958. Director Orson Welles. Screenplay by Orson Welles from the 1956 novel Badge of Evil by Whit Masterson. With Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, Orson Welles, Marlene Dietrich. 111 mins. 12A

Introduced by Chris Chibnall.

Screening sponsored by Andrew and Louise Chater.

Screening at BAC
£7.50/£6.50/£5
25-and-under £3
10% off for BAC supporters.

BFI programme notes

378757