Seeing Touch of Evil on TCM back in the day is what really got me into classic movies so it is cool to see some more analysis and appreciation for it! Sure, it’s geared a little more towards younger viewers with the Marvel and transformers references but there was some good analysis and will hopefully attract a new audience to the film!
The exact connection between the timer and the length of the shot (3 1/2 minutes) was first noticed by professor John Locke at Concordia University in the mid-1970s. He also suggested that the shadow on the wall behind Heston and Leigh was, in fact, Welles' own. The director "signed" the shot. Furthermore, the rest of the film is not a rapid montage - a very long take where Quinlan plants dynamite, was done to save on the budget, and there is another flamboyant long take filmed in an actual elevator.
I always thought it would have added to the opening sequence if the car had exploded off camera, and the crane shot stayed with Vargas for the next 30 seconds, but who am I to second guess Welles?'
I'm so glad you're doing videos like this. But seriously, please rethink all the "cool" references. They don't have the effect you want. They beak the video's train of thought and make you seem desperate, and young people never fall for this. Look up the "how do you do, fellow kids" meme. That's what this feels like.
@@cg98243 Yeah i stopped watching tat the apology for CH. I came back because i felt I might learn something for my course if I tried to focus on the good bits, but this goon is playing up to an audience of teens, most of whom probably don't even know the greatness of this move so will probably not watch this video.
The comments about Chuck Heston were inappropriate in the beginning. It’s one of his best performances and he brings a powerful dignity to the film. These new critics fail to see that the greats were stars for a reason, no matter what the part.
@@karlkarlos3545But, perhaps ironically, Heston was the one that insisted on Welles as the director. While someone like Ricardo Montaban would've been better suited to play Vargas, I thought that Heston did a good job. The supporting cast was brilliant. Amazing film.
Life ain't fair and it ain't never gonna be no matter how much these whiney snowflakes moan and try to bully others into their idea of how the world should be. Charlton Heston was good in it. I couldn't give a darn what OW said later.
@@daniellinehan63 not one of my 13 but it is one of my 8 all time favorite noirs. A masterpiece and I LOVE Tourneur. His I Walked with a Zombie is one of my 13.
I can only imagine how much better one of my favourite films would be with a better actor than Heston playing the role of Vargas. The only downside to this magnificent film. Imagine Dana Andrews playing the part. Now you'd have a perfect film.
I stumbled on this film already in progress on the late night TV movie back in the Seventies, didn’t recognize Welles or Heston! Thought it was brilliant, knew no one who’d ever seen it. Like this and The Third Man more than Citizen Kane!
He made masterpieces, and could have made more, had it not been for his own stubbornness and Hollywood politics. He made "Citizen Kane" at RKO and "Touch of Evil" at Universal, but couldn't get a job in Hollywood for many of the 17 years between them. Orson Welles mastered radio in New York in the 30's and movies in the 40's. A one-of-a-kind.
Who writes this narration? Yes, it's been common knowledge since the premiere in 1958 that Charlton Heston was not Mexican. And yes, today it is completely inappropriate. But does TCM have to continue hitting young audiences, whom they are desperately trying to gain, over the head with how old movies are not "modern?" Isn't this supposed to be focusing on the opening tracking shot? Viewers are not as stupid as the channel thinks they are.
I don't think it's inappropriate at all. A great actor is a great actor. There's been a lot of controversy recently about Al Pacino in Carlito's Way as a Puerto Rican. So what: Puerto Rican Hector Elizondo was phenomenal as Italian Mr. Gray in "The Taking of Pelham, 1-2-3."
@@robertjones447 Nice to see some people "get it". Lately, it's been trendy to fail to comprehend the most basic and fundamental rules of movies making: IT'S ALL FAKE! It's smoke and mirrors. The bullets aren't real (anymore). The sets aren't real. Those actors are in costume, they don't really dress like that. Lon Chaney wasn't really a hunchback. Lon Chaney Jr. wasn't really a werewolf. As far as Heston not being Mexican, is Touch of Evil a documentary? No, it's a movie, it's fake.
I appreciate the gratuitous and overwrought criticism of (white) Heston being cast as a Mexican. I assume no narratives were hurt during the production of your review.
I thought the same thing. I'm tired of people bringing up Heston played a Mexican. Welles thought he was right for the part. The way they harp on it here is a little much.
TCM did a lousy job on not showing Murnau's Nosferatu last night on their Silent Sunday Night midnight show. This year marks the 100th anniversary of Nosferatu, and TCM doesn't do a thing to mark the anniversary. TCM blew it. Badly.
I agree. Nosferatu should have been shown. They show Haxen Witchcraft through the Ages every year in the wee hours of the morning like all the better movies.
😂 but he missed one thing he didn't know how explosives are that was a real bomb stick of dynamite is about 7 inches long didn't show any of the dynamite you're going to have to take more than two D cell batteries to set that off .. lol and Dynamite is the most explosive element at 6,000 feet per second below it's only below C4 ... If exploded a bag of info nite on that car it'd be totally gone ... would see the frame or engine .
@@Alexander-tj2dn I'll give you that Heston can't speak Spanish, but you do know that there are many Mexicans who speak English without an accent, right?
@@Alexander-tj2dnI always assumed Vargas was educated in America, met his wife, lost his accent, but returned to his home country to work in law enforcement.
I'm not clear what indicates the bombing victims are coming from the Red Light district, and the narrator completely ignores that driver is at on friendly speaking terms with Vargas, which goes against the narrative that he and his companion feel above it all.
Tom Reimann's detailed description of the opening sequence misses one of its major images. Just as the Heston and Leigh characters prepare to embrace at the moment before the explosion is about to happen the car passes across the white wall lit up behind them a shadow is thrown onto the wall and moves across it. It's the same image of Quinlan's shadow on the film's billboard.
That line “she doesn’t look Mexican either” was a shot at the studio for casting Heston in that role where Welles wanted a more authentic actor. Your analysis falls way short. Gotta ask, did you even watch the movie?
Can't tell what's more annoying, "raddest" in an analysis of a work of art, or "brown face" referring to Heston (in a b&w film!) In the words of Nick Swardson... "Toby Maguire- not really Spiderman!"
Indeed. And the slams about Heston not sounding Mexican betrays an ignorance of Mexicans. There are many Mexicans who speak English very well, and even sound American. Especially Mexicans who live near the border, as Vargas did in the film.
Casting a Caucasian actor for an ethnically Mexican role is just not great. At best, it's a role a Mexican actor could've had, but Heston did actually wear brownface makeup and he's the *only* heroic Mexican in the whole film. Just because it's not as visible as in color doesn't make it ok.
@@ParsnipPizza i swear people like you will soon be clamoring for actual vets with missing limbs and crippling PTSD to play those roles in war films. "How dare you cast Gary Sinise as Lt Dan!" Stfu and let normal people enjoy excellent ACTING. It's not real, it's a movie.
OK TCM stop being woke. I am so tired of you making cracks like "Charlton Heston I'm brownface". Yes he was not Hispanic. I get it. But his acting was fine. I believed him. You don't need to keep making the emphasis about this casting. The movie is a classic. Appreciate it for what it is. Stop acting superior to classic film makers. Looking around at modern, woke movies I find "Touch of Evil" a refreshingly wonderful film noir
...over critiqued, which is fine, relative to this reviewer, however not to be taken as the standard for the masses. Maybe Orson WANTED whatever Heston provided as an actor for the lead character. You maximize the film structure yet minimize the director's motivation in actor selection/character representation. There were plenty of Latin actors of this era, Ricardo Montalbán, Fernando Lamas to mention two. Maybe Orson wanted Heston, period. The role was unconventional as was.IS Heston's acting presence in all his films. Was Heston to refuse the role of someone he wasn't ? I think he and the movie made the right thing as history shows, AND as "actors" do.
Whose idea was it to play that sappy, treacly piano music on the soundtrack of this video? It is totally out of step with the whole tone and intent of this towering classic of a film noir. It grates irritatingly on the psyche and impairs listening- I gritted my teeth at this saccharine, sentimentalist intrusion on the narrative of the video. You would have done better to include more excerpts of Henry Mancini's tough, topical Latin-jazz and rock-and-roll-infused score. Don't use sappy piano crap that fits in a Big Pharma commercial for erectile dysfunction or type II diabetes pills.
Oh brother. There's some merit in this, but there's a lot of pretentious film-school BS. If you can find any reference to Texas in TOUCH OF EVIL, you're one-up on me. And Miguel Vargas is a law enforcement officer, not a lawyer. Details. They count.
to be honest I don’t agree with you. Yes some things can be overly “woke” these days, but they just mention that Heston played a Mexican character, almost bringing a comedic tone to the commentary. They do not bash the film because of it. In all honesty it’s in the middle of the spectrum. No a white, non Mexican could not play a Mexican today (bc it would get a lot of backlash) but Hestons preformance was not offensive and over done, and TCM mentions that.
The scenes with Dietrich and Welles are priceless.
...your future is all used up....
One of the all-time great noir masterpieces!
I can't wait Touch of Evil next week
Seeing Touch of Evil on TCM back in the day is what really got me into classic movies so it is cool to see some more analysis and appreciation for it! Sure, it’s geared a little more towards younger viewers with the Marvel and transformers references but there was some good analysis and will hopefully attract a new audience to the film!
Russell Metty's cinematography was flawless,as always!
The exact connection between the timer and the length of the shot (3 1/2 minutes) was first noticed by professor John Locke at Concordia University in the mid-1970s. He also suggested that the shadow on the wall behind Heston and Leigh was, in fact, Welles' own. The director "signed" the shot. Furthermore, the rest of the film is not a rapid montage - a very long take where Quinlan plants dynamite, was done to save on the budget, and there is another flamboyant long take filmed in an actual elevator.
I always thought it would have added to the opening sequence if the car had exploded off camera, and the crane shot stayed with Vargas for the next 30 seconds, but who am I to second guess Welles?'
One of the Most Brilliant Films Ever Made!!
I'm so glad you're doing videos like this. But seriously, please rethink all the "cool" references. They don't have the effect you want. They beak the video's train of thought and make you seem desperate, and young people never fall for this. Look up the "how do you do, fellow kids" meme. That's what this feels like.
I stopped watching at the Avengers reference really out of place.
Yes. I, too, felt those references a tad incongrous. Overall, it is a decent analysis of a classic film, nonetheless.
The other criticism I have is that they seem to be bending over backwards to apologize for Charlton Heston being cast as a Mexican. So what?
@@cg98243 Yeah i stopped watching tat the apology for CH. I came back because i felt I might learn something for my course if I tried to focus on the good bits, but this goon is playing up to an audience of teens, most of whom probably don't even know the greatness of this move so will probably not watch this video.
One of my all time favorite films! Isn’t this film considered to be the last film noir movie?
The comments about Chuck Heston were inappropriate in the beginning. It’s one of his best performances and he brings a powerful dignity to the film. These new critics fail to see that the greats were stars for a reason, no matter what the part.
How is it "inappropriate"? Even Orson Welles said he was miscast in later interviews.
@@karlkarlos3545But, perhaps ironically, Heston was the one that insisted on Welles as the director. While someone like Ricardo Montaban would've been better suited to play Vargas, I thought that Heston did a good job. The supporting cast was brilliant. Amazing film.
@waynej2608 It's also not fair to Heston, considering the character was rewritten to be Mexican AFTER he was already cast.
Life ain't fair and it ain't never gonna be no matter how much these whiney snowflakes moan and try to bully others into their idea of how the world should be. Charlton Heston was good in it. I couldn't give a darn what OW said later.
Thanks! Welles' numerous "oners" were one of my inspirations when storyboarding my series!
Now I want to see the full movie.
one of my 13 all time favorite films
Hope Out of the Past is on your List
@@daniellinehan63 not one of my 13 but it is one of my 8 all time favorite noirs. A masterpiece and I LOVE Tourneur. His I Walked with a Zombie is one of my 13.
As much as I love old movies..somehow I had never seen this until yesterday..I'd heard of it..but never seen.. great..Wells makeup was great.
I can only imagine how much better one of my favourite films would be with a better actor than Heston playing the role of Vargas. The only downside to this magnificent film. Imagine Dana Andrews playing the part. Now you'd have a perfect film.
Hot Rods to Hell
I stumbled on this film already in progress on the late night TV movie back in the Seventies, didn’t recognize Welles or Heston! Thought it was brilliant, knew no one who’d ever seen it. Like this and The Third Man more than Citizen Kane!
Love this movie
He made masterpieces, and could have made more, had it not been for his own stubbornness and Hollywood politics. He made "Citizen Kane" at RKO and "Touch of Evil" at Universal, but couldn't get a job in Hollywood for many of the 17 years between them. Orson Welles mastered radio in New York in the 30's and movies in the 40's. A one-of-a-kind.
Who writes this narration? Yes, it's been common knowledge since the premiere in 1958 that Charlton Heston was not Mexican. And yes, today it is completely inappropriate. But does TCM have to continue hitting young audiences, whom they are desperately trying to gain, over the head with how old movies are not "modern?" Isn't this supposed to be focusing on the opening tracking shot? Viewers are not as stupid as the channel thinks they are.
I don't think it's inappropriate at all. A great actor is a great actor. There's been a lot of controversy recently about Al Pacino in Carlito's Way as a Puerto Rican. So what: Puerto Rican Hector Elizondo was phenomenal as Italian Mr. Gray in "The Taking of Pelham, 1-2-3."
@@robertjones447 Nice to see some people "get it". Lately, it's been trendy to fail to comprehend the most basic and fundamental rules of movies making: IT'S ALL FAKE! It's smoke and mirrors. The bullets aren't real (anymore). The sets aren't real. Those actors are in costume, they don't really dress like that. Lon Chaney wasn't really a hunchback. Lon Chaney Jr. wasn't really a werewolf. As far as Heston not being Mexican, is Touch of Evil a documentary? No, it's a movie, it's fake.
@@robertjones447 Heston was also cast BEFORE the character was rewritten to be Mexican.
@@robertjones447 Fully agree, just a great actor playing a role. Whiney snowflakes get over it. The world aint never gonna be fair and perfect.
I love this movie
Complimenti! I really like you video and your analysis of this beautiful shot.
I appreciate the gratuitous and overwrought criticism of (white) Heston being cast as a Mexican. I assume no narratives were hurt during the production of your review.
🍁🍂Cool flicks where characters are screening Touch Of Evil?Sneakers-1992,Get Shorty-1993&In Bruges-2007:)🍁🍂
Sorry, 1995 who I watch last week
@@azimisyauqieabdulwahab9401 I think your saying Get Shorty came out in 1995.
In Bruges was an awesome film! 👍
"Extremely white" Charlton Heston-? Take a look at Mexican fighter Canelo Alvarez--he's whiter than Heston ever was.
With TCM, are you surprised?
Exceptions aren't the rule. Stop being a snowflake.
I thought the same thing. I'm tired of people bringing up Heston played a Mexican. Welles thought he was right for the part. The way they harp on it here is a little much.
As a Mexican...I'm cool with it. Therefore, I vote we let it go.
Famous opening scenes
yes! charlton heston was og white nick fury in TRUE LIES
Beyond!!!
TCM did a lousy job on not showing Murnau's Nosferatu last night on their Silent Sunday Night midnight show.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of Nosferatu, and TCM doesn't do a thing to mark the anniversary. TCM blew it. Badly.
It all comes down to licensing, whether or not they can get permission from whichever corporation owns the rights.
I agree. Nosferatu should have been shown. They show Haxen Witchcraft through the Ages every year in the wee hours of the morning like all the better movies.
😂 but he missed one thing he didn't know how explosives are that was a real bomb stick of dynamite is about 7 inches long didn't show any of the dynamite you're going to have to take more than two D cell batteries to set that off .. lol and Dynamite is the most explosive element at 6,000 feet per second below it's only below C4 ... If exploded a bag of info nite on that car it'd be totally gone ... would see the frame or engine .
good, good, but you realise that there are blond Mexicans right? In fact, he looks super Mexican.
And speaks a few spanish words with english american accent? And no spanish accent at all speaking english?
@@Alexander-tj2dn I'll give you that Heston can't speak Spanish, but you do know that there are many Mexicans who speak English without an accent, right?
@@CHHaywood Not many. And not policemen.
@@Alexander-tj2dnI always assumed Vargas was educated in America, met his wife, lost his accent, but returned to his home country to work in law enforcement.
I'm not clear what indicates the bombing victims are coming from the Red Light district, and the narrator completely ignores that driver is at on friendly speaking terms with Vargas, which goes against the narrative that he and his companion feel above it all.
Tom Reimann's detailed description of the opening sequence misses one of its major images. Just as the Heston and Leigh characters prepare to embrace at the moment before the explosion is about to happen the car passes across the white wall lit up behind them a shadow is thrown onto the wall and moves across it. It's the same image of Quinlan's shadow on the film's billboard.
I wonder if that Samuel L. Jackson cameo was AI.
That line “she doesn’t look Mexican either” was a shot at the studio for casting Heston in that role where Welles wanted a more authentic actor. Your analysis falls way short. Gotta ask, did you even watch the movie?
You're an adult, stop saying words like "Raddest". You aren't doing commentary on the Skate Or Die video game.
Can't tell what's more annoying, "raddest" in an analysis of a work of art, or "brown face" referring to Heston (in a b&w film!)
In the words of Nick Swardson... "Toby Maguire- not really Spiderman!"
Indeed. And the slams about Heston not sounding Mexican betrays an ignorance of Mexicans. There are many Mexicans who speak English very well, and even sound American. Especially Mexicans who live near the border, as Vargas did in the film.
Casting a Caucasian actor for an ethnically Mexican role is just not great. At best, it's a role a Mexican actor could've had, but Heston did actually wear brownface makeup and he's the *only* heroic Mexican in the whole film. Just because it's not as visible as in color doesn't make it ok.
@@ParsnipPizza i swear people like you will soon be clamoring for actual vets with missing limbs and crippling PTSD to play those roles in war films. "How dare you cast Gary Sinise as Lt Dan!" Stfu and let normal people enjoy excellent ACTING. It's not real, it's a movie.
@@ParsnipPizzayou’re judging 1933’s with 2023 thinking. BTW many Mexicans can pass as white.
I miss Robert Osborne.
"...the two main characters..."? Well, one of them anyway. The main characters are Vargas and Quinlan.
Creativity
The analysis lacks insight or understanding. Whoever wrote this clearly had no idea what they were looking at or what Wells was really doing.
OK TCM stop being woke. I am so tired of you making cracks like "Charlton Heston I'm brownface". Yes he was not Hispanic. I get it. But his acting was fine. I believed him. You don't need to keep making the emphasis about this casting. The movie is a classic. Appreciate it for what it is. Stop acting superior to classic film makers. Looking around at modern, woke movies I find "Touch of Evil" a refreshingly wonderful film noir
👍👍👍👍👍 There isn't much in this world that I like, but I did like this.
13 minutes long and no mention of Hestons ethnicity? do you even woke, bro?
...over critiqued, which is fine, relative to this reviewer, however not to be taken as the standard for the masses. Maybe Orson WANTED whatever Heston provided as an actor for the lead character. You maximize the film structure yet minimize the director's motivation in actor selection/character representation. There were plenty of Latin actors of this era, Ricardo Montalbán, Fernando Lamas to mention two. Maybe Orson wanted Heston, period. The role was unconventional as was.IS Heston's acting presence in all his films. Was Heston to refuse the role of someone he wasn't ? I think he and the movie made the right thing as history shows, AND as "actors" do.
Whose idea was it to play that sappy, treacly piano music on the soundtrack of this video? It is totally out of step with the whole tone and intent of this towering classic of a film noir. It grates irritatingly on the psyche and impairs listening- I gritted my teeth at this saccharine, sentimentalist intrusion on the narrative of the video. You would have done better to include more excerpts of Henry Mancini's tough, topical Latin-jazz and rock-and-roll-infused score. Don't use sappy piano crap that fits in a Big Pharma commercial for erectile dysfunction or type II diabetes pills.
Oh brother. There's some merit in this, but there's a lot of pretentious film-school BS. If you can find any reference to Texas in TOUCH OF EVIL, you're one-up on me. And Miguel Vargas is a law enforcement officer, not a lawyer. Details. They count.
Good to know TCM is morally superior to Orson Welles
Great opening but overtated film just because its directed by Wells. The film is rather boring and has many flaws beneath it´s outward look.
OK...so Heston plays a Mexican. So what. Remember this was pre-woke. Dietrich does too, but it doesn't bother you. Why?
ha ha...one minute in before this gets woke. This is the reason I don't watch content between the movies anymore.
to be honest I don’t agree with you. Yes some things can be overly “woke” these days, but they just mention that Heston played a Mexican character, almost bringing a comedic tone to the commentary. They do not bash the film because of it. In all honesty it’s in the middle of the spectrum. No a white, non Mexican could not play a Mexican today (bc it would get a lot of backlash) but Hestons preformance was not offensive and over done, and TCM mentions that.
Great film, lousy woke editorializing.