Touch of Evil - 2-Disc Set

Touch of Evil - 2-Disc Set (Blu-Ray) (*)

~~$29.99~~ $23.97

Screened, competed or awarded at:
Other Film Festival Awards

Language Selections:
English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
English ( DTS-HD Master Audio )
English ( Subtitles )

Product Origin/Format:
United Kingdom ( Blu-Ray/Region B )

Running Time:
111 min

Aspect Ratio:
Fullscreen

Special Features:
2-DVD Set
Alternative Footage
Commentary
Interactive Menu
Scene Access
Trailer(s)
Black & White
Booklet
Remastered

Movie filmed in 1958 and produced in:
United States ( USA, Canada )

Directed By:
Orson Welles

Written By:
Orson Welles
Whit Masterson

Actors:
Charlton Heston ..... Mike Vargas
Janet Leigh ..... Susan Vargas
Orson Welles ..... Police Captain Hank Quinlan
Joseph Calleia ..... Police Sergeant Pete Menzies
Akim Tamiroff ..... 'Uncle' Joe Grandi
Joanna Moore ..... Marcia Linnekar
Ray Collins ..... District Attorney Adair
Dennis Weaver ..... Mirador Motel Night Manager
Valentin de Vargas ..... Pancho
Mort Mills ..... Al Schwartz
Victor Millan ..... Manelo Sanchez
Lalo Rios ..... Risto
Michael Sargent ..... Pretty Boy
Phil Harvey ..... Blaine
Joi Lansing ..... Zita

Synopsis:

Mexico's chief narcotics officer, Mike Vargas, is in a border town on a quick honeymoon with his American wife. Soon he must testify against Grandi, a drug lord whose brother and sons are tracking him, hoping to scare his wife and back him off the case. When a car bomb kills a rich U.S. developer, Vargas embroils himself in the investigation, putting his wife in harm's way. After Vargas catches local legendary U.S. cop, Hank Quinlan, planting evidence against a Mexican national suspected in the bombing, Quinlan joins forces with the Grandi family to impugn Vargas's character. Local political lackeys, a hard-edged whore, pachucos, and a nervous motel clerk also figure in the plot.
Three versions of Welles' film: the 1998 reconstruction (in both 1.37:1 and 1.85:1 aspect ratios)
the 1958 preview version rediscovered in the mid-1970s (in 1.85:1)
and the 1958 theatrical version (in both 1.37:1 and 1.85:1).
Original theatrical trailer for the film
A host of other extras to be announced nearer the release date
A lavish, illustrated, 56-page book containing the words of Orson Welles - and much more.

Touch of Evil begins with one of the most brilliant sequences in the history of cinema; and ends with one of the most brilliant final scenes ever committed to celluloid. In between unfurls a picture whose moral, sexual, racial, and aesthetic attitudes remain so radical as to cross borders established not only in 1958, but in the present age also. Yet, Touch of Evil has taken many forms. The film as released in 1958 was certainly compromised from Orson Welles' vision, but a brilliant and lengthy memo written by Welles to studio heads in 1957 - taking issue with a studio rough-cut - had some influence on a subsequent preview version shown to test audiences (and rediscovered in the mid-1970s) as well as the 1958 theatrical version. Forty years later, in 1998, Universal produced a reconstructed version of the film that takes into meticulous account the totality of Welles' memo, and ostensibly represents the version of the film that most closely adheres to his original wishes. Charlton Heston portrays Mike Vargas, the Mexican chief of narcotics who sets out to uncover the facts surrounding a car bomb that has killed a wealthy American businessman on the US side of the border. As Vargas investigates, his newly-wed wife Susie (Janet Leigh, two years before Hitchcock's Psycho) is kidnapped by a gang out to exact vengeance for the prosecution of the brother of their leader (Akim Tamiroff). Meanwhile, Vargas' enquiries become progressively more obfuscated by the American cop Hank Quinlan (played by Welles himself, in one of the most imposing and unforgettable screen performances of his career), a besotted incarnation of corruption who alternately conspires with Susie's captors and seeks solace in the brothel of the Gypsy madame (Marlene Dietrich) who comforted him in bygone times. Welles' final studio-system picture has at last become secure in its status as one of the greatest films ever made. It remains a testament to the genius of Welles -- a film of Shakespearean richness, inexhaustible.

Mexican Narcotics officer Ramon Miguel 'Mike' Vargas has to interrupt his honeymoon on the Mexican-US border when an American building contractor is killed after someone places a bomb in his car. He's killed on the US side of the border but it's clear that the bomb was planted on the Mexican side. As a result, Vargas delays his return to Mexico City where he has been mounting a case against the Grandi family crime and narcotics syndicate. Police Captain Hank Quinlan is in charge on the US side and he soon has a suspect, a Mexican named Manolo Sanchez. Vargas is soon onto Quinlan and his Sergeant, Pete Menzies, when he catches them planting evidence to convict Sanchez. With his new American wife, Susie, safely tucked away in a hotel on the US side of the border - or so he thinks - he starts to review Quinlan's earlier cases. While concentrating on the corrupt policeman however, the Grandis have their own plans for Vargas and they start with his wife Susie.

This product was added to our catalog on Tuesday 14 February, 2012.

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