Rhapsodies

I had really mixed feelings when a drew the card for today’s Sketch, Touch of Evil. Make no mistake I loved the opening ten minute tracking shot of the car bomb scene and I loved Orson Welles‘ performance as the definitive bad cop Hank Quinlan. Though I felt the whole thing was dragged down by  Charlton Heston and Janet Leigh, utterly cardboard performances as the “dashing Mexican detective” Mike Vargas and his wife Susie, which was the most blatant example of Race-bending that I had ever seen at the time. The problem is I’ve only seen it once and at the moment I don’t remember many of the details regarding the plot.

The reason behind this is once you get past this story of police ethics, corruption and murder you quickly realize Touch of Evil is about just one thing. Orson Welles.

As Hank Quinlan, Welles dominates every scene he is to the point you forget everything else (well besides the amazing camera work.) Anyone could have played Mike and Susie just as long as they were pretty. So the only thing I could really think of for the sketch was Welles’ domination of the film.