Episode 283: TOUCH OF EVIL (1958) with Abbie Phelps

With Abbie Phelps (@goodhunterabbie)!

Orson Welles’s final Hollywood film has it all: A complicated production history, a contentious editing lifecycle, and a ‘true-to-vision’ recut that followed the original release by some 40 years. It’s a story about Hank Quinlan (played by Welles), a dyed-in-the-wool noir detective who’ll do anything to exact his version of justice, and Ramon Miguel Vargas (confusingly played by a very white Charlton Heston), a Mexican detective set on rooting out Quinlan’s years of abusing authority. Janet Leigh as Susie, Vargas’s American wife, goes from standing up against the notorious cartel family that owns the border to just being kidnapped and becoming another reason for Vargas to continue his virtuous crusade.

Abbie Phelps is a big fan of Welles, so there’s nobody else we’d rather have on this episode! With Abbie, we talk about the striking cinematography, the moments of accidental genius that came to characterize the movie, how the movie paints a sardonic portrait of noir with big, broad characters, and why it took four decades to release the version of TOUCH OF EVIL its creator wanted you to see.

Find Abbie…

On Twitter at @goodhunterabbie
On Letterboxd at @goodhunterabbie
On Trylove Episode 184: DRIVE ANGRY (2011), Episode 209: WAR OF THE WORLDS (2005), and THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999)

References:

Watch TOUCH OF EVIL on the Internet Archive
“Touch of Evil: At the Border of Truth” by Yuval Klein for Perisphere, the Trylon blog
“Touch of Evil: The Art of Getting Away with It” by Patrick Clifford for Perisphere, the Trylon blog
Review: “Touch of Evil” by Roger Ebert

Contribute to Perisphere, the Trylon blog: https://www.perisphere.org/perisphere-blog-post-guidelines/

#TheLongTake #35mm
Follow us on Twitter at @trylovepodcast and email us at [email protected] to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at trylon.org.

Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Closing music: “Main Theme” by Henry Mancini from the TOUCH OF EVIL soundtrack.

Timestamps

0:00 - Episode 283: TOUCH OF EVIL (1958) with Abbie Phelps

3:33 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary

5:21 - Opening thoughts on style and subversion

12:41 - Touch of Welles

21:25 - How expressive camerawork brings the audience into the vibe of each moment

28:57 - A piss take of traditional noir detective stories

33:11 - The characters

43:54 - Uncle Joe Grandi

50:54 - The ending, the brownface, and what it was all for

57:15 - Susie… poor Susie

1:05:29 - The Junk Drawer

1:13:06 - To All the Loves We’ve Tried Before: 1958

1:15:22 - Cody’s Noteys: Touching Evil (trivia about movies with cursed objects)