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Touch of Evil (1958)
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Owing to a misunderstanding between star Charlton Heston and producer Albert Zugsmith, Orson Welles not only appeared in this crime thriller as corrupt, corpulent cop Hank Quinlan, but also ended up directing it. In this way, Welles made the film that virtually capped a style he had helped create: you could say that the span of film noir started with Citizen Kane and ended with this movie. Originally released by the studio as a co-feature, this has been revealed by time and re-editing to be one of the great American masterworks. It's a deeply disturbing melodrama, pitting Welles against Mexican investigator Heston, which rivets an audience from its now famed opening title sequence to its grisly finale. The composition, dialogue and characterisations are first-rate — this is what cinema can and should be capable of, and it took the genius of Welles the director to turn the cheap novel Badge of Evil into this terrifically entertaining study in depravity. TS
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Tell us what you think
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Running time
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104min
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Country of origin
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US
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Genre
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Classic Crime Thriller
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Alternate title
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Badge of Evil
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Original language
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English
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Screenplay
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Orson Welles, from the novel Badge of Evil by Whit Masterson
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Theatrical distributor
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Rank Film Dists Ltd
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UK cinema certificate
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A
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UK cinema release date
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June 1999
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Film certification logos reproduced by kind permission of BBFC |
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