Touch of Evil
A 1958 film noir written and directed by Orson Welles, set on the U.S.–Mexico border and starring Welles, Charlton Heston, and Janet Leigh.
Opening long take: An extended moving shot that opens a film without a visible cut. The film’s opening follows a bomb’s placement and its victims through a continuous, intricately staged shot.
Orson Welles: An American filmmaker and actor known for innovative direction in theater, radio, and cinema. Welles wrote, directed, and played corrupt police captain Hank Quinlan.
Charlton Heston: An American actor whose film career included roles in historical epics and dramas. Heston plays Mexican narcotics official Miguel Vargas, the film’s principal opponent to Quinlan.
The bomb sequence in Touch of Evil: The opening sequence in which a bomb is planted in a car and later explodes. Its continuous camera movement links several characters and viewpoints before the blast.
The Lady from Shanghai: A 1947 film noir directed by Orson Welles and starring Rita Hayworth. Its stylized, disorienting noir differs from Touch of Evil’s border setting and extended tracking shots.
Deep focus: A cinematographic technique that keeps foreground, middle ground, and background simultaneously sharp. Welles uses layered focus to make simultaneous action and competing viewpoints visible within one frame.
Touch of Evil (1958): The theatrical release version of Orson Welles’s border-set crime film. Its cuts and sound differ from the version Welles described in his later production memorandum.
Janet Leigh: An American actor known for roles in films including Touch of Evil and Psycho. Leigh plays Susan Vargas, whose vulnerability becomes central to the film’s escalating threat.
The motel sequence in Touch of Evil: A sequence in which Susan Vargas is isolated and threatened at a border motel. The scene turns the film’s racial and sexual anxieties into an immediate personal danger.
Citizen Kane: A 1941 drama directed by and starring Orson Welles, known for deep focus and nonlinear storytelling. It shares Welles’s interest in deep focus and expressive camera movement, but tells a different kind of story.