Evil Leigh moment, No. 3

For one thing, the plot is standard ’50s noir. A bomb blows up a car that is crossing the Mexican border just as a Mexican detective, Mike Vargas (Heston in swarthy makeup), and his new wife ( Janet Leigh ) are crossing over into the United States on their honeymoon.

Heston delays the post-wedding festivities to help investigate the crime, which is overseen by legendary police Capt. Hank Quinlan (Welles). Pretty soon, Vargas begins to suspect that Quinlan is planting evidence, and the two head for a showdown.

Meanwhile, agents of a crime family that Vargas has helped to prosecute take the detective’s wife hostage. When they approach Quinlan with an offer to join forces, matters get really twisted.

If Vargas is the model for honest police work, then Quinlan’s long-time partner, Pete Menzies (Joseph Calleia) is the film’s conscience. Apparently, more than a few of the 50-odd changes made to “Touch of Evil” involve Menzies’ character, whose change of attitude is key to Quinlan’s ultimate downfall.

Plot aside, “Touch of Evil” plays like a perfect example of a superior talent working in slum mode. Welles adapts the pulp novel by Whit Masterson as if it were Shakespeare and his Quinlan were equal parts Falstaff and Macbeth.
The effect is, at times, hilarious.

Hilarious, too, are some of the dated drug references (note the “reefer” party), Dennis Weaver’s over-the-top performance as a motel manager straight out of a Roger Corman film and, finally, the various cameos and/or featured roles played by the likes of Marlene Dietrich and Zsa Zsa Gabor .