Touch of Evil
£10 full price, £8 concessions, £7 ICA Members
Showing at the ICA exclusively for the first time in gloriously restored high definition, this Orson Welles masterwork of crime, corruption and romantic noir is for many their favourite Welles film.
The film opens in Los Robles, a seedy Mexican-American border town. A car cruises through a Mexican border town, a ticking bomb in its boot, utilising ground breaking sound design and perhaps the most pure moment of nail-biting suspense in film history. A couple of newly-weds, Mike Vargas, an idealistic Mexican drug enforcement officer and his wife Susan (Charlton Heston and Janet Leigh) stroll through the streets arm in arm.
As the car blows we meet Sheriff Quinlan (Orson Welles), a huge sweating hulk of a detective, played with relish by Welles himself. Vargas is drawn into the investigation, to Quinlan's intense displeasure and the movie becomes a competition between the two men, leading to the sheriff's efforts to frame Vargas and his bride on drug and murder charges. An ageless, labyrinthine taut and meaty thriller.
Dir. Orson Welles, USA 1958, 111mins, cert U
Cast. Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh and Orson Welles
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Related Season
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Orson Welles: Postcards from Xanadu
With the beautifully restored High Definition Touch of Evil playing exclusively at the ICA it seems timely to revisit his masterpieces Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons.