DIRECTOR Orson Welles
Touch of Evil (1958), directed by Orson Welles, unfolds in a corrupt U.S.–Mexico border town where Mexican narcotics officer Mike Vargas (Charlton Heston) clashes with the monstrous American police captain Hank Quinlan (Welles) after a car bombing. What begins as an investigation spirals into a fever dream of crime, racism, and moral rot, culminating in Quinlan’s spectacular downfall.
And yes—that is an unbilled Mercedes McCambridge as the unnamed, leather‑jacketed, unmistakably lesbian gang leader who gets her kicks watching Janet Leigh’s Mrs. Vargas terrorized in her motel room. It’s one of the film’s many transgressive jolts, smuggled past the censors through Welles’s sheer audacity.
The film is justly famous for its miraculous opening tracking shot—over three minutes of pure cinematic bravura—leading up to the border‑crossing explosion. At the other end of the film lies Marlene Dietrich’s immortal final line, delivered with the weary authority of a woman who has seen everything and judged it wanting. Between those bookends lies one of the great noir nightmares, the third and final masterpiece of Welles’s Hollywood trilogy after Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons.
You’re a mess, honey
Tanya (Marlene Dietrich)
He was some kind of man……
Tanya (Marlene Dietrich)
