Touch of Evil

Richard Deming

Paperback

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Orson Welles' classic 1958 noir movie Touch of Evil, the story of a corrupt police chief in a small town on the Mexican-American border, starring Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh and Marlene Dietrich, is widely recognised as one of the greatest noir films of Classical Hollywood cinema. Richard Deming's study of the film considers it as an outstanding example of the noir genre and explores its complex relationship to its source novel, Badge of Evil by Whit Masterson. He traces the film's production history, and provides an insightful close analysis of its key scenes, including its famous opening sequence, a single take in which the camera follows a booby-trapped car on its journey through city streets and across the border.

Book Details

Publisher: British Film Institute
Publish Date: May 28th, 2020
Pages: 104
Language: English
Edition: undefined - undefined
Dimensions: 7.50in - 5.40in - 0.30in - 0.40lb
EAN: 9781844579495
Categories: • Film - History & Criticism• Film - Guides & Reviews• Film - Reference

About the Author

Deming, Richard: - Richard Deming is an award-winning poet and critic, whose work explores the intersections of literature, philosophy, and visual culture. He is the author of six books, including This Exquisite Loneliness, Day for Night and Art of the Ordinary. He teaches at Yale University, USA, where he is the director of Creative Writing.

Praise for this book

"Engaging... It combines a blow-by-blow account of the thriller's troubled production with a thoughtful rebuttal to Paul Schrader's description of it as "film noir's epitaph", while Orson Welles' shadow inevitably looms large." --Total Film

""[The] BFI Film Classics... make a welcome return with Richard Deming's excellent study of A Touch of Evil. Orson Welles's 1958 noir is justly celebrated by film aficionados, though its meandering plot has puzzled many viewers. Deming's book is a fine guide for the perplexed" --The Best American Poetry blog

"In this contribution to the BFI Film Classics series, Richard Deming explores what makes Touch of Evil so intricate and so knowing as a parable of idealism dying many deaths... Deming ably conveys just how visceral the film is." --Times Literary Supplement