Touch Of Evil

[Obssessed_with_Orson]

this post might possibly be a repeat. if is, sorry.



i've seen the cut and uncut version of the movie "Touch Of Evil"

one day, i decided i wanted to watch it again.

well, i hit play, started watching, then 15-20 minutes later, i started laughing.

the two parts that made me laugh are when the d.a. (ray collins) gets out of his car, tells vargas about hank, then vargas says he would like to meet him.
joseph cotten (don't know his characters name) says, "That's what you think."

the next part that made me laugh was after hank got out of his car and talked to the guy standing on the left of him. i don't remember what the guy said, but hank's respond was, "Whoever was in the car, ya jackass."

i just had to turn it off. i couldn't quit laughing.

isn't it mean of a fan to laugh at an actors movie. especially when it isn't even a comedy. isn't that an insult?

oh, brother!

[Jaime N. Christley]

Although I think it's a recipe for trouble to give great films genre labels, no, I don't suppose you'd call Touch of Evil a comedy. That said, there's comedy in the movie, mostly very dark comedy. And I think there are plenty of cues for laughter in the script and the line readings and the situations.

[Fredric]

Yes, great films transcend all genres.

[sergio]

I guess my attitude is, as long as you only laugh at the funny bits in a film, whatever it is, then you're laughing with it, and not at it...

TOUCH OF EVIL (TOE is a really unfortunate acronym it seems to me - the best ones seem to be the ones by Powell and Pressburger, AMOLAD and IKWIG...) is full of intentional humour, which is probably part of what makes it stand out today and whioch helped sink it with the Universal brass back in 1958 since it contrasts so markedly with the darkness of the story and shooting style...

[haskytar]

Although I think it's a recipe for trouble to give great films genre labels, no, I don't suppose you'd call Touch of Evil a comedy. That said, there's comedy in the movie, mostly very dark comedy. And I think there are plenty of cues for laughter in the script and the line readings and the situations.

Well put!

[Rick Schmidlin]

Welles intended Touch Of Evil to have laughs, he just did not want bad laughs.

[Dave]

Rick, Interesting you should say that. Touch of Evil has always been the Welles film I've felt most aligned with. Yet, the yearly screenings I'd attend here in Vancouver almost became painful. Why? Because of the "ironic" tee-hee-ers in the back row. Great lines like, "Funny, she don't look Mexican either", went over like lead balloons. The crowd however, was whipped into post-modern frenzy by Janet Leigh's portrayal of the "innocent" wife, and by the appearance of rear projections. Strangely, the unappropriate laughs stopped with the '99 Director's Cut. Evidence, I suppose, that an audience needs to be told of a films "importance". Certainly the actual content hadn't changed that significantly, no?

[Rick Schmidlin]

In the memo Welles sometimes were ask for an edit to prevent a bad laugh. Such was the care in making shorter the head shot of Akim or the boys coming through the doors. Welles as storyteller knew how to create through audience response, this came from his days of radio.

[Obssessed_with_Orson]

well, i don't know if what i was laughing at is considered a good laugh or a bad laugh.

i did realise what i was laughing at though.

like the part in citizen kane where joseph's character appears to be drunk, and the wrong word comes out, orson was laughing like orson and not charles.

well, when i was watching touch of evil, i wasn't thinking of the chracters that orson and joseph played. i was actually thinking of orson and joseph.

i mean, someone, anyone says they would like to meet orson. then a close friend, joseph, kidding around of course, says, "That's what you think"

and when orson first comes in and is talking to the man by the car, i was thinkin i that's the first time i'd heard him actually say a cuss word in a movie.

i wouldn't be able to make it as an actor. i don't know how they did it. funny movies, funny lines, how were they able to hold back their laughs.

joseph was able to in citizen kane, in that one part described above, because he was dead tired.

bye now.

[jaime marzol]

nat said:
"i mean, someone, anyone says they would like to meet orson. then a close friend, joseph, kidding around of course, says, "That's what you think"

that's interesting, nat, didn't think of that. who welles chose to say that line! great

[maxrael]

Don't think i've seen this here before (he said hopefully!)

Here's a link to an article on Touch Of Evil written by none other than Walter Murch!!

http://www.reelclassics.com/Articles/Films/touchofevil-article.htm

onwards and upwards,
max!