touch of evil essay - end of the classic noir

[filmstudent]

I am looking for specific information (scenes, lines, shots) in Orson Welles' Touch of Evil that mark this film as the endpoint of the noir genre. Also, some ways in which the film pays tribute to the genre and comments on why the film noir genre is categorically American. What about America makes this possible? Any reference to previous noirs is especially helpful. Thanks for your time and effort.

[jaime marzol]

..................

i don't know how to answer part of your question, but i'm sure some one else here will. as far as literature that might give you an anwer, there is an article by paul shrader called NOTES ON FILM NOIR (1972), where he discusses TOUCH OF EVIL ending the noir cycle. the article was reprinted in a book called WAKE IN THE DARK, you can get it through your local pubic library (this might be the same arrticle where he discusses KANE starting the look on noir. that's a hell of a concept).

as far as essays on TOUCH OF EVIL go, the best one i can recomend was written be stephen heath, also available from your local pubic library. it's a leghty essay that ran in 3 consecutive magazine issues:
SCREEN vol. 16, no. 1, Spring 1975,
SCREEN vol. 16, no. 2, Summer 1975
SCREEN vol. 17, no. 1, Spring 1976

WARNING:
the AWAKE IN THE DARK book has some articles by pauline kael. they are extremely dangerous and should be avoided at all cost.

before reading the stephen heath articles, put on big rubber boots. it's like mining for gold; you will come across a lot of shit before you reach the nuggets but when you reach the nuggets they will be incredible. then the more you read it the more you realize that some of the stuff you thought was shit the first time around, was really a nugget that passed you by. well worth getting. i think heath went where no man had gone before on TOUCH OF EVIL, and still hasn't. these heath articles are eunique, exciting, incredibly informative, and will give you a ton of new angles on the film once you study them carefully.

pick and choose carefully what you adopt into your essay from heath. some of the stuff i adopted and then expanded on i posted here and the members were ready to strap me to a stake and burn me as a witch.

good luck.

[jaime marzol]

................

i don't think welles put anything in the film knowing it was going to mark the end point of the noir cycle. remember, it was a film off the cuff for welles; he didn't have a lot of time to contemplate what he was going to do, he only had a few weeks to rewrite the screenplay, and a few weeks to film it. he had no way of knowing, no one did, that it would one day be considered the end of the noir cycle. i don't think the term film noir was coined till the 70s (?) by some french critics.

i was watching a documentary where they were speaking to Edward Dmytryk, and when asked about being one of the originators of film noir at a college where he spoke, he said he had never heard the term.

Dmytryk's MURDER MY SWEET, and CROSSFIRE are 2 tremendous film noirs. CROSSFIRE is one of the most beautiful shadow films i've ever seen. Dmytryk also made a lot of crap not worth watching. like the remake of BLUE ANGEL.

..............

[Harvey Chartrand]

After being outed as a Commie, Edward Dmytryk moved to England, where he directed what some critics claim is a masterpiece: Give Us This Day (1949), with Sam Wanamaker and Lea Padovani (who was having a very stormy relationship with Welles at the time; she was his original choice to play Desdemona in Othello).
Later, Dmytryk directed big, opulent by-the-number pictures like Raintree County, a Civil War epic that features Montgomery Clift before and after his disfiguring car crash; and The Young Lions, a WW2 drama with Marlon Brando as a "Nazi with a conscience" and a very haggard and glassy-eyed Clift as an American soldier.

[jaime marzol]

welles on padovini:
in the few months relationship with her he said he got pay back for a lifetime of being horrible to women.

i liked RAINTREE COUNTY. yes, during the filming clift was leaving a party one night and smashed into a tree. production had to be closed down. later when he was able to work again the film was finished. it was said america went to see the film and played the 'was that scene before or after' game. clift really spiraled into madness after that crash. there is a tremendous book by a guy named laguardia that is quite an experience to read.

i sort of liked THE YOUNG LIONS. tcm has shown it in very wide screen. by then clift was such a mess that his physical condition really helped the role he played.

[jaime marzol]

clift was even more of a mess, and again it helped his role in THE NEUREMBERG TRIALS.

his last film, THE DEFECTOR was awfull. not only was clift plagued with problems, but the production was also. if i remember right, the director murdered his girl friend during production.

clift was supposed to play the gay officer in REFLECTIONS IN A GOLDEN EYE. elizabeth taylor had to put up cash as a guarantee against him not being able to finish the film. huston had already had problems with clift during FREUD. but monty died, and brando got the part. i love REFLECTIONS, don't think monty would have been as good.

[Harvey Chartrand]

I think Reflections in a Golden Eye is one of Brando's greatest performances. By 1966, Clift was so sick from the ravages of the crash/alcohol/pills that he could no longer act. He had destroyed himself both physically and mentally. His memory was shot. He could barely stand up straight. In The Defector, Clift is prematurely aged (45 going on 90) and visibly at the end of his rope. It's actually painful to watch him, as he seems to be suffering terribly. (Apparently, Clift's crazy mother turned him into a self-hating masochist.)
John Ireland said in an interview for TVOntario that he was originally cast in Reflections in the role of the adulterous soldier subsequently taken by Brian Keith. Ireland was thrilled to be working with Clift again, 20 years after Red River. He met Clift (by chance) in London in the summer of 1966 and was shocked by his co-star's aged and haggard appearance. At first, Clift tried to evade Ireland. The two actors had an awkward conversation that lasted a minute or two. A week later, Clift was dead.