Touch of Evil

Touch of Evil is a film that I might not have completely enjoyed, but I appreciated. I think I was frustrated with certain parts of the plot, which hindered the way I view the film. However, there were many qualities that I liked and appreciated. The following will briefly explain what I didn’t like followed by what I liked.

I was mostly angry at character stupidity. I wondered why characters didn’t use common sense or realize things that I realized. Susie was a stupid character the way she followed Pancho around when he said to follow him. Mike was stupid that he didn’t do his research on the hotel where he was having his wife stay. And Hank annoyed me so much—the way he looked, how he smoked his cigars and how he didn’t do the in depth research and analyzing that is required of detective-types.

After voicing my frustration, I do want to say that I was pleased with some parts of the film. As much as I thought Susie was stupid, I was pleased how she was portrayed as a woman. She certainly had the classical film look for a woman character; however, she was a lot more aggressive than the classical women. She gets in other character’s faces and her voice doesn’t sound pleasing at all times during the film. In the beginning her tone of voice definitely goes deeper even to the point of cracking a little at times. I’m not sure what spoke louder though—her stupidity or non-classical nature.

I was pleased with the framing throughout the film. My favorite framing scene was in the beginning when Susie was in a hotel room and a light started to shine on her. As the camera moved to the light source the audience sees a window with a silhouette of a man and then the flashlight shines right in the middle of the window. Susie is framed within the other window, but breaks the frame when she turns out the light and then throws the light bulb across the way (which I might add is uncharacteristic of classically portrayed women).

I also enjoyed the fact that Susie, played by Janet Leigh, was also Marion in Psycho. The manager of the hotel where Susie stays in Touch of Evil reminded me of Norman Bates from Psycho because of their skittish nature around beautiful women, such as the characters Janet Leigh plays. It was a fun connection to make.

My final appreciation of this film occurred during the first few minutes. The entire first few minutes was filmed in one shot. I was impressed by the fluid movement of the camera as it followed a car and a couple (Mike and Susie) until the explosion of the car. Overall the things that impressed me about the film seem to be greater than the things that annoyed me.