"Considered by many critics to be one of Welles's great works, the film gets a superb review in this first-rate anthology...Recommended." --Film Study "This is a welcome addition to the growing collection of scripts of film classics, one to put on the shelf next to Welles's Citizen Kane...Recommended." --Choice Welles is by consensus one of the most talented film directors who ever worked in Hollywood, and this flamboyant film--a 1958 exploration of the thriller form--is one of his greatest achievements. Comito's introduction considers the film's relation to the tradition of film noir and demonstrates how Welles's mastery of cinematic language transforms the materials of a routine thriller into a work that is at once a sardonic examination of the dark side of sexuality, and elegiac rumination on the loss of innocence, and a disquieting assault on the viewer's own moral and aesthetic certainties. Other contextual materials in the book include a biographical sketch of Welles; an important interview with Welles by Andre Bazin, Charles Bitsch, and Jean Domarchi, available here for the first time in English; an interview with Charlton Heston on the making of the film; representative reviews; critical essays by William Johnson, Jean Collet (translated especially for this book), and Stephen Heath; an analysis of the relation of the complete film to Welles's recently discovered shooting script; and a filmography and bibliography. The continuity script collates the two available versions of Touch of Evil and provides an invaluable, shot-by-shot guide through the visual and audio complexities of Welles's masterpiece.

Book Information
ISBN 9780813510972
Author Terry Comito
Format Paperback
Page Count 280
Imprint Rutgers University Press
Publisher Rutgers University Press