Touch of Evil (1958) [Restored] - Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, Orson Welles, Marlene Dietrich

The last great Film Noir and the final film Orson Welles would direct in Hollywood, Touch of Evil is a sweat-drenched saga of corruption and intrigue on the US/Mexico border. Beginning with one of the most celebrated tracking shots in cinema history, a bravura three-minute take following a bomb planted in a car as it crosses the US border, Welles crafts a baroque, highly stylised masterpiece. A prestigious cast including Charlton Heston and Marlene Dietrich reinforces Welles’ playful mixture of A and B-movie tropes, but it’s Welles’ own turn as the leering, grotesque Hank Quinlan that steals the film. Seen in many different versions over the years, the film is here presented in Walter Murch's 1998 restoration, based on Orson Welles' 1957 memo to the head of Universal.