What is Touch of Evil / The Trial about?

TOUCH OF EVIL, 1958, Universal, 111 min. Orson Welles’ hallucinatory, off-kilter masterwork stars Charlton Heston in one of his finest performances as a Mexican policeman trapped on the wrong side of the border, where a corpulent, corrupt cop (Welles) tries to stop him from digging into the past. Janet Leigh co-stars as Heston’s new wed wife, menaced by leather-clad Mercedes McCambridge and her gang of juvenile delinquents. Co-starring Akim Tamiroff, Marlene Dietrich, Joseph Calleia. THE TRIAL, 1962, 118 min. Franz Kafka’s classic novel of paranoia and conspiracy seems tailormade for director Orson Welles. This labyrinthine, deliciously satiric, nightmare vision of a man (Anthony Perkins) accused of an unspecified crime emerges as a subtle allegory of Welles’ own Catch-22 tribulations working in the film industry. With a dream cast that includes Jeanne Moreau, Romy Schneider, Akim Tamiroff and Welles himself.

Touch of Evil / The Trial

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What is Touch of Evil / The Trial about?: TOUCH OF EVIL, 1958, Universal, 111 min. Orson Welles’ hallucinatory, off-kilter masterwork stars Charlton Heston in one of his finest performances as a Mexican policeman trapped on the wrong side of the border, where a corpulent, corrupt cop (Welles) tries to stop him from digging into the past. Janet Leigh co-stars as Heston’s new wed wife, menaced by leather-clad Mercedes McCambridge and her gang of juvenile delinquents. Co-starring Akim Tamiroff, Marlene Dietrich, Joseph Calleia.

THE TRIAL, 1962, 118 min. Franz Kafka’s classic novel of paranoia and conspiracy seems tailormade for director Orson Welles. This labyrinthine, deliciously satiric, nightmare vision of a man (Anthony Perkins) accused of an unspecified crime emerges as a subtle allegory of Welles’ own Catch-22 tribulations working in the film industry. With a dream cast that includes Jeanne Moreau, Romy Schneider, Akim Tamiroff and Welles himself.