Films at the Library: Touch of Evil

About this event

Adult. Join us at the library for a wide variety of films! We Will Be Showing: Touch of Evil "Noir-vember" continues with Orson Welles' crime movie masterpiece! Beginning with a three-minute-plus tracking crane shot, the film explodes onto the screen, literally--the marvelously expressive opening shot ends with a car blowing up, and that detonation sets into motion a classic noir tale of betrayal and murder. In a complex exploration of character and morality, Welles plays the racist Captain Hank Quinlan, a grotesque, troubled, and powerful figure who runs his small U.S. border town according to his own version of the law. Quinlan's brutishness and vulgarity contrast starkly with the idealism of Mike Vargas (played by Moses himself, Charlton Heston), a Mexican detective trying to put away the leader of the Grandis,a dangerous family of drug dealers. In the U.S. with his new bride, Susie, (Janet Leigh) Vargas becomes consumed with exposing Quinlan and his highly questionable methods--too busy to see that his own beautiful blonde bride is in serious danger from both Quinlan and the Grandis. Rating: PG Runtime: 111 minutes