Touch of Evil (1958)
Written, directed by, and co-starring Orson Welles, Touch of Evil is a tour-de-force of noir cinema. Planting us straight from the off in a Mexican border town as a car bomb goes off, the viewer is in the thick of the narrative with no build up.
With a plot than encompasses drug trafficking, prostitution, police corruption and Welles cast to die for - Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, Marlene Dietrich, Dennis Weaver and Zsa Zsa Gabor, who appears briefly as the impresario of a strip club.
Welles direction is as uncompromising as the temperatures. A camera that's barely still, full of sweeping tracking shots and sweaty close ups, his police captain proves to be a nasty piece of work as Heston plays the hero - a Mexican which has been a source of contention to this day - but it's Janet Leigh who's put through the wringer in a series of set pieces at a roadside motel every bit as harrowing and scary as what is to come in 1960's
Psycho.
Touch of Evil isn't an easy watch, it takes a while for the narrative to unfold but it's also fascinating being thrust into Welles investigation as we cling to snippets of information and try to unravel what's going on. It's thrilling stuff and possibly the last throw of the dice for classic noir.