STACK September 2016 Issue 143

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constant artistic autonomy from
the studio system. Hence, the
primary reason Welles had not
directed a Hollywood movie for
ten years. Universal, desperately
needing the accomplished and
popular Heston for their film,
reluctantly offered the director’s
chair to Welles with the caveat
that he would only be paid
for his acting role. But the
studio executive then added a
sweetener. If Welles completed
the film on time and within
budget, it could possibly lead
to a multi-picture contract with
the studio. Welles agreed on the
condition that he be allowed to
rewrite the screenplay.
The determined Welles scrapped the
original script and completely rewrote it in
seventeen days. His adaptation transformed
a cheap standard thriller into a visually and
structurally complex cinematic study in
depravity, that has since been described as
film noir’s perfect epitaph. To add racial and
sexual tension to the story, Welles swapped
the action from San Diego to the US-Mexico
border and the ethnicity of the lead male and
female roles. Heston’s character Miguel
I n 1957, Charlton Heston
was sent a script entitled
Badge of Evil (the
original title) with an offer from
Universal-International to play the
lead role of a forthright assistant
district attorney, who brings a
corrupt southern California police
detective to justice. The
screenplay was akin to a 1940s-
style cop thriller that begins with
a sudden outburst of violence
whose consequences the rest of
the movie attempts to untangle.
Heston liked the script, but
before accepting wanted to know
who the director was. The studio
didn’t know but told the actor
that Orson Welles was lined up to play the
rogue cop. Heston replied that if Welles was
also directing the movie, he would willingly
star in it.
Following his outstanding directorial
debut, Citizen Kane (1941) – still considered
today to be the greatest American movie
of all time – Orson Welles had become
a cult figure within the Hollywood acting
fraternity. However, the major film studios
did not share that view due to his reputation
for irresponsibility, self-indulgence and
Touch of Evil (1958) Directed by Orson Welles
Part 2 of 2
Marlene Dietrich
as bordello
owner Tana
28 SEPTEMBER 2016
EXTRAS
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His adaptation transformed
a cheap standard thriller
into a visually and
structurally complex
cinematic study in
depravity