Touch of Evil

The opening scene starts out in Mexico with the sounds of swing, old cars running everywhere, and a finely dressed couple. We then see Mike and Suzie Vargas. Mr. Vargas is a cop who gets drug criminals and recently got a part of a big mob family arrested. The newly married couple kiss and an exploding car crashes into the scene. So much for a happy time. After a little investigation we meet Hank Quinlan, a rather rude sort of guy who is captain of the local policeman. To add to the exploding car crash Uncle Joe, one of the members of the Grandi family, is telling Mike to get out of their business and lay of their brother in Mexico City. To boot, the inside of the Grandi family mob is separating as some of the members in the lower rung of the whole family are trying to assault Mike, something that was not planned. We learn that Hank is the type of guy that would go and sacrifice himself. That is why he has a cane. He ran in the way of a bullet intended for another person. The investigation goes on and just like many of the movies in the time of film noir the story isn't triangular but rather it's more of a line. It rises in tension until the last minute. Will Mike catch Mr. Grandi? Will Suzie ever be able to get away from Mr. Grandi and his thugs? Will Hank figure out what's going on in this explosion case?

I personally enjoyed the movie but then again I understood a lot of the Spanish dialog so that added more for me. Also I love the sense of mystery so the story was more or less reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes (well without the whole British accent thing). I also enjoyed the tension between Vargas and Quinlan. It really seems to touch me now that we as a nation sort of have this same tension with the immigrants that come to America.

I thought that the whole music imagery and symbolism worked. I thought that the switch between the Spanish music and the swing music made me think more about what the two types of music symbolized. I think it was representative of the tension between the two sides. I also felt that the characters in this movie were much more developed than in the Maltese Falcon (of course there was also not in the Maltese Falcon they were trying to display a certain theme). What I really think did not work was the characterization of Quinlan. I thought although he was an enjoyable character, he had this whole thing of being the archetype of being the washed up cop with a really really crappy back story. The problem I have with this is that although it contributes to the story, it doesn't allow for the characters to be believable. I'm always thinking that this is just some story. It's not believable.

Overall I give this movie as a whole a 7/10. It's not the best movie but it certainly is entertaining.