TOUCH OF EVIL (1958)
Hosted by FOSTER HIRSCH • Monday, June 15 at 7:30 pm
Orson Welles was an artist with a vision. One of the great revolutionaries of cinema, Welles never stopped experimenting and pushing the boundaries of cinematic art. The result was an amazing series of masterworks that feel as fresh today as when they were brand new. Join Film Historian Foster Hirsch for a lively centennial celebration of the life and career of the man who is one of cinema’s greatest artists and the most larger-than-life figure in film history.
Welles’ film noir masterpiece stars Charlton Heston and Janet Leigh as a Mexican drug enforcement agent and his wife whose efforts to unmask a corrupt border-town sheriff (Welles) in one of his greatest performances) lead them into a nightmare of blackmail and deception. Marlene Dietrich is unforgettable as the sheriff’s long-ago lover whose gripping monologue provides the film’s haunting finale. Brand New Digital Restoration! (USA, 1958, 95 min., PG-13, DCP)
Foster Hirsch is a pioneer in the development of Film Studies and author of the classic Dark Side of the Screen: Film Noir. He is a professor of film at Brooklyn College. He received his B.A. from Stanford University and his M.A., M.F.A., and Ph.D. from Columbia University.