The opening three-and-a-half minute one-take shot may be the single greatest shot ever put on film. It has certainly inspired its share of homages, among them, The Player (1992), Boogie Nights (1997), Goodfellas (1990), and Brian De Palma's The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990) and Snake Eyes (1998).

Among the differences between the original release and the 1998 restored director's cut were the removal of the famed opening's credit titles and Henry Mancini's score. Instead of Mancini's be-bop-like jazz score, Welles wanted the cacophony of various barroom jukeboxes to overwhelm Charlton Heston and Janet Leigh during their introductory stroll.

Co-star Dennis Weaver, playing the truly oddball hotel manager, considers Touch of Evil as one of two classic films he was fortunate enough to have been involved with. The other is Duel (1971), directed by Steven Spielberg.

The restored director's cut of Touch of Evil premiered at the Telluride Film Festival in 1998.

Touch of Evil's narrative theme of an all-powerful, but wholly corrupt lawman lording over a city's political and judicial health has proven to be a pervasive theme in American culture, evident in the works of crime novelist James Ellroy, as well as the 1997 film adaptation of his novel L.A. Confidential.

Janet Leigh's harrowing stay at Dennis Weaver's creepy, rural motel foreshadows her ill-fated visit to the Bates Motel in Psycho (1960) when she met an equally neurotic innkeeper (Anthony Perkins). Both films benefited immensely from Robert Clatworthy's art direction.

by Scott McGee