History Film / TouchOfEvil

* RightForTheWrongReasons: In one of the film's final lines it is revealed that the man Quinlan fingered as the man responsible for the prologue's bombing was the actual culprit, it's just that Quinlan running on sheer GutFeeling and a greater concern about [[FramingTheGuiltyParty expediting the process]] made this an ultimately bitter {{Irony}} to highlight as his epitaph.

* SweaterGirl: Janet Leigh manages to provide {{Fanservice}} while portraying a respectable woman by wearing some very, very tight sweaters.

Welles plays Captain [[DirtyCop Hank Quinlan]], a fat, ugly, and sad corrupt police officer. The black-and-white film also features Creator/CharltonHeston as [[KnightInSourArmor Mike Vargas]], a Mexican narcotics agent on his honeymoon; Creator/JanetLeigh as his bride, Susie; and Creator/MarleneDietrich as Tana, a cigar-smoking Mexican gypsy brothel owner with huge beautiful eyes.

* LingerieScene: Janet Leigh laying on her bed (both when talking to Vargas over the phone and later, when sleeping). In a figure-hugging teddy, sans skirt. [[ShesGotLegs With her long and beautiful legs featured prominently.]]

* FunnyBackgroundEvent: When Vargas is calling to ask for the number of the Mirador motel (where Suzie is staying), we can see Sergeant Menzies arguing with Joe Grandi on the outside.

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Hank sheds a SingleTear [[spoiler: after shooting Pete Menzies.]]

* SchiffOneLiner: The epitaph of Hank Quinlan, as given in the final lines of the film: "He was a great detective, but a lousy cop."

Welles plays Captain [[DirtyCop Hank Quinlan]], a fat, ugly, and sad corrupt police officer. The black-and-white film also features Creator/CharltonHeston as [[KnightInSourArmor Mike Vargas]], a Mexican narcotics agent on his honeymoon; Creator/JanetLeigh as his bride, Susie; and Creator/MarleneDietrich as Tanya, a cigar-smoking Mexican gypsy brothel owner with huge beautiful eyes.

* ActorAllusion: Tanya is identified by a pianola she keeps, which provides her leitmotif. This was not the first time one of Creator/MarleneDietrich's characters was identified with her pianola (''Film/TheBlueAngel''). Tanya's pianola is stated to be old, but it still works, for what it's worth.

** Many of the characters are themselves parodies of older films. Suzy Vargas mocks Grandi for being a Film/LittleCaesar, and he and his outfit are essentially gangster movie cliches. Suzy's ordeal in the film, where she goes from idealistic newlywed wife to almost being StuffedIntoTheFridge to give the hero trauma, and eventually framed [[spoiler:as a floozy and murder suspect]], is a commentary on the female lead/love interest/femme fatale archetype actresses often played in these movies.

-->'''Mike:''' A policeman's job is only easy in a as police state.

** The film takes the subtext of prior noir movies--specifically that cops are not as honorable as they seem--and makes it blatant text. From the very beginning, the lawmen from both sides of the border are uninterested in the car bombing for its own sake, and more concerned with how the event could be used to advance personal or political agendas. Hank Quinlan in particular makes sweeping judgements about how the crime was carried out, without even examining the crime scene. On a meta level, even the film itself is only interested in the bombing as a device to set up the conflict between Vargas and Quinlan--[[MalignantPlotTumor their conflict dominates the final act]], while the bombing case gets wrapped up off-screen via a few passing lines of dialogue.
** Detective Hank Quinlan is also a dark look at police work, showing how a life of crime-fighting has disillusioned and embittered him to the point that he has become worse than the criminals he has hunted down, and absolutely dismissive and snide to the idealistic Vargas. Vargas himself is not happy about some of the measures he has to take to bring down Quinlan, nor the fact that his dedication to his work keeps him away from his wife. As Vargas himself notes, honest policework is never intended to be a easy or safe job.
** Many of the characters are themselves parodies of older films. Suzy Vargas mocks Grandi for being a Film/LittleCaesar, and he and his outfits are essentially gangster movie cliches. Suzy's ordeal in the film, where she goes from idealistic newlywed wife to almost being StuffedIntoTheFridge to give the hero trauma, and eventually framed [[spoiler:as a floozy and murder suspect]], is a commentary on the female lead/love interest/femme fatale archetype actresses often played in these movies.

* IncrediblyObviousBomb: So obvious that the lady passenger in the car complains about a ticking noise. Since the bomb was planted with a short timer and was inteded to blow up immediately, subtlety was not really necessary.

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** It must be noted that there are no Mexicans in the cast. Grandi is played by an Armenian actor Akim Tamiroff and the Gypsy fortune teller is played by Creator/MarleneDietrich, who doesn't even hide her famous German accent. The film is set in a border area between America and Mexico and actually shot around Venice Beach, Los Angeles with very distinct, identifiable architecture. It's not a realistic film by any means. In any case, the idea of actors affecting accents for their part wasn't all that common among Golden Age actors like Charlton Heston or Welles, who weren't into the later dominant style of MethodActing.