1958’s Touch of Evil is one of the greatest Film Noirs of all time. It also contains one of the most famous long take tracking shots in history, courtesy of the great Orson Welles.

Star Charlton Heston brought Welles onboard to both direct and star as the villain of the piece – a bloated, corrupt cop. Welles delivered a highly stylised and idiosyncratic noir, which was not at all to the studio’s liking. Reshoots were ordered with another director, and Welles was subsequently shut out of the editing process. It was not until 1998 that a restored version, re-edited according to Welles’ original vision, was released.

The most famous sequence in the movie is the opening – a 3 minute-plus crane shot, which begins with close-up of a bomb being planted in a car. We then track the car as it makes its way through a border town, passing closely by Heston and co-star Janet Leigh, until the inevitable explosion. It is a technical tour-de-force, and a big influence on later ‘extended single take’ show-boating sequences in other movies (hello, 1917). 

The posters featured here are the fabulous French ‘grande’ by the renowned artist Boris Grinsson, which is available for sale here, plus the Belgian poster which I am keeping and plan to frame in due course as part of a mini-noir gallery!