A complex film noir by Orson Welles from 1958, set on the US-Mexican border region. With a top-class cast, including Janet Leigh and Charlton Heston, Orson Welles himself took on the leading role of corrupt policeman Hank Quinlan. The famous opening sequence of the film is spectacular, shot in a single take and following a car through the streets of the Mexican border town for three and a half minutes.
Good and evil are indistinguishable in an environment characterised by the brutality of the drug trade. This was Welles’ last US production, after which he only worked in Europe because the studio system prevented him from doing so. For the film, his friend Marlene Dietrich had to transform herself into a dark-haired brothel owner called Tanya, who reads the cards for Hank, who is heading for his doom. Although Dietrich only plays a supporting role, she is essential to the plot and also to Welles’ self-written role; in the words of her biographer Steven Bach, she embodies here the border between Mexico and the US and between good and evil.
Dietrich and Welles knew each other from their time as American troop support, and the actress, who never held back with criticism, later said: “Whatever he wanted, I did. […] He is a great, great man. A genius. People should cross themselves before they say his name.” At almost 60 years of age, the actress in the film looks much younger and you can tell that she really enjoyed the role and the sometimes coarse language. “Variety” wrote on 19 March 1958: “Miss Dietrich is rather  sultry and fun to watch.” At the time the movie was dismissed as “sex and crime”, today it is considered a masterpiece.

Peter Mänz