Touch of Evil/Trivia

• All-Star Cast: Charlton Heston, Orson Welles, Janet Leigh, Dennis Weaver, and Marlene Dietrich, plus cameos from Joseph Cotten, Zsa Zsa Gabor, and Mercedes McCambridge. This is all the more impressive when you realize Touch Of Evil was meant to be a quickie B-picture.
• Executive Meddling: The film was made under budget and on schedule, but the studio still took it from Welles's control and re-edited it, cutting some scenes out and reshooting others.
  • Heston claimed afterward that he convinced the studio executives that he'd star in the movie only because he thought Welles was the director, when the studio only hired him to act as Quinlan (in truth, Welles and the producer had already agreed to let him direct the movie based on the Badge of Evil novel/script).
• Fake Nationality: American Charlton Heston plays Mexican police officer Mike Vargas. He plays him well, but still, come on -- it's just Chuck Heston with a tan and a Mexican mustache. Lampshaded by several characters, who say that he doesn't look the least bit Mexican.