Now that we can compare all three versions of Orson Welles’s Touch of Evil on DVD, here are the last twelve pages from Welles’s original script, so we can see just how much Welles concept evolved during the actual shooting of the film. This script includes Welles changes up until February 16, 1957, two days before he actually started shooting the film on February 18, 1957.
As can be seen from these script pages, Welles took important dialogue sequences that he had originally crammed into the climax, and wisely transposed them to places earlier in the film. The two most notable being Quinlan’s clash with Vargas over how a policeman should conduct his job (“a policeman’s job is only easy in a police state”), and Quinlan’s nostalgic, Bernstein-like remembrance of his young wife’s murder, which he still thinks about every day, as told to his long time friend and partner of 18 years, Pete Menzies.
Welles decision to move both of these scenes clearly helped the overall structure of the movie, by giving us important information on the characters’ background earlier in the film, while keeping audiences from becoming too overloaded with information during the picture’s climax.
The first transposed scene establishes Quinlan’s antagonistic attitude towards Vargas right off the bat, when they first meet during the investigation of Rudy Linnekar’s car exploding. The second scene gives us the reason for Quinlan’s obsession with strapping murderers to the electric chair, explaining how the killer of Quinlan’s young wife got away scot-free when Quinlan was just a rookie detective.
Of course, that is a device Welles claimed to have greatly abhorred in Citizen Kane – dollar book Freud he called it – but in reality, it works quite well in both Kane and in Touch of Evil. After all, how else can you explain a great man’s life in such a short period of time? Likewise, how can we understand the reasons for Quinlan’s actions, without a case history… As a screenwriter, this is a very quick and effective device for explaining Quinlan’s “compulsion” to frame his murder suspects.
There is also a wonderful bit when Quinlan asks Menzies if he recalls one of their past cases, where Mr. Burger killed Mrs. Burger with an axe in the basement, chopping her into bloody bits. While it didn’t make it into the film, it certainly gives the movie one more “touch” of Hitchcock, right before Janet Leigh made Psycho in a very similar California motel only a year later.
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The script excerpt below begins as Menzies approaches Tanya’s to get the drunken Quinlan out of her establishment, so he can tape Quinlan’s confession without the pianola music ruining the recording. But in this version of the script Tanya has not yet been fully developed; instead she is called “Mother Lupe” and it is easy to imagine Welles using Katina Paxtinou for the part of “Mother Lupe,” if Dietrich should have turned him down. It is also significant that Welles includes almost no indication of any of the visual stylistics or camera shots he was to actually use in the climax of his movie. Clearly, the elaborate camera work he would eventually employ was to be based almost entirely on the locations that he had found in Venice, CA, so there was no need to include camera instructions that would be dictated by the locations – other then a vague suggestion of what Welles might want to accomplish in the scene.
Welles told Andre Bazin some of the reasons why he shot the scene as he did, in these interview comments from Cahiers du Cinema in 1958:
ORSON WELLES: Vargas has to go through this labyrinth, among the derricks, because he is the intruder; it’s a scene where there is no place for him. Two old friends are talking; if they saw Heston, nothing would happen. I therefore thought he ought to look as though he was having a hard time of it, laboring, as one labors to dig up gold, climbing, like one climbs a mountain. This kind of job doesn’t suit him and he detests it, as he says to Menzies: at this moment Vargas loses his integrity. He is therefore thrown into a world in which he does not morally belong; he becomes the low kind of person who listens at doors and he isn’t able to do it. I’ve therefore tried to make it as though the machine were leading him, so that he is the victim of that, rather than of his own curiosity. He isn’t very familiar with how to use the recording machine, and he just follows it and obeys it, because this thing doesn’t belong to him; he’s not a spy, he isn’t even a cop.
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CLOSE-UP – QUINLAN
He is almost asleep. But now, sensing something, he opens his eyes.
VIEWPOINT SHOT – MENZIES IN DOORWAY
MENZIES (shouting over the banging piano): Come on out, Hank!
A pause while the old man focuses; then:
QUINLAN: I must be drunk. A minute ago I thought you were Vargas.
REVERSE ANGLE
MENZIES: You are drunk. Come on, Hank —
QUINLAN: Not drunk enough. Where’s Mother Lupe with that bottle? (calling) Mother Lupe! —
THE DOORWAY
MENZIES: She’s fallen asleep somewhere. (there is a new note of strained but real authority in his voice) I’m tired myself, Hank. I’m not going to wait any longer. Come on–
QUINLAN
The new tone arrests his drunken attention somewhat and he rises crossing to the door.
EXT. STREET NEAR HOUSE – DAWN
Mike, who has been getting nothing but the player piano through his earphones, ducks into hiding as Quinlan and Menzies COME OUT of Mother Lupe’s. They move forward and presently their voices can be made out:
MENZIES’ VOICE (filter): What’s been goin’ on, Hank?
QUINLAN’S VOICE (filter): You mean tonight?
MENZIES’ VOICE (filter): Tonight… yesterday… the last eighteen years… Eighteen years is how long I’ve been with you…
VERY CLOSE SHOT – MIKE
Listening. A pause… then:
MENZIES’ VOICE {slight filter): I gotta know, Hank.
REVERSE ANGLE
Mike hiding in extreme foreground. In extreme background CAN BE SEEN the figures of Quinlan and Menzies, their voices HEARD (FILTER) as they come through Mike’s earphones.
EXT. STREET NEAR HOUSE
Quinlan turns back toward the house. Quinlan stops — doesn’t answer for about two or three seconds. Mike strains forward… waiting for the next words.
QUINLAN’S VOICE: Every time in court I have to swear to tell the truth. Am I supposed to take another oath in front of you?
MENZIES’ VOICE: Answer my question, Hank — it’s easy — too easy to duck any longer.
CLOSE SHOT – QUINLAN AND MENZIES
QUINLAN: You already know the answer, don’t you, Pete?
MENZIES’ (sick to his soul): There’s a lot I don’t know, Hank. Let’s start with tonight: — Why d’you take that pistol?
Quinlan lurches and starts forward, moving again toward “Mother Lupe’s”
TRAVELING SHOT
At this moment, Quinlan has gone mentally “out of focus” as drunks do.
QUINLAN: Pistol? …noisy.
FRESH ANGLE – MIKE
Mike is having some trouble following the words, the player piano however, is now only heard VERY FAINTLY in the distance.
QUINLAN’S VOICE: …You know the best way to kill, Pete?
MENZIES’ VOICE: Strangling.
QUINLAN’S VOICE: That’s the smartest way — clean — silent.
MENZIES’ VOICE: You told me often, Hank.
QUINLAN’S VOICE: That’s how my wife got it, you know.
MENZIES’ VOICE: I know.
EXT. ALLEY NEAR HONKY-TONK STREET
Quinlan has come to a halt in a sort of alcoholic trance… lost in his memories:
QUINLAN: Bindin’ cord… She worked up at the packin’ plant, so the killer had it right to hand… Smart – you don’t leave no fingerprints on a piece of string…
MENZIES (anguished): Why’d you do it, Hank?
FRESH ANGLE – MIKE
He moves closer to them, trying to stay hidden and still in range.
QUINLAN’S VOICE (after a moment – his brain clearing slightly): You must be getting’ silly in the head. I didn’t kill my wife. That half-breed done It: We all knew he was guilty, but there wasn’t no evidence. So what did I do?
EXT. ALLEY
QUINLAN: Nothin’… I followed around after him and ate out my heart tryin’ to catch him up and then the army got him; and out in some mudhole in Belgium the Lord done the job for me…1917…He was the last killer ever got out of my hands…
Quinlan starts to walk again…CAMERA DOES NOT FOLLOW, but PANS as Menzies follows him.
FRESH ANGLE – MIKE
Mike eases forward slightly.
MENZIES’ VOICE: You must have been thinking of that string, I guess — tonight.
QUINLAN’S VOICE: I’m always thinkin’ of it, Pete — Say, you remember the Burger Case?
Again, in the extreme distance, Quinlan CAN BE SEEN lurching forward — in long uneven strides —
FRESH ANGLE – MIKE
Again Mike moves forward to keep within range.
MENZIES’ VOICE: Remember it, I was the sucker that found the axe. Even after he confessed, Burger always swore he never left it there in the cellar.
QUINLAN’S VOICE: He would’ve gotten away with murdering his wife, Pete —
MENZIES’ VOICE: You planted that axe —
QUINLAN’S VOICE: Pete, he used that axe to chop his wife into that mess we found —
EXT. HONKEY TONK STREET
It is utterly deserted as the two men COME into it.
MENZIES: – Not that axe.
QUINLAN: Burger confessed — what difference does it make?
MENZIES: What difference? Hank, you don’t have the right to set yourself —
QUINLAN: Right! — Did Burger have the right to cut his wife to a bloody pulp? You saw that corpse, Pete… We just made sure he paid for it.
MENZIES: Hank, I believed in you. — You were a kind of hero — but all the time, all these years…
QUINLAN: All the time we were doing our job, that’s all: makin’ sure that killers didn’t get away with it.
REVERSE ANGLE – MIKE – AT THE HEAD OP THE ALLEY
MENZIES’ VOICE: But fakin’ evidence, lyin’ —
QUINLAN’S VOICE: Aiding justice, Pete — they were guilty — guilty! Every last one of ‘em! Guilty! (after a silence)
We never framed an innocent man.
MENZIES’ VOICE: But what about Vargas’ wife? (silence)
She’s an innocent woman. — Grandi’s dead — strangled… Who else will you frame for it?
Silence.
STREET
MENZIES (bitterly): You were gonna use Vargas’ pistol, weren’t you? You had some crazy drunken plan to use that Pistol —
QUINLAN (a new note in his voice; he is sobering up): How do you happen to know about that pistol?
MENZIES: Vargas told me.
QUINLAN (after a moment): That explains quite a lot — why you’re here now — and that thing you’re wearing. What’s it called?
EXT. ALLEY – CLOSEUP – MIKE
He strains forward anxiously.
MENZIES’ VOICE: (misunderstanding — scared): What I’m wearing?
QUINLAN’S VOICE: That halo — you’re working for Vargas now.
EXT. STREET
MENZIES: I’m working for the department, Hank, I’m a cop — I ain’t judgin’ you… But I’m takin’ you in…
QUINLAN: You’re what?
EXT. ALLEY
MENZIES’ VOICE: First you can give me Vargas pistol.
QUINLAN’S VOICE: If that’s the way you want it, Pete. I’ve got it right here —
MENZIES’ VOICE (filter; suddenly sharp): Hank! No, Hank —
The gunshots EXPLODE in Mike’s earphones like thunderbolts!
EXT. STREET
Menzies stands teetering in front of Quinlan, a look of pain and surprise in his face — then topples to the ground. Quinlan stares down at the blood spreading on the concrete — the gun is dangling from his hand…
FRESH ANGLE – MIKE
QUINLAN’S VOICE (slight filter): I didn’t want to, Pete… Why’d you make me do it?… Pete…
A short silence.
QUINLAN’S VOICE (slight filter): What the… !
The earphones go dead.
FRESH ANGLE
Quinlan is stooping over Menzies’ body, holding the wires and the small mike. He straightens up, looking at the setup which will doom him. Instantly he understands. Quinlan throws away the mike and wire and, tightening his grip on the gun, STARTS AWAY —
MIKE
Mike, realizes that Quinlan has ripped the wires.
EXT. STREET – DAWN
Seeing Mike, Quinlan wheels, the pistol still in his hand.
QUINLAN (shouting): Vargas! (the pistol comes up) Pete Menzies is dead! Ya’ hear that? Pete’s dead — you killed him! You’re under arrest!
REVERSE ANGLE
Mike does not wait to reply. He starts forward, directly into Quinlan’s line of fire.
MIKE: This is my country, Quinlan.
MED. CLOSE SHOT – QUINLAN
QUINLAN: You shot Pete. Now I’ll shoot you… Self-defense…they’ll believe me… they always believe me.
REVERSE ANGLE
Mike continues to move slowly forward toward the gun.
QUINLAN: They gotta believe me!
MIKE (fiercely, but very quietly): Making your own laws, you had to end up breaking the real ones –
QUINLAN: What kind of a cop are —-
MIKE (breaking in): A cop doesn’t work like a dog catcher, just putting the crooks behind bars: he enforces the law —- and the law protects the guilty as well as the innocent —
QUINLAN: This job is tough enough —
MIKE: It’s supposed to be tough; It’s only easy in a police state. That’s the whole point, Quinlan — who’s boss? The cop. — or the law?
CLOSE SHOT
Quinlan points the gun almost directly into the camera lens. We feel that it is straight into Mike’s face and that now there is no escape…
REVERSE ANGLE – CLOSEUP – MIKE
There is no going back now. Or going forward. He does the only thing he can do — he waits for the shot.
QUINLAN – CLOSER ANGLE
Quinlan sights down his gun… The CRACK of a gun sounds off screen and Quinlan’s face suddenly crumples. CAMERA SWEEPS from Quinlan to:
REVERSE ANGLE
Menzies holding the gun with which he has just shot Quinlan. Plainly this is a supreme effort in his last gasping moments of life.
MENZIES: You… made me do it… Han —-
He does not finish; the last word chokes off as the gun slips from his hand.
CLOSEUP – QUINLAN – FROM MENZIES’ VIEWPOINT
He sinks to his knees…then to his hands…
QUINLAN: Pete…that’s the second bullet I’ve stopped for you…
TIGHT TWO-SHOT – FAVORING MIKE
He turns and Quinlan looks up groggily as the lights of a car sweep across the scene.
REVERSE ANGLE – SCHWARTZ’S CAR – HOTEL background.
Schwartz driving, Susan sits beside him. The car comes to a halt and Schwartz jumps out. Mike runs INTO SCENE.
MIKE: Susan — !
SUSAN: I’m all right, darling — come on! We’ve still got time to catch that plane. – Let’s get out of here.
MIKE: (to Schwartz) It’s all here —
FRESH ANGLE – FULL SHOT – THE STREET – DAWN
A Mexican policeman APPEARS background, running forward. Mike calls a few quick orders in Spanish. A few heads APPEAR at windows and in the distance a small scattering of people starts to gather during the following:
Schwartz foreground has taken the recording machine from Mike and has started to adjust it for the play-back.
QUINLAN’S VOICE: Pete…
MED. GROUP SHOT
Schwartz moves toward Quinlan holding the recording machine.
SCHWARTZ: Pete Menzies?… What about him?
FRESH ANGLE – MEXICAN POLICEMAN AND MIKE
MIKE (turning from policeman): He says Menzies is dead.
MED. GROUP SHOT
QUINLAN: Vargas… he killed him…
Suddenly a strange sound comes to the dying man’s ear: the SOUND of his own voice:
QUINLAN’S VOICE (filter): …I followed after him and ate out my heart tryin’ to catch him up…
Quinlan’s eyes go out of focus at this bewildering mockery — at first he cannot manage to comprehend its meaning — Then the swish and jabber of the tape explains itself.
MENZIES’ VOICE: …ever frame anybody?
QUINLAN’S VOICE: Nobody that wasn’t guilty!….. Guilty!…..
MENZIES’ VOICE: All these years… (whoosh-whoosh)
SCHWARTZ: Twenty years of frame-ups –
Schwartz continues to race through the tape.
QUINLAN’S VOICE: … aiding justice…
MENZIES’ VOICE: …you were kind of a hero…
CLOSEUP – QUINLAN
His cheek against the earth, he gasps out the words:
QUINLAN: Kind of a hero — !
QUINLAN’S VOICE: Guilty! Guilty! Pete –
The SOUND CUTS OFF abruptly. Schwartz has silenced the machine.
MIKE (with a sort of quiet impersonal severity): Well… now you’ve got a better hero… you have Pete Menzies.
MED. SHOT – MIKE AND SCHWARTZ
They are beside the car (Susan at the window).
SCHWARTZ (to Mike): Quinlan was right, you know — we got a confession — just an hour ago –
Mike has started into the car; he turns back at this.
MIKE: What do you mean?
SCHWARTZ: The dynamite… the boy signed a full statement.
MIKE: Sanchez!
SCHWARTZ: Sanchez. He put the bomb in the car –
Silence.
Quinlan is very still. He is dead.
SCHWARTZ: So Quinlan’s intuition —
MIKE: (breaking in) He was a great detective all right…
(half to himself)… but a bad cop.
Mike gets in behind the wheel next to Susan. The CAMERA CRANES BACK as the car starts up the honky-tonk street.
CAMERA CONTINUES TO CRANE BACK AND UP, showing the dead bodies of Quinlan and Menzies and finally, in the foreground, the street’s “Bienvenido Amigos!”
The car can be HEARD racing toward the airport as we —
FADE OUT
THE END
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