“Touch of Evil,” directed by Welles for Universal Studios in 1958, and Director Carol Reed’s “The Third Man,” co-starring Welles as the corrupt Harry Lime, earned the No. 3 and No. 6 spots, respectively.
Of “Touch of Evil,” David Thomson (“Rosebud”) writes, “Metaphorically and cinematically, it’s a picture about crossing over – in one sumptuous camera setup we track the characters over the border. That shot is famous, but it’s no richer than the single setup in a cramped motel suite that proves how Hank Quinlan (Welles himself) plants dynamite on the man he intends to frame. These scenes were a way for Welles to say, ‘I’m as good as ever,’ but they are also crucial to the uneasiness that runs through the picture and the gloating panorama of an unwholesome society. The aura of crime has seeped into every cell of ordinary behaviour: the city officials are corrupt, the night man (Dennis Weaver) needs a rest home, and the gang that come to the motel to get Susie are one of the first warnings of drugs in American movies. Not least, of course, Quinlan – a sheriff gone to hell on candy bars. So evil is not just a “touch”. It is criminality in the blood. Marlene Dietrich’s Tanya watches over this doom like a witch or prophet, a bleak reminder that there is no hope. Fifty years later, that border is still an open wound.”
In examining 1949’s “The Third Man.” Ryan Gilbey (“It Don’t Worry Me”) writes, “The morally fermented atmosphere of Vienna mapped out by Graham Greene’s screenplay (based on his own story) is sustained beautifully by Robert Krasker’s cinematography, with top notes of mischief introduced by Anton Karas’s sprightly zither playing. An unassuming actor named Orson Welles also puts in an appearance, skulking in a doorway in one of the wittiest of all movie entrances, then delivering a speech full of humble horrors from the vantage point of a ferris wheel overlooking the city.”
There are some minor quibbles with The Guardian’s list, but that is the nature of such rosters. Howard Hawk’s “The Big Sleep” tops the list. You can read the entire list at The Guardian.
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