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A Touch of Evil by Orson Welles was released to the public to view in 1958. This was a film that gave viewers a whole new view of what kind of corruption was going on around the border. In the movie A Touch of Evil “Mexicans supplies Vargas with a psychological rationale for aggressively pursuing [his investigation of Quinlan], Vargas does not accuse Quinlan of police corruption as an expression of his solidarity with the political efforts to right the history of injustices at the border.”(Welles) In exposing Quinlan’s illegal policing practices on the U.S. side of the border, Vargas struggles to persuade Susan of the higher standards to which the police are held on the Mexican side of the border. (83)
How was this work typical for its era? It was like the elephant in the room that no one wanted to talk about. “Beyond subverting generic conventions and American-held stereotypes, Welles makes another interesting move by imbuing the American characters in Touch of Evil with homoeroticism while concretizing the heterosexuality of Vargas. For an audience of 1958, when the national rhetoric espoused homosexuality as deviant and un-American, Quinlan’s homosexuality can be seen as another mechanism that flips the U.S.-Mexico binary. In a rather lighthearted bit of discourse between Orson Welles (OW) and director Peter Bogdanovich (PB), Welles even admits to infusing the scene where Quinlan strangles Grandi with homosexual overtones.” (Welles and Bogdanovich 320–21)
This movie was very innovative for its time. “While no definitive history about how Welles came to direct Touch of Evil is available, the circumstances have generated three distinct legends that constrict Welles as a specific kind of Hollywood auteur. While Heston is a self-serving tale in which he functions as the protagonist, it emphasizes Welles vulnerability within the studio system and highlights that, though Welles was a forceful artist, he had little, if any, usable power in Hollywood” (Pease).
This work was not well received very well at first till the Orson rewrote it several times till Universal Studios liked the screen play. “Universal Studios would not have hired him at all were it not for the demands of the popular star it coveted. Welles version positions his status in the studio hierarchy similarly, but it makes more vibrant the portrait of an artist with an unflagging devotion to his craft, true to his creative vision even in the face of economic hardship”(Zugsmith). Zugsmith narrative, meanwhile, “constructs Welles as a brash genius, a man who sought out the difficult circumstances that, in the end, made his successes all the more grand. Where they may fail in their historical veracity, however, these narratives succeed in setting up a layer story of Orson Welles as a daredevil auteur who, because he could not be contained by it, was dismissed by the Hollywood studio machine.” (Zugsmith) “They also hint toward a kind of classical masculinity that is inherent to any rendering of the genius auteur”(Rollins).
People today speak out against the stereotyping. All people have the right to be who they truly are without being judged and in fear of their life because of their life style. Which is very different from back then, they were topics that you did not talk about for the fear of being ridiculed. My personal reaction to this suspenseful movie was great. With all the drama and suspense you never knew what was going to happen next, it left you hanging on the edge of your seat waiting and wondering. I considered it to be an amazing movie not like the movies today that you can pretty much predict what is going to happen there’s no suspense in today’s movies anymore.
Compared to other movies of its time “the historical moment of the late 1950s, while key in understanding prevailing attitudes toward homosexuality that would help hierarchize Mexico in the American imagination, is also key when discussing Touch of Evil in relation to (or as a response to) U.S. immigration policy.” (Wollen 22) “When postulating about Welles’s decision to rewrite the script, many critics suggest the idea came from an incident at Sleepy Lagoon on August 2, 1942, when “a young Mexican-American named José Diaz was run down by an automobile and his body dumped in a mud-hole near Sleepy Lagoon, a water-filled gravel-pit that was a swimming place for young Mexican-Americans” (Wollen 22).came from an incident at Sleepy Lagoon on August 2, 1942, when “a young Mexican-American named José Diaz was run down by an automobile and his body dumped in a mud-hole near Sleepy Lagoon, a water-filled gravel-pit that was a swimming place for young Mexican-Americans” (Wollen 22).
Future generations should be aware of political people that have been around for a long time; usually they become corrupt, and will try and do anything to get away with dishonorable acts, legal or not, to preserve their status in the population. Also to stand their ground for what they believe in, and not be in fear of their life because of how they are and what they believe.

Work Cited:
Beckham II, Jack M. "Placing Touch Of Evil, The Border, And Traffic In The American Imagination." Journal Of Popular Film &amp; Television 33.3 (2005): 130-141. Academic Search Complete. Web. 16 Nov. 2013.

Pease, Donald. “Borderline Justice/States of Emergency: Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil.” New Centennial Review 1.1 (2001): 75–105.

Rollins, Brooke. "Some Kind Of A Man": Orson Welles As Touch Of Evil's Masculine Auteur." Velvet Light Trap: A Critical Journal Of Film &amp; Television 57 (2006): 32-41. Literary Reference Center. Web. 16 Nov. 2013.

Touch of Evil. Screenplay by Orson Welles. Dir. Orson Welles. Prod. Albert Zugsmith.
Perf. Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, Orson Welles. 1958. DVD. Universal, 2003.

Wollen, Peter. “Foreign Relations: Welles and Touch of Evil.” Sight and Sound 6
(Oct. 1996): 20–23.