Touch of Evil Analysis

Touch of Evil's opening scene reminded me a lot of the opening scene in Citizen Kane.  It did not surprise me one bit that Orson Welles was also the director of this film, because I saw many similarities between the two. By opening Touch of Evil and Citizen Kane with such powerful scenes, Orson Welles captured the attention of most viewers.  The first thing I noticed that stood out to me as Orson Welles' style was the lack of explanation in the beginning scenes.  Just as in Citizen Kane, Touch of Evil is very confusing for about the first 30 minutes, and forces the viewer to pay attention and piece together clues.  Luckily for Welles, Touch of Evil managed to balance very dark themes with highly amusing comedy moments, most emanating from the bloated Welles.  I found this to be one of the few films where the story simply did not sag for one minute and was a general delight to watch.