Did the Coen bros. spend their whole career trying to remake Orson Welles’ febrile and treacherous cross-border noir? Well, No Country for Old Men owes as much to this crime epic’s amoral view of the universe as it does to Cormac McCarthy’s book, and M. Emmet Walsh was basically channeling Welles as the crooked detective in Blood Simple. But could anyone blame them? From the nerve-shredding opening, with its countdown to a time bomb explosion that blows the whole fetid affair apart, Touch of Evil was crafted by Welles at the top of his wicked game as star, writer, and director. Initially butchered by Universal-International for its 1958 release, Welles’ vision has been restored in all its challenging, enthralling, greasy, sweaty brilliance. – Richard Whittaker
