“Not a great film but certainly marked with patches of brilliance” is how lead Charlton Heston described this 1958 noir, Orson Welles’ last studio film. Welles was already cast as the heavy – a corrupt border cop named Quinlan – when Heston suggested he also direct; Welles took the job, provided he could rewrite the script, too. A mere three weeks later, it was camera roll. What everybody remembers, rightfully, are the opening credits, with that masterful crane shot building tension for more than three unbroken minutes before a bomb goes off. But the studio took the final edit away from Welles, as was so often the case with the embattled former boy wonder. Patches of brilliance, indeed. – Kimberley Jones
