MovieChat Forums > Touch of Evil (1958) Discussion > Did the village idot 'night man' ruin th...

Did the village idot 'night man' ruin this movie for anyone else???

posted 15 years ago by Karunesh
36 replies | jump to latest

I love film noir, the darker and creepier the better, but the unintentionally comedic stammering and overacting of the "Night Man" at the Hotel (viewers will remember him as such since he repeated that he was "the Night Man" over and over and over and over again) completely ruined the whole dark, creepy ambiance of the film for me. His time on screen was so bad it was painful and embarrassing to watch, a stock "village idiot" charcter that feels like an an unwelcome vistor flown in from a different movie - like a 30's slapstick comedy perhaps? His presence is truly unfortunate since TOE could have otherwise been a good noir tale...Some directors should be banned by law from putting "comic relief" charcters in their movies - Welles is one of them!

JEFF MATHEUS

[–] 14 years ago

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[–] thelastfaceyouwillsee 13 years ago

Absolutely not. Weaver's Night man is a high-point for me. A total class act.

...now I do it just to watch their f----n' expression change.

[–] HalRagland 11 years ago

Yeah, he's not far off from the Jar Jar Binks League for me. I just didn't like him much. Just an annoying distraction for me.

[–] DracTarashV 11 years ago

Weaver's character/performance was the only thing I disliked about Touch of Evil. For some strange reason though, I was rather amused by his character... at first.

But, yeah, the film suffers a bit from his pointless character.

Hey there, Johnny Boy, I hope you fry!

[–] ryanryanmd 11 years ago

It didn't ruin the movie but his character was extremely out of place. It's like he's acting in another movie.

[–] sleepwalking 11 years ago

I've never had a problem with the character. The film already feels so over the top and carnival-like to me that I wasn't surprised by his appearance. The shot where he drops the smoked joint in terror cracks me up. However I agree with the poster who said that he would've gotten on my nerves if he had more scenes.

[–] ObservationBlogger 10 years ago

I thought he was good. His creepiness got to me. Heston as a Mexican was downright ludicrous.

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[–] spookyrat1 10 years ago

It didn't ruin the movie for me, but it did keep forcing me to ask why would Miguel leave his bride with the "village idiot' in a desert dog box. Hell of a start to a honeymoon.

[–] 10 years ago

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