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

[–] JohnGrant (73) 3 years ago

No.

[–] darkfrances (47) 3 years ago

Like someone else says on this thread, he is one of the several carnival-like people and things you see in the movie. Distorted carnival (assuming most of them aren't already distorted...) was the main theme and mood in the movie. Odd people living in an odd part of the world, where up is often down, and white is often purple with yellow polka dots.
I found him unsettling and highly uncomfortable - quite the opposite of what the wife needed at the moment. I also found him awfully manic and weird, weird in a unique way, which is what they were probably going for. The whole movie is unbelievably manic, there's barely time to catch your breath, so you can't blame the poor Night Man for ruining the show.
Plus, like someone else says here, it does make sense for Uncle Joe to have a dimwitted night man at the hotel.