A tale of murder, corruption and the pursuit of justice set in 1950s California in the novel behind the noir classic movie, Touch of Evil. The latest Film Noir Classic title from Stark House Press is Whit Masterson’s Badge of Evil. The 1956 novel was adapted for the big screen by Orson Welles in 1958 as Touch of Evil. The film is a classic but what about that original novel? Whit Masterson, aka Wade Miller, is actually writing duo, Robert Allison Wade, 1921-2012, and H. William Miller, 1920-1961. Friends from high school in San Diego, the pair went on to edit their college newspaper before writing 33 books together. Nicholas Litchfield’s informative and insightful introduction tells us Wade Miller sold over 14 million books and were translated into 15 languages. Badge of Evil was one of eight of their novels filmed.
I have read Wade Miller but not this novel. I go into it with trepidation, I know the film well, it is one of my favourites. It isn’t perfect but it is a fine movie. It has one of my favourite lines:
‘He was some kind of a man… What does it matter what you say about people?’
Spoken by Tana, played by Marlene Dietrich, at the end of the film. It may not mean much out of context. It will, however, make perfect sense if you have seen that scene. It asks questions about judging people, about summing up a life? Even a bad life has its better moments, how do we wind up the people we become?
The film is dark and compelling, infused with Welles’ deeply sceptical psychologically perceptive writing. It has been restored to the original vision after a studio cut originally obscured some of Welles meaning and power. There are many memorable moments beginning with the remarkable three-minute overhead crane shot. It is the scene of a US/Mexico border crossing that would be easy to film now with a drone camera but was revolutionary and complex at the time. The last time I saw the movie they had removed the opening credits which rolled across the action allowing the viewers to see the scene unencumbered. It’s a mesmerising scene; it ends with a bomb going off which kills two people. The film boils down to a battle of wills between the strait-laced, aristocratic Mexican special prosecutor Ramon Vargas, played by Charlton Heston, and the corrupt, compromised, deluded American policeman Hank Quinlan, played by Welles himself. Quinlan plants dynamite on the suspect he ‘knows’ to be guilty. Vargas is sceptical, the ‘smoking gun’ is suspiciously convenient. The clash of good and evil takes in racism, corruption, borderland lawlessness and ideas of justice, within and without the law. The immorality of framing someone is something we know is wrong but it is complicated by the guilt of the suspect, who in the end confesses. Quinlan has a strong intuition, honed by years of experience but he has lost his moral compass. Heston is miscast but still gives a solid performance. Welles is perfect as the seedy, angry, burnt-out lawman and there are decent performances from Akim Tamiroff as Uncle Joe and already mentioned Dietrich, despite their lack of Latin credentials.
The relationship between a film and its source material is fascinating, adaptations come in many forms. Kiss Me Deadly subverted the original muscular hardboiled thriller of Mickey Spillane. Director Robert Aldrich used the gritty novel to create an existential nightmare, an attack on the madness of the nuclear age. It is a superior work of art but it doesn’t negate Spillane’s book, PI Mike Hammer is a brilliant and enduring creation. It is like comparing apples and oranges. High Noon developed from a modest short story by John W Cunningham. Dorothy B Hughes’ gem, In a Lonely Place, is a novel that explores the cold psychology of a brutal killer, whereas the film starring Humphrey Bogart softens the protagonist focusing on his PTSD. He is not the killer of the book but a damaged survivor of war. So what kind of novel inspired Touch of Evil?
The premise is elegantly simple. A lumber magnate, Rudy Linneker, is murdered when a package is delivered to his beach house, a bomb explodes in his face. Linneker was expecting his daughter but she was a no show. We learn that Tara, a ‘compliant’ daughter, is, for the first time, testing her wings and rewriting the relationship with her father. Tara has a fiancé, Delmont Shayon, he works at the local convenience store. Her father strongly disapproves of the kid he sees as a chancer.
The murder is high profile, the lack of an arrest troubles the DA and the press and the public want answers. The DA appoints his deputy, Mitch Holt, to work with local police sergeant, Hank Quinlan, and retired legend of the force Captain McCoy, called back to find the culprit quickly. It’s not long before McCoy and Quinlan cook up the theory that the daughter and boyfriend did it. The lovers have a lot to gain, a $2M inheritance. Suddenly the cops find sticks of dynamite incriminating Shayon at his place. Shayon is his own worst enemy, brash, disrespectful and open. He arrogantly admits to Holt that Tana’s money was a big part of why he went out with her in the first place. Devilish criminal or typical youth with a chip on his shoulder because he hasn’t had many breaks in life?
Mitch Holt is a conscientious ADA, he doesn’t take things at face value, or like a suspect all neatly tied up with a bow. He doesn’t think Shayon is guilty, his wife’s intuition is telling him the same thing. Connie, formerly Consuela, is from a wealthy Mexican family, she is there for Holt but the hours he is putting into the case are affecting family life. When Holt finds a new and credible motive it leads to a fresh suspect. Feeling bad about Shayon taking the rap, the new suspect confesses his guilt. That leads Holt to challenge McCoy and Quinlan, the dynamite must have been planted. That leads to the question: what other damage have these cops done over the years?
While McCoy seems sanguine about the confrontation, Quinlan doesn’t take it well. The book is not half done and now the narrative take a new turn. A battle ensues between Holt and almost everyone else. It involves the politicians worried about the optics, the cops protecting their own, the DAs office unwilling to reopen cases and the press wanting juicy copy. In short, the vested interests. Holt and his family are now under threat. This is about corruption but it is political and systematic as much as it is about dirty cops and framing suspects. Whereas the film distils everything into the mano-a-mano struggle of Vargas and Quinlan this novel has a much wider political and societal framing. Holt is always central to the novel but the wider picture draws in more nuance and detailed. The depth of social commentary through the propulsive narrative reveals how good pulps are at exploring issues in society while telling a gripping story. This is a taut, tense and involving read. Corruption was in the news but it wasn’t in literary fiction until the pulps got there.
In the film it is Quinlan’s instinct that the story pivots around, his whole life as a cop leads him to a suspect and he’s proven right. And yet everything he does is wrong. The novel is more complex, readers are left wondering if McCoy and Quinlan didn’t just settle on the easy answer to the question of who killed the victim. Who benefits? The daughter and her fiancé are obviously top of the list. Intuition and experience play a more subtle and balanced role in the morality explored in the novel. Quinlan and McCoy’s judgement is as flawed as their morality. While Holt is a more nuanced character than Vargas in the film. He is an honest man, he wants to do the right thing, the relationship with his wife is key to the plot. In the pursuit of justice, he does not worry about reputations or elections. He isn’t just up against corruption but legitimate political pressure, the hounding of the press, the clamour for answers by the public. Evil, certainly, but also pragmatism and expediency.
The film has a border setting. Though his methods are unacceptable Quinlan is a good detective, he is right about the killer. Quinlan is a stand in for wider corruption, he is the system, but he is also a lone bad cop. The book questions corruption on a wider scale, McCoy is the baddest bad apple, the one with a vicious relentless streak but he’s a symptom of the system. Quinlan is in thrall to him, jaded, damaged but with a flicker of decency still, he deludes himself that he is a good cop. Holt is about to lose everything. The only thing he can do is appeal to the remnant of good cop still in Quinlan for a showdown with McCoy. Holt has faced violence from McCoy and Quinlan but equally, the cold logic of the system which doesn’t want him dirtying reputations or unearthing miscarriages of justice related to past cases. Something he is threatening to do. They close ranks and turn a blind eye when Holt is shot at and his wife is framed. In fact, they turn on him. Curiously, it is the modicum of humanity left in Quinlan that actually saves the day, not the law, not his boss, not the system.
Two aspects of the story ground it. Firstly, the pressure of the press and public opinion is one of the reasons cops make mistakes and act in haste all over the world, the authors got that. Secondly, Holt’s tensions with his wife over the time he spends on cases instead of being with the family, they have a young daughter, is real life playing into the story adding depth, something we can all identify with. The novel finishes on a note that highlights the latter, a touch of humour and poignancy.
The film and the book in their own ways convey a sense of dark cynicism. Nothing Welles brings to the character psychology or themes of the film do not come from the book, either explicitly or they are hinted at by the writers. He was, however, smart enough to pick up on them and keep that essence of the novel as the heart of the film. There are key adjustments to the plot of course, the framed man is in fact guilty and the international angle, the American/Mexican border which has been a fascination in fiction from late nineteenth century to recent Don Winslow novels. Welles created a work true to the spirit of the original but in his own inimitable style.
Reading the novel, from the moment we know Shayon is innocent, a panoramic story develops, the battle between good and evil is compounded by compromise, misdirection, expediency and distraction. Nearly everyone loses sight of the difference between right and wrong, except for Holt. He isn’t a saint but his moral compass remains true to core values. He is the hope in the novel. someone will always challenge and speak truth to power. The problems of justice, corruption and coverup are perennial. Sadly, but inevitably, this is a novel as relevant today as ever. Those protecting a system or dealing with protecting society are faced with compromise. It’s not so much about redemption as how much of the honest, virtue, the decency of humanity you maintain so that when questions are asked of you, you behave well, you don’t turn away.
Badge of Evil is published by Stark House Press and is available now.
