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cthulu2016

(10,960 posts)
Thu Sep 20, 2012, 07:26 PM Sep 2012

Charlton Heston's make-up in Touch of Evil.

In Orson Welle's Touch of Evil (a contender for greatest film of all time, IMO) Charlton Heston plays a Mexican drug enforcement agent.

He has black dyed hair and mustache and is made-up to have a somewhat swarthy complexion. Back in the 1950s we didn't have instant digital video preview. You did some make-up film tests in advance and based on those, then went through the production hoping you had the lighting right scene-by-scene. But the make-up changes a lot due to lighting conditions and in a lower budget production like Touch of Evil you had the scene by the end of the day or you didn't.



So you're watching the movie and getting used to Heston and eventually you stop thinking there's anything all that odd about his appearance. Then suddenly... what? In one of the scenes of he and Janet Leigh driving Heston is suddenly in almost black face, just for a few seconds.

What happened was that the scene, like most such old movie scenes of people talking while driving, was a rear-projection shot. The scenery moving past the car is projected on a translucent screen. And because the projected image has to read as real the lighting on the actors and car must be relatively dim—otherwise the lights would wash out the projected image. The cinematographer adjusts for the subdued lighting and everything works out.

Except that Heston's make up became, in low candle-power lighting, considerably darker and throughout most of the (lengthy) car scenes he looks about like this:



And in one of the car scenes (at night, IIRC) he is, for just a few seconds, suddenly jet black. Much darker than in the picture above. (I wish I had a picture. It's a famous film oddity.) One of the lights dimmed slightly or something and his make-up became opaque. But it was the only shot they had of that part of the dialog, so in it went. And the rest is (odd) movie history.

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Charlton Heston's make-up in Touch of Evil. (Original Post) cthulu2016 Sep 2012 OP
Very cool bit of movie trivia panader0 Sep 2012 #1
And Touch of Evil is 100% Awesome maxsolomon Sep 2012 #2
put a stache like that on Mitt, and they could both self-deport back to mehico. Gabi Hayes Sep 2012 #3

panader0

(25,816 posts)
1. Very cool bit of movie trivia
Thu Sep 20, 2012, 07:38 PM
Sep 2012

I also think Touch of Evil is a great movie. The opening scene is famous for being the longest single continuous shot, winding down streets, etc.
On edit: I know you're talking about Mitt.

maxsolomon

(32,984 posts)
2. And Touch of Evil is 100% Awesome
Thu Sep 20, 2012, 07:44 PM
Sep 2012

Dietrich as a Mexican fortune teller with a German accent. A disheveled, obese Orson Welles. Mercedes McCambridge oozing lesbian biker menace.

It rewards multiple viewings.

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