Sam Fiske

Picked by: John Why: He’s been digging into older critically acclaimed films — after Chinatown, this one surfaced as another noir set along the Mexican border. His first Orson Welles movie.

The Conversation

The group was unanimous on one thing: Orson Welles absolutely stole this movie. Playing the corrupt, grotesque Captain Hank Quinlan, he was so repulsive and so magnetic that everyone agreed he was the best part of the film. John couldn’t believe how good Welles was as an actor — “I hated that motherfucker” being the highest compliment he could give. Sean pointed out how Welles dominated every scene he was in, with the constant crosstalk and background noise making it all feel alive.

The iconic opening tracking shot got everyone hyped. Sean recognized it immediately as one of those “Best Shots in Cinema History” compilation staples — the camera following a car with a bomb through the busy border town in one long, unbroken take. The group agreed the direction was masterful: every shot had a purpose, reflections in windows, characters lurking in the background, no wasted frames.

The big revelation came from Sam, who floated a theory that blew John’s mind: did Hank Quinlan strangle his own wife? The movie drops hints — Quinlan is oddly knowledgeable about strangulation as a murder method, his partner reacts with shock after the killing of Uncle Joe, and the fortune teller subplot suggests a complicated grief. Sam argued the film was “saying it without saying it,” and the group loved that kind of subtle storytelling compared to modern films that spell everything out.

Speaking of Uncle Joe — John was a big fan. Charming, funny, bent the rules but didn’t seem like a true villain. At least until things went south. The drinking scene also stood out: after the movie establishes that Quinlan has been sober and living on candy bars, he quietly orders a double bourbon, the music stops, and his whole demeanor shifts. John rewound that scene.

Where it lost points: everyone agreed the Susan subplot dragged the movie down. Janet Leigh’s character had almost nothing to do with the main plot — half her scenes were about being tired and trying to go to bed. The motel sequences split the room: Sean found the Night Manager grating, while Sam thought he was basically Buster Bluth from Arrested Development and loved him for it. John admitted to pulling out his phone during the hotel scenes.

The Charlton Heston casting got a laugh — a white guy playing a Mexican detective with a dyed mustache and the occasional Spanish sentence thrown in. The group acknowledged it was brownface by today’s standards, but noted his performance was solid regardless.

Sean closed the night with a fun trivia drop: Janet Leigh is Jamie Lee Curtis’s mother. The room was appropriately stunned.

The Verdict

A rock-solid noir elevated by one of the all-time great villain performances from Orson Welles. The direction and cinematography are film-school caliber, and the core mystery works well. It just gets weighed down by a meandering subplot that the whole group wished had been trimmed. Strong 79 — not quite at the level of They Live or Cure, but a worthy addition to the Tough Flicks canon.

John came in at 85 and got talked down to 80 by his own crew. That might be a first.