Touch of Evil : Plot holes

I love this movie. Just wanted to make that clear. But there are plot holes.

First off, when did Grandi ever get the chance to contact his nephews and tell them Mrs. Vargas was at the American motel, and that they should go there and set things up to make her look like a drooling dope fiend? Grandi was picked up by Menzies when Susan was dropped at the motel, and then driven all the way to Sanchez's apartment. By the time Menzies and Grandi arrive at Sanchez's, the nephews are already at the American motel, preparing to make their move on Susan.

Secondly, after Mike Vargas goes to the American motel and discovers his wife missing, he travels back to Los Robles, drives right past the building where his disoriented wife is standing on the balcony screaming, and proceeds to Grandi's bar. He storms inside, and a huge fight breaks out. Seconds later, the police arrive, break up the fight, and Vargas is informed his wife was just picked up by the vice squad and arrested for, among other things, murder. How could all of that happened in that short span of time? Also, he is informed his wife was found on a bed in the building with drugs. How could she have been found on a bed when she was on the balcony?

I very much agree with what you have mentioned here. Welles does kind of drop the ball on how Grandi and his nephews are connected and how they operate in tandem. That could have been explored a bit more with maybe only two or three extra minutes added to the film's overall length. Of course, now, a screenwriter could easily insert a scene with Grandi calling a nephew on a cellphone and it would be explained on screen in 30 seconds.

I think the part where Vargas arrives in town and goes past his wife on the balcony is the silliest part. At first when he drove up, I thought he was going to see her standing there and go to her. But then we cut to him in the cantina having the brawl with the nephews. Something was either not developed by Welles in the screenplay or else not filmed, or else filmed and cut (which I doubt because the reconstructed version would have added it back in). So this makes the film not quite perfect.

All we probably need is to see some shots of the vice squad getting called while the wife is on the balcony. Then she goes inside to regain her composure and maybe gawk at Grandi's body while Vargas pulls up outside (after she's gone in) and thus he does not know she's up there. Then as soon as he enters the bar, the vice squad pulls up and takes her away. Of course, Vargas would be too busy fighting with the nephews to figure out what's happening outside involves his wife. Then that is where someone comes in and tells him Susan was just arrested. So this would have been a relatively easy fix. But because it is not fixed, that tells me Welles did not shoot the necessary transitions and was relying on disorienting jump cuts to make the audience not question what was missingand to accept it as a stylistic choice.

I notice this a lot in older movies. There are periods of "convenience" in them that don't initially jump out at you, but then come back once you think about it. Those scenes you mention are just like that. I'm sure for the plot, Welles needed these things to happen, but I believe back at the time it was made, explaining those points were of minimal concern. There was no IMDB and no internet and no video or Netflix where you could watch the movie over and over and pick out the mistakes. I think he just didn't feel it was necessary to the plot to explain it with exposition.

Watch any film noir or basically any movie from that time period and you will see the same errors in continuity or outright plot holes. A lot of it deals with how characters find out information and then how impossibly quick something happens. In retrospect, The Dark Knight Rises has all these issues so I guess its not just a problem with movies back then.


My memory foam pillow says it can't remember my face. I can tell its lying.

I think it was Alfred Hitchcock who coined the phrase "refrigerator moments " to describe these plot holes. You don't realize something's wrong until you see what's to eat in the fridge after you get home from the movie and it hits you.