Mexican Brownface Meets Charlton Heston: A Movie Is Born

In 1957 film noir classic “Touch Of Evil”, Moses-playing actor turned NRA president Charlton Heston inexplicably plays a Mexican cop in “the story of a border-town trap that exploded into an international crisis!” (Trailer’s words, not ours.) To capture the role of Ramon Miguel “Mike” Vargas, Heston wears “heavy Latinoface” and deals with other absurd cinematic elements in a movie that seems hilariously out of touch with today. At one point, Vargas even refers to the U.S.-Mexico border as “open”, calling it “1400 miles without a machine gun emplacement.”
Once upon a time, the shortage of Mexican actors in Hollywood was worse than it is nowadays. (Why didn’t they just give Edward James Olmos a call?)

[Ed. Note: Shout to In the Pink Texas for the review, and The Mex Files for the referral.]