So this is the last Hollywood movie Orson Welles made, nearly 20 years after Citizen Kane. It was intended to be a comeback for him, after going off to Europe to make films, but it flopped at the time, even though it’s now well-regarded. And the thing is, I can see both why it flopped and why it’s well-regarded.

The reason it flopped can be shorthanded as “the story.” The movie is about a Mexican border town murder (via car bomb), and the conflict between crooked American sheriff Hank Quinlan (played by a fat Orson Welles who apparently used padding to look even fatter) and upstanding Mexican detective Miguel Vargas (played by Charlton Heston, who is not actually particularly Mexican).

The core conflict is fine and all, but it’s got all these scenes that don’t make any sense. Like, you can’t even imagine what the motivation of the characters in them would be, or what they would hope to gain by doing what they’re doing. And the final dramatic scene turns on a number of “wtf bro why are you doing this” actions that are as nonsensical as they are tense.

The reason it’s well-regarded, though, is equally obvious and can be shorthanded as “the visuals.” The movie opens with a famous three-and-a-half-minute single shot that follows the bomb being planted on the car, and then the car and pedestrians weaving around each other in a way that’s frankly balletic. That alone would tell you that you’re in the presence of a real director. And throughout the movie, it’s consistently visually interesting in a noirish sort of way.

Ultimately, I think I come down on this not really being a great movie; it ends up feeling like second-tier Hitchcock, and if it’s stunning in places, it’s kind of a mess on the whole. (Plus, dirty-cop ‘n’ drug-gang sleaze isn’t really my thing at all, obvs.)