The Big Heat

The Big Heat
1953 - Columbia Pictures
Directed by Fritz Lang



SYNOPSIS
Detective Sgt. Dave Bannion (Glenn Ford) is investigating the apparent suicide of a fellow veteran police officer. The cop's wife says the dead man was in ill health, but his mistress says he was alright. Bannion is suspicious. The mistress turns up dead soon after. Bannion noses around and visits the city's big crime bosses Mike (Alexander Scourby) and Vince (Lee Marvin.) Soon after his wife (Jocelyn Brando) is killed in a car bomb, Bannion is red hot with anger and quits the force. Vince's moll Debbie (Gloria Grahame) is also after Vince when he scalds her with hot coffee. The two plot their revenge separately.



MY THOUGHTS

Thousands of people have directed films through the years and only a handful of those can be considered masters of their craft. Fritz Lang is one of them. After masterpieces of 1920's German cinema like 'Metropolis' and 'M,' Lang was approached by the Nazi party to be their official film director. Like anyone with intelligence, he high-tailed it to Hollywood. He never achieved the artistic greatness he did with his early films, yet still managed to make some damn fine films like 'Scarlett Street' and The Big Heat.
Several of his Hollywood films were steeped in what would be known as 'film noir.' This is no exception. Though the film never drew any attention to the direction via overly flashy or arty camera shots or techniques, the film was well crafted and the editing kept it moving at a fairly swift pace.

The highlight of the film is Glenn Ford. He was cast against type and played a hard-ass. He usually played self-righteous morally strong, nice, good guy roles like in 'Blackboard Jungle.' Here he is pissed and wants to see the bad guys suffer greatly for the loss of his wife.

Gloria Grahame also provides a strong supporting role as the scarred woman looking for revenge against Vince.

This is one of the better film noir produced in the 1950's and should be on the 'must view' list to any fan of the genre.