The Big Heat (1953)

User Rating:

8.0/10   

Director:

Fritz Lang

Writers:

Sydney Boehm (screenplay)
William P. McGivern (Saturday Evening Post serial)

Release Date:

14 October 1953 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Film-Noir | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

A hard cop and a soft dame!

Plot:

Tough cop Dave Bannion takes on a politically powerful crime syndicate.

Plot Keywords:

B Girl | Mob | Mob Boss | Police | Suicide

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Glenn Ford	...	Det. Sgt. Dave Bannion
Gloria Grahame	...	Debby Marsh
Jocelyn Brando	...	Katie Bannion
Alexander Scourby	...	Mike Lagana
Lee Marvin	...	Vince Stone
Jeanette Nolan	...	Bertha Duncan
Peter Whitney	...	Tierney
Willis Bouchey	...	Lt. Ted Wilks
Robert Burton	...	Det. Gus Burke
Adam Williams	...	Larry Gordon
Howard Wendell	...	Police Commissioner Higgins
Chris Alcaide	...	George Rose
Michael Granger	...	Hugo (police clerk)
Dorothy Green	...	Lucy Chapman
Carolyn Jones	...	Doris

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Norway:16 | UK:15 (re-rating) (1988) | UK:X (original rating) | Canada:G (Nova Scotia/Québec) | Germany:16 (nf) (re-rating) | West Germany:18 (nf) (original rating) | South Korea:15 | Finland:(Banned) | Finland:K-16 (re-rating) (1966) | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (certificate #16549) | Australia:PG | Germany:BPjM Restricted

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

Bannion's wife Katie is played by Jocelyn Brando, older sister of Marlon.

Goofs:

Continuity: Near the end of the film, Dave Bannion has an altercation with his brother-in-law's old army buddy in the stairwell. When he enters the apartment a second later, the sleeves of his suit are suddenly rolled up.

Quotes:

Vince Stone: Hey, that's nice perfume.
Debby Marsh: Something new. It attracts mosquitoes and repels men.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Finding Forrester (2000)

Soundtrack:

Put the Blame on Mame

One Of The Fastest-Movie Film Noirs

Intense characters, led by Glenn Ford's portrayal of "Det. Sgt. Dave Bannion," make this one of the better film noirs of the period, at least one of the ones I enjoyed the most.

Ford is a believably 100 percent honest and tough cop who is unrelenting in getting his wife's killer. (His wife is killed early on in a car bomb.) Ford takes the law into his own hands, which really contradicts what he stands for, and is not least bit apologetic for his actions, either. Make no mistake: this is a pure "revenge" film.

Gloria Grahame, Lee Marvin, Jocelyn Brando, Alexader Scourby, Jeanette Noland and Carolyn Jones complete the cast of "name" actors of the period. No surprise that Marvin plays the lead villain. Grahame almost steals the show as Marvin's girl who gets scalded when the latter throws hot coffee in her face - one of the more shocking scenes in film noir history. She then, understandably, switches allegiances.

It was kind of fun to see Marvin at such a young age. This was my first look at Scourby. Pro football fans know his distinctive voice well, as he became the voice of the NFL Films for many years.

One of the attractions of this story is the pace: it is fast-moving, and it's not too dated either, despite being over 40 years old. This is highly recommended for crime buffs of any era.