The Big Heat [DVD] [1953]
There’s a satisfying sense of closure to the definitive noir kick achieved in The Big Heat: its director, Fritz Lang, had forged early links from German expressionism to the emergence of film noir, so it’s entirely logical that the expatriate director would help codify the genre with this brutal 1953 film. Visually, his scenes exemplify the bold contrasts, deep shadows, and heightened compositions that define the look of noir, and he matches that success with the darkly pessimistic themes of this revenge melodrama.
The story coheres around the suicide of a crooked cop, and the subsequent struggle of an honest detective, Dave Bannion (Glenn Ford), to navigate between a corrupt city government and a ruthless mobster to uncover the truth. Initially, the violence here seems almost timid by comparison to the more explicit carnage now commonplace in films, yet the story accelerates as its plot arcs toward Bannion’s showdown with kingpin Lagana (Alexander Scourby) and his psychotic henchman, the sadistic Vince Stone, given an indelible nastiness by Lee Marvin. When Bannion’s wife is killed by a car bomb intended for the detective, both the hero and the story go ballistic: suspended from the force, he embarks on a crusade of revenge that suggests a template for Charles Bronson’s Death Wish films, each step pushing Lagana and Stone toward a showdown. Bodies drop, dominoes tumbled by the escalating war between the obsessed Bannion and his increasingly vicious adversaries.
Lang’s disciplined visual design and the performances (especially those of Ford, Marvin, Jeanette Nolan as the dead cop’s scheming widow, and Gloria Grahame as Marvin’s girlfriend) enable the film to transcend formula, as do several memorable action scenes–when an enraged Marvin hurls scalding coffee at the feisty Debby (Grahame), we’re both shattered by the violence of his attack, and aware that he’s shifted the balance of power. –Sam Sutherland
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A great film noir,
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It took a German director to produce this great American fim noir. It isn’t surprising when you find out that Lang also directed ‘M’a dark study of the hunt for a serial child killer (played by Peter Lorre!) before moving to Hollywood.
Although Glenn Ford is perfectly OK as the upstanding cop who vows vengeance after his wife is killed (look out for Brando’s sister in a rare screen role) it is Lee Marvin and especially the great Gloria Grahame that provide the zing.
Dark and brutal this is what film noir is all about.
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|Somebodys gonna pay…because they forgot to kill me!,
This will be short but sweet – the best lines, the best direction, the best acting, the most uncompromising script (specially taking into account it was made in 1953), if you love Film Noir and dont have this in your collection then order it now! If you think you’d like it but maybe put off because as some people i know say ‘I wanna watch it but its black and white’ then i’d advise you never watch a film again and just watch the likes of Davinna McCall and Simon Cowell and be content with living your life through telephone voting. The Big Heat is a Masterpiece, real genius like this doesnt cost a phone vote.
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===Elements of the plot will be discussed===
This is an exceptional Fritz Lang film. Were it not for the slight overload of plot crammed into its 89 minutes (taken from a weekend newspaper serial) that reduces the scope for dwelling in a little more depth on the nature of the corruption it exposes, I’d give it *****.
This story of a straight detective (Glenn Ford) embarking on a trail of vengeance out of professional and more especially boiling personal motives falls into the film noir category, even though paradoxically it has most of its being in well-lit interiors. Its pessimistic tone (the hopeful ending need not be taken too seriously) and subject matter of deception and corruption everywhere, with ordinary people going along with criminality out of fear or just a feeling of helplessness, link it with film noir. So does Gloria Grahame’s femme fatale, especially since her own final act of revenge on her violent boyfriend (Lee Marvin), though helpful to putting criminals behind bars, is a cruel and similarly violent one.
The script is sharp and pretty bitter, and it’s a little surprising to see Glenn Ford, hitherto on a downward spiral into the very mire of evil inhabited by his quarries, pause when on the verge of taking his final vengeance against Lee Marvin, then relent, shrug off the mantle of vigilantism and instead reach for the institution of the law. A significant moment that marks the beginning of Ford’s own rehabilitation from both bereavement and consequent revenge.
Direction and acting are first rate. Fritz Lang wastes not a moment in cramming in all the plot machinations, from the dramatic close-up that kicks the picture off to his brief but bruising fight sequences. He creates a convincing domestic idyll for Ford and his wife (Jocelyn Brando, Marlon’s sister) as a contrast to the twisted world outside the front door. The excellent Gloria Grahame is a sexy, cynical yet sympathetic gangster’s moll, and Lee Marvin makes a brutish hood, apparently drunk on violent power. I have seen it said that the two of them upstage Glenn Ford. This is nonsense. Ford’s performance here is subtle; both tough but tender, the two qualities needed so he can inhabit his two worlds. Look out for two great moments in close-up, both at the very end; one where Lee Marvin dementedly begs Ford to shoot him. There’s a long pause, then Ford slightly raises his head at the moment of decision. The other comes when Ford tells Grahame about his wife; at the conclusion he falters and looks down and slightly to his right, recognizing the moment of truth. Wonderful!
If you like Forties and Fifties film noir, this is a must.
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