Alicia I love this movie so much

Diagonaldi Very well executed

ThiefHott Too much of everything

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Edgar Allan Pooh . . . Today's viewers are bound to conclude after checking out things in a typical totally corrupt American city during THE BIG HEAT. Sure, this city's Police Commissioner is in cahoots with every whim and command coming to him from the murderous thieving crime lord character "Mike Lagana," but at least "Commissioner Higgins" is NOT a U.S. President taking orders from the murderous thieving Russian Red Commie KGB Chief. Sure, THE BIG HEAT's crusading do-gooder police sergeant character "Dave Bannion" gets peeved when one of his Police Commissioner's fellow mob henchmen blows up Mrs. Bannion with a car bomb, but at least he's not fighting a master crook who looted $1 TRILLION from the Russian Treasury, and then began to rub out his critics throughout the world with War Crime nerve agents, secure in the knowledge that Fortress America had been defanged and neutered, reduced to the mute fearful silence of the "See no Evil, Hear no Evil, Say no Evil" simian figurines. Therefore, if YOU want to spend 90 minutes with something more positive than Real Life as we know it Today, check out THE BIG HEAT.

Musashi94 The Big Heat is the best film of Fritz Lang's so called "American period" and also one of the greatest of all Film Noir. By this point in his career, Lang had made directing Noir something of a specialty of his, but his other forays into the genre - before and after - pale in comparison.One of the very first "rogue cop on the loose" films, The Big Heat sees Glenn Ford's Det. Bannion face off against the mob and the corrupt police officials and politicians in their pocket. The narrative doesn't pull any punches: people are mercilessly killed off and one is horrifically scarred by the film's main villain, psychotic mob enforcer Vince Stone (Lee Marvin in his breakout role), for getting too close to Bannion. Sydney Boehm's script and Lang's direction are efficient, refraining from any superfluous elements, giving every scene a sense of purpose that keeps the film exciting from the first minute to the last.The people in front of the camera are also at the top of their game. Glenn Ford gives one of his best performances, giving his character just enough fury and righteous indignation to make him dangerous to anyone who gets in his way without turning the audience against him. Marvin makes Stone one of the great film noir villains, a man with a volcanic temper that can erupt at any moment.Gloria Grahame puts them both to shame however as Stone's girlfriend who becomes a victim to his rage. It's an intense performance as she transitions from a frivolous mob girlfriend into a woman out for vengeance. The supporting cast is also excellent, particularity Jocelyn Brando (Marlon's older sister) whose charmingly witty performance keeps her character from being a mere throw-away role to motivate the protagonist.All in all, few films can match the raw energy and intensity found in The Big Heat. From the director on down to the bit parts, everybody turns in grade A+ work. One of the best examples of Film Noir, I highly recommend it for anyone interested in crime films or classic cinema.

Leofwine_draca THE BIG HEAT is a top-notch crime thriller and one of the best Fritz Lang film's I've watched. It's a pitch-perfect hardboiled film noir, featuring a stolid Glenn Ford playing a cop who has a dangerous and deadly run-in with a criminal organisation with roots at the very top of the city. Before long, Ford is involved with various femme fatales and encounters some truly sadistic criminals in his quest for justice.I'm not too familiar with Ford as an actor but he's in his element here, playing a quietly unstoppable character who has to be one of the most sympathetic leads out there. Ford underplays the role, allowing the showier parts to take over. The women in the storyline are particularly well served, with the likes of Gloria Grahame seemingly catalysts for the moments of stark violence that punctuate the production.Lang's direction is top dollar, and in particular he elicits some excellent turns from the entire cast. Best of the bunch is Lee Marvin as the bestial villain for whom violence against woman is a way of life. Although tame by modern standards of on-screen violence, this still feels like a graphic and nasty production, and the lean, fast-paced narrative also gives it a modern feel much unlike the stodgy B-pictures of the decade. THE BIG HEAT is unmissable entertainment.

jannetgregory Interestingly enough, I started to get into the film, mostly because of the Mes En Scene of the 50's and the props, automobiles and language that was from the era I grew up in. The motifs were things that have long since become relics like the old rotary dial phones, cat clocks, mink coats and beat-nick artwork. The liner narrative of Big Heat has a three-act structure, with the inciting incident of a tip to the law following the suicide/murder (?). As the clues roll in for detective Bannion, the development of each character defines subsequent developments. Questions to arise, especially since "Tom had no reason to kill himself" and "Then why did Bertha's husband kill himself if he was in good health?' By the second act the protagonist had more questions and doubts about the reliability of the cast. Act Three Debby Marsh, the typical Femme Fatal has revealed a not so innocent character, closing doors with open-ended pondering like, " Do you get your kicks walking out on people She and Dave leave together in a taxi to his place. This binary opposition of family vs. the corrupted individual is intertwined throughout the final act where the plot unravels and all his well traveled wife wants to do when things get tough is go out and get her legs waxed.Dave Bannion is a typical patriarchal, hard working detective, married to a self centered and not so innocent wife, who admittedly isn't a romantic. He's got the garb, morality and motivation to find justice on either side of the law. Dave and his supporting characters all act like they are in control, when in actuality they're barely keeping up with the Jones and fall in step way behind the dominant dames. Debby, Dave's beautiful, but deceitful wife looks for revenge, while displaying a classic Femme Fatal character, or should I say, lack of one. She is rebellious, manipulative and pretends to be something she's not, in order to get her way. Mrs. Duncan acts and plays the part of a distraught widow, but curiously isn't emotional after her husbands supposed suicide, yet in order to tug at the heart strings of the investigator, Bertha hams it up and pretends to be out of sorts when the detective candidly asks her, " Do you know why he'd (her now dead husband) take his own life?" _ " Oh", she answered, " he's complains about his painful hip", as though she was offering some kind of inside scoop about why an otherwise healthy and happy man, up and kill himself. As a Femme Fatal would be expected to do, Bertha twists her alibi and blames some other woman. One of many "Lucy's or mistresses in her unfaithful and deceitful husband's life. Debby wasn't the only Femme Fatal in this film; Debby March knew how to wrap men around her little finger without being childish. Rather, she was sexy, desirable but unreliable and dark. Like the other women in this film who all seem to fit the MO of a Femme Fatal, Debby is manipulative and willing to use men like Vince Stone for their money and luxury. They are motivated to do wrong.Comparing and contrasting the relationships brings to light the homogeneous bonding between the investigators and even the commissioner. Their costuming is similar and even though they share a conflict of interest, on the surface they all seem to be hard working patriarchal men. The opposition of that of course is the Femme Fatale who tries her darnedest to confuse the truth and avoid being found out as the crook she is. Also, how everyone is ready to double-cross whoever they need to in order to squirm out of the immediate predicament.