Rating: 
Summary: One of the most striking film noir ever made!
Review: Since an ex cop (Glenn Ford)decides to crack the underworld hold in a city with the help of a mobster's moll , many things will happen when the risk is accepted . Lee Marvin is magnificent and unforgettable as a sadistic killer .
This is a top and excellent policial blessed for the great talent of Fritz Lang who still in that age literally shone with that magnetic and vital expressive force . As you know Lang was always interested in the dark side of the soul of the human being and if you look back in his previous noir filmography , the themes are deeply challenging and disturbed . This is a mature film all the way and one of my favorite and timeless cult movies of the fifties .
Rating: 
Summary: Hotter than a pot of coffee...
Review: The Big Heat is an excellent film-noir directed by Fritz Lang with a very fitting title. Lee Marvin steals the show as Vince Stone. He is the scum of the earth in this film, and he does it so well. He's the bad guy you love to hate. Glenn Ford is also very good as detective Dave Bannion. Lang tells a great story of corruption, greed, and violence. You will be on the edge of your seat. Beautifully shot noir. ****1/2 (of *****), too bad Amazon doesn't use half-star intervals, huh?
Rating:
Summary: "I could go through life sideways."
Review: The Big Heat is similar to some of Fritz Lang's German films, like M and the Doctor Mabuse series. It links crime and politics (or, more accurately, criminals and a politicians), and shows the future as concentration camp, where even those who imagine themselves on the outside of the barbed wire are trapped inside. But is Lang retelling the story of what happened in Germany, or is he warning his adopted country what could happen if people didn't challenge authority (here the police department, including the commissioner) that had been corrupted by a criminal leader? Maybe both. The Big Heat is violent even compared to today's films and more believable than most. However one thing that jars today is the effeminacy of the crime boss, Mike Lagana, used as shorthand to show his corruption. We first see Lagana in bed in silk pajamas with his bodyguard (in his robe) standing over Lagana, handing him the phone, lighting his cigarette. When Dave Bannion (Glenn Ford), the homicide detective who won't follow orders and leave Lagana alone, barges into Lagana's mansion to confront him about a cop's suicide, Lagana is under a huge portrait of his dead mother ("We lived together in this house"). Even from beyond the grave you can feel the mother's unhealthy influence on her son. Lagana mentions his daughter but never his wife. For the most part you can tell the criminals from the decent people because the criminals dress better. Gloria Grahame's Debby Marsh, girlfriend of the vicious killer Vince Stone (Lee Marvin), tells the blackmailing wife of a policeman who was on the take, "We're sisters under the mink." Debby and the cop's wife are just one pair of doubles in the movie. There's also Debby and Katie, Dave Bannion's wife. (Katie playfully suggests Dave tell his friends she's an heiress. Later, trying to explain why she's with Vince, Debby asks Bannion, "You think I was born an heiress?") Another set of doubles is Lagana's gang and the group of veterans Bannion's brother-in-law gets to protect Bannion's little girl. One vet (described as a poet by one of his friends) shows Bannion his gun and says anyone who comes through the door for the girl is dead. The poet transformed by war (definitely a non-WASP) says he's seen things you can only see from a tank, and starts to say he was one of the first into - - What? Auschwitz? Vince and the hoods playing poker in his penthouse enjoy violence for its own sake. The vets will only use violence if necessary to protect the innocent. But the vets are playing poker too, and seem to relish the prospect of taking revenge on Bannion's enemies, who haven't done anything to them. Between good and evil there are differences but also similarities. Bannion goes to Victory auto repair, looking for a "mechanic," an explosives expert. The owner says he can't help ("I got a wife and kids, too") but a crippled woman who works as a secretary tells Bannion what he needs to know. Bannion stands outside the auto yard, talking through the fence. Inside the compound the limping woman is just another of the unfit, the "life undeserving of life" tortured and exterminated in other camps, and in camps that exist today. When Bannion tells the crooked cop's wife, "The city's being strangled by a gang of thieves," she smiles and says, "The coming years are going to be just fine." Just the way things looked in the thirties if you weren't one of those inside the camps. "Thief" is the strongest epithet Bannion uses. Not "killer" or "murderer." The criminals and the politicians who go along with them are stealing his city. Though people don't like hearing what Bannion has to say, they're lucky he won't quit fighting the murderers among us.
Rating:
Summary: "I could go through life sideways."
Review: The Big Heat is similar to some of Fritz Lang's German films, like M and the Doctor Mabuse series. It links crime and politics (or, more accurately, criminals and a politicians), and shows the future as concentration camp, where even those who imagine themselves on the outside of the barbed wire are trapped inside. But is Lang retelling the story of what happened in Germany, or is he warning his adopted country what could happen if people didn't challenge authority (here the police department, including the commissioner) that had been corrupted by a criminal leader? Maybe both. The Big Heat is violent even compared to today's films and more believable than most. However one thing that jars today is the effeminacy of the crime boss, Mike Lagana, used as shorthand to show his corruption. We first see Lagana in bed in silk pajamas with his bodyguard (in his robe) standing over Lagana, handing him the phone, lighting his cigarette. When Dave Bannion (Glenn Ford), the homicide detective who won't follow orders and leave Lagana alone, barges into Lagana's mansion to confront him about a cop's suicide, Lagana is under a huge portrait of his dead mother ("We lived together in this house"). Even from beyond the grave you can feel the mother's unhealthy influence on her son. Lagana mentions his daughter but never his wife. For the most part you can tell the criminals from the decent people because the criminals dress better. Gloria Grahame's Debby Marsh, girlfriend of the vicious killer Vince Stone (Lee Marvin), tells the blackmailing wife of a policeman who was on the take, "We're sisters under the mink." Debby and the cop's wife are just one pair of doubles in the movie. There's also Debby and Katie, Dave Bannion's wife. (Katie playfully suggests Dave tell his friends she's an heiress. Later, trying to explain why she's with Vince, Debby asks Bannion, "You think I was born an heiress?") Another set of doubles is Lagana's gang and the group of veterans Bannion's brother-in-law gets to protect Bannion's little girl. One vet (described as a poet by one of his friends) shows Bannion his gun and says anyone who comes through the door for the girl is dead. The poet transformed by war (definitely a non-WASP) says he's seen things you can only see from a tank, and starts to say he was one of the first into - - What? Auschwitz? Vince and the hoods playing poker in his penthouse enjoy violence for its own sake. The vets will only use violence if necessary to protect the innocent. But the vets are playing poker too, and seem to relish the prospect of taking revenge on Bannion's enemies, who haven't done anything to them. Between good and evil there are differences but also similarities. Bannion goes to Victory auto repair, looking for a "mechanic," an explosives expert. The owner says he can't help ("I got a wife and kids, too") but a crippled woman who works as a secretary tells Bannion what he needs to know. Bannion stands outside the auto yard, talking through the fence. Inside the compound the limping woman is just another of the unfit, the "life undeserving of life" tortured and exterminated in other camps, and in camps that exist today. When Bannion tells the crooked cop's wife, "The city's being strangled by a gang of thieves," she smiles and says, "The coming years are going to be just fine." Just the way things looked in the thirties if you weren't one of those inside the camps. "Thief" is the strongest epithet Bannion uses. Not "killer" or "murderer." The criminals and the politicians who go along with them are stealing his city. Though people don't like hearing what Bannion has to say, they're lucky he won't quit fighting the murderers among us.
Rating:
Summary: sets the awesome tone
Review: This film set the tone for dozens who tried to imitate; be it Clint Eastwood, Steven Segal, et al. The timing, the sparse and direct dialogue, the brutality and violence (some off camera) are what will rivet you to the screen. Watch this to find out how all the others learned their trade.
Rating:
Summary: sets the awesome tone
Review: This film set the tone for dozens who tried to imitate; be it Clint Eastwood, Steven Segal, et al. The timing, the sparse and direct dialogue, the brutality and violence (some off camera) are what will rivet you to the screen. Watch this to find out how all the others learned their trade.
Rating:
Summary: Glenn does the dishes, then takes out the TRASH!
Review: This noir would be great except for the workmanlike Glenn Ford. In this rather curious noir, the policeman Ford is portrayed as a loving family man who rushes home to read bedtime stories to his daughter, and to happily perform domestic chores with his kind, intelligent wife. Their relationship is almost too good and progressive...you know if has to end. I mean, it was almost emasculating our hero! Mr. Ford is touching and believable in the domestic scenes. However, in the fine tradition of "this-dog-is-gonna-die" the wife get's hit and Mr Ford goes on a revenge-induced tear. This second act is where Mr Ford's weakness shows. He doesn't convincingly convey the kind of rage one would expect. However, he does get the job done and by his dogged determination to do the right thing actually convinces his weak-kneed boss to join him on his righteous crusade.
Lee Marvin is actually sexy as the slack-jawed psychopath, and Gloria Grahame is great, as always, as the loose cannon high spirited floozy who gets used by everyone. The coffee-throwing scene is a classic. Recommended!
Rating: 
Summary: Brutal but tautly constructed film noir
Review: This well-constructed film jolted audiences in the fifties with its scenes of violence particularly the hurling of hot, scalding coffee in people's faces. But much of the violence carried poetic justice along with it particularly when sadistic, vicious punk Lee Marvin gets his. This is certainly Fritz Lang's best film during the fifties and Glenn Ford is in top form. I give this very good "nest of vipers" crime thriller three and a half stars.
Rating:
Summary: Her Face Was Burned But Still Beautiful
Review: What more can I say about how beautiful and sexy Gloria Grahame is on the silver screen. I thought she was unbelievable in another noir classic, In A Lonely Place. Certainly she had a juicier leading lady part in the Bogart archetypal, but in The Big Heat she steals the show with classic 50's hard gal lines like when Lee Marvin admires her perfume. She say's: "It attracts mosquitoes and repels men."
What is it with post-WW2 adult attire? People look like they are overdressed for every event. The men are decked out in an ugly porkpie hat and overcoats in all weather. It's ninety degrees but Glenn Ford has a full suit and sweater on plus a heavy man's dress overcoat. Wow, that must have been tough under hot lights. The women all resemble Beaver Cleaver's mother in wide skirts and heavy, heavy fur coats. This unreality of clothing and non-weather, the obvious closed Hollywood set, makes for a stagy Fritz Lang effort. It looks campy to the modern eye including the Lee Marvin punk gangster swaggers. There's nothing like a lurking, campy Lee Marvin.
This one rushes to a film noir climax. It's not as raw as Detour, the definitive noir primitive, but it builds nicely.
Rating:
Summary: Lang At His Best
Review: With the possible exception of "Beyond a Reasonable Doubt" (1956), Fritz Lang's "The Big Heat" (1953) was the director's last masterpiece. Tough and uncompromising, it is a provocative crime thriller that features Glenn Ford's best performance as an honest cop battling big-city corruption -- and the terrible price he pays. Gloria Grahame and Lee Marvin give equally effective portrayals in this classic film noir. "The Big Heat" remains a powerful, unforgettable work.
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