The Big Heat
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| The Big Heat | |
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| Directed by | Fritz Lang |
| Produced by | Robert Arthur |
| Written by | Sydney Boehm William P. McGivern (Saturday Evening Post) serial |
| Starring | Glenn Ford Gloria Grahame Jocelyn Brando |
| Music by | various uncredited |
| Cinematography | Charles Lang |
| Editing by | Charles Nelson |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) | October 14, 1953 (U.S. release) |
| Running time | 89 min. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
The Big Heat is a 1953 Fritz Lang-directed motion picture drama shot in black and white.
Dave Bannion (Glenn Ford) is an honest cop who learns that one of his fellow officers has committed suicide. As Bannion digs deeper into what now he suspects is a murder, he becomes more and more driven to solve the mystery. He keeps digging even when the gangster violence and terror hits home. Complicating matters is Bertha Duncan, the corrupt wife of a dead policeman who has committed suicide. She is in possession of a letter, written by her husband, implicating the criminals, and Ford needs to get the letter so that he can blow the case wide open.
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[edit] Critical reaction
Critical reaction to the film was positive when it was released, and today The Big Heat is considered a classic. Film critic Roger Ebert lists the film in his 100 Greatest Films. In Ebert's review he praises the film's supporting actors and questions the actions of the apparently strait-laced Bannion: "Does it ever occur to him that he is at least partly responsible for their deaths? No, apparently it doesn't, and that's one reason the film is so insidiously chilling; he continues on his mission oblivious to its cost." [1]
Writer David M. Meyer states that the film never overcomes the basic repugnance of its hero, but notes that some parts of the film, though violent, are better than the film as a whole. "Best known is Gloria Grahame's disfigurement at the hands of über-thug Lee Marvin, who flings hot coffee into her face."
[edit] Cast
- Glenn Ford as Det. Sgt. Dave Bannion
- Gloria Grahame as Debby Marsh
- Jocelyn Brando as Katie Bannion
- Alexander Scourby as Mike Lagana
- Lee Marvin as Vince Stone
- Jeanette Nolan as Bertha Duncan
Adam Williams plays Larry, the car bomber.
[edit] Tagline
- Somebody's Going to Pay...because he forgot to kill me...
[edit] Quotes
- Vince Stone: Hey, that's nice perfume. Debby Marsh: Something new. It attracts mosquitoes and repels men.
- Debby Marsh: Hey, I like this. Early nothing!
- Debby Marsh: The main thing is to have the money. I've been rich and I've been poor. Believe me, rich is better.
- Debby Marsh: We're sisters under the mink.
- Lt. Ted Wilks: When barflys get killed, it's for any one of a dozen crummy reasons, you know that.
- Examiner: Trouble automatically catches up with girls like her. Looks like a sex crime to me...I'd say pretty definitely it was psychopathic. You saw those cigarette burns on her body. Det. Dave Bannion: Yeah, I saw them. Every single one of them.
- Debby Marsh: I'm gonna die...I don't want to die. I must look awful. Vince should have never ruined my looks. It was a rotten thing to do. Dave... I'm gonna die...Remember how angry you got when I asked you about your wife? Det. Dave Bannion: I wasn't angry. You and Katie would have gotten along fine.
[edit] Trivia
- When Vince Stone first sees Det. Sgt. Dave Bannion, the song in the background is "Put the Blame on Mame," a witty reference to Glenn Ford's (Bannion) performance in Gilda (1946).
- In many ways, The Big Heat was a precursor, both in theme and tone, of the 1970's films Dirty Harry, The French Connection and Serpico. It was very ahead of its time.
- The film's screenplay was written by former crime reporter Sidney Boehm and based on a Saturday Evening Post serial by William P. McGivern. In 1952 the serial was published as a hard-hitting and brutal novel.
- This film noir turns the role of the femme fatale on its head. According to film critic Grant Tracey, "Whereas many noirs contain the tradition of the femme fatale, the deadly spiderwoman who destroys her man and his family and career, The Big Heat inverts this narrative paradigm, making [Det. Bannion] the indirect agent of fatal destruction. All four women [sic] he meets--from clip joint singer, Lucy Chapman to gun moll Debby--are destroyed."
- The actress Jocelyn Brando, who plays the part of Det. Dave Bannion's wife, is the sister of famed actor Marlon Brando.
[edit] Other uses
- Stan Ridgway used The Big Heat as the title for one of his albums.
- The Big Heat is the English title of a 1988 Hong Kong film directed by Andrew Kam, Johnny To and Tsui Hark. See The Big Heat (1988 film).
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- Roger Ebert's review
- ↑ David M. Meyer (1998). A Girl and a Gun: The Complete Guide to Film Noir on Video. Avon Books. ISBN 038079067.
