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

Also Known As:

Los sobornados (Mexico) (Spain) [es]
Règlement de comptes (Belgium: French title) (France) [fr]
Corrupção (Portugal) (original subtitled version) [pt]
De schrik op het lijf (Belgium: Flemish title) [un]
Els subornats (Spain: Catalan title) [ca]
Gangsterien kuningas (Finland) [fi]
Gangsterikuningas (Finland) [fi]
Heißes Eisen (West Germany) [de]
I megali kapsa (Greece) (reissue title) [el]
Il grande caldo (Italy) [it]
Jeg er loven (Denmark) [da]
Lain puolustajat (Finland) [fi]
Polishämnaren (Sweden) [sv]
Ta fota esvysan noris (Greece) (reissue title) [el]
To megalo ktypima (Greece) [el]
Velika vrelina (Serbia) [sr]

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:

When Lee Marvin first sees Glenn Ford face to face, the music in the background is "Put the Blame on Mame," a reference to Ford's performance in Gilda (1946).

Goofs:

Continuity: The street address for the junk yard on Bannyon's list is "101", yet the number "1024" is seen on a large sign over the yard's shed.

Quotes:

Lt. Ted Wilks: It was bad judgment to bother a cop's widow about the love life of her husband.
Dave Bannion: Good or bad, it was my judgment.
Lt. Ted Wilks: You're missing the point. I'm the one that gets the pressure calls from upstairs. I'm the one that has to explain. You don't keep an office like this very long stepping on a lot of corns.
Dave Bannion: You want me to go upstairs and explain?
Lt. Ted Wilks: Not you. You're a corn stepper by instinct.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Finding Forrester (2000)

Soundtrack:

Put the Blame on Mame

a movie for our political times

First of all, Gloria Graham should have been a bigger star, a la Marilyn. She's really got it – sexy, knowing, witty, touching. In the Big Heat, she plays the anti-femme fatale, who does an unexpected evil act to help the hero rather than hurt him. Pretty unusual twist in a noir.

Glenn Ford is a very limited actor, but he works perfectly in the narrow range of this role.

While the film starts slow, what makes it work better than most noirs is how it deals with the multi-level complicity of ordinary people in evil, people just going along to get along, and one man going up against that (assisted by the old crippled woman who risks her life to give him a key tip). It's quite moving and timely, given what's going on in America today.

My favorite line is when the young, stupid hit man asks Lee Marvin to tell him when he plans to dump Gloria Graham. Why does he want to know. "I'm a rebound man," he says. Perfect. I realize there's a whole genre of rebound men in real life. My former roommate was one.

Does anyone know what city the story takes place in? I thought at times New York, but then at the end someone mentions South Street, so I thought it might be Philadelphia.