Simply Perfect

Powerful

One of my all time favorites.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

During his investigation of the death of a fellow cop a police sergeant is warned off by his mob-corrupted superiors, and his defiance ends in tragedy for his family. Revenge is in the cards, but a gangster's moll plays her ace.Gangster story stuffed with devious characters. Some great actors, especially the women, but I didn't buy the lead male - too upright and uncompromised for a noir, and the punch ups didn't feel real. As Marlowe would say, No iron in his bones. Also his lines lacked the zing of Chandler.The actress playing the lead's wife has good presence (Brando's boozy older sister), but the main claim to fame is from Grahame who executes the perfectly doomed blonde, giving the movie a sense of innocence lost in a brutal world. The coffee scald scene is so cruel it becomes the engine for the revenge story, rather than the hero's loss.The pace is good, photography too although not moody enough. A nice close up on the scalded face, with division of light and dark. Standard orchestration of the music, and a bit obvious in the lead up during the famous car bomb scene - you just know the mood is going to switch dramatically.Overall - good entertainment, but the outcome is too moral for classic noir.

The Big Heat starts out as many crime films do. A detective investigates a death which could possibly be a murder and gradually things become more complicated. But usually, you get a whodunnit where everyone acts suspicious and slowly a mystery unravels and a culprit is found. The end. But here, we jump head-first into a major battle between a cop and a mob syndicate. The tone is ominous and the people and places are dangerous. But our hero is not happy to do as he's told and he can't stand being surrounded by those that do (because they're afraid).Movies maintain your interest with tension and changes to the situation. The plot moves and it keeps you involved. Some movies feel slow at times or predictable. If nothing is happening, the suspense fades away. The Big Heat contains many events that can be quite shocking and which shift the balance of power and motivation for the characters. It keeps getting more interesting. It can feel inevitable in retrospect, but the first time it's full of surprises.I really like Glenn Ford as Bannion. He seems like a good, passionate cop and a kind and caring husband and father. I was genuinely moved by his performance in several scenes. But that's also thanks to the direction, the story and the other performances. Jocelyn Brando (Marlon's older sister) is very good, a loving wife but in a real kind of way not a cheesy way. Gloria Grahame and Lee Marvin are excellent as well and bring lots of energy and character to their roles (I don't know how else to word it).I felt like some of the scenes were a bit typical at first (giving so much attention to an attractive woman, showing intimate family moments) but as the film progresses, you see that everything is there for a reason. What is white without black? You need contrast, a background, a context. Loss is not appreciated without seeing what is lost. An empty room has meaning if you know what used to be in it. Every scene in this movie serves a purpose. We might not be told the purpose, but we feel it in the greater scope of the whole film.The Big Heat is riveting all the way through. There is real menace and a feeling that anything could happen. It holds no punches - I was really affected by certain scenes, they have real impact and involve you even more in the film. There are a number of interesting similarities with The Dark Knight, another great film where a man takes the mob head on and tries to put an end to corruption and crime. Anyway, I immensely enjoyed it. It's uncompromising but very rewarding and entertaining. One of my new favourite movies.

The book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die has helped me find a lot of film I probably would never have known about before, this is one of the titles I found in it, directed by Fritz Lang (Metropolis, M, Secret Beyond the Door). Basically upright cop Detective Sergeant Dave Bannion (Glenn Ford) from the homicide bureau is assigned to the case to investigate the cause of the suicide of Tom Duncan, head of the records bureau. This case seems pretty open and shut, until the police are called by Lucy Chapman (Dorothy Green), Tom's girlfriend, who says that Tom would never commit suicide, Bannion dismisses this comment, but then when Chapman is found beaten and tortured he believes there is more to the case than predicted. Despite warnings from his superior and others Bannion's trail leads him to a vicious gang he suspects holds power over the police force, he suspects many officers are on the payroll of the gangsters as they keep silence about particular things, and Bannion's assignment gets personal when a car bomb meant for him kills his wife Katie (Jocelyn Brando, Marlon's sister). Bannion is furious to get vengeance and justice, and he is aided along the way by Debby Marsh (Gloria Grahame), the spurned girlfriend of the gangster Mike Lagana (Alexander Scourby), and when push comes to shove he quits the police force to pursue the mobster and his henchman Vince Stone (Lee Marvin) on his own terms. Also starring Jeanette Nolan as Bertha Duncan, Peter Whitney as Tierney, Willis Bouchey as Lieuntant Ted Wilks, Robert Burton as Detective Gus Burke, Adam Williams as Larry Gordon and Howard Wendell as Police Commissioner Higgins. Ford is good a the crusading on and off cop pursuing the gang and all corrupt characters, Grahame as the gangster's girlfriend gets many dramatic moments, and supporting cast members like Marvin get their time too, the most memorable moments of the film is also the one the censors wanted trimmed, when Grahame is scolded in the face by hot coffee thrown by Marvin, also the car bombing moment, there are other moments that get your attention, and it is a relatively interesting story of corruption and crime, it is a worthwhile classic film noir. Good!

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.