The Big Heat
Synopsis
Police Sergeant Dave Bannion (Glenn Ford) is assigned to investigate the apparent suicide of a corrupt cop, setting him on a collision course with an underworld kingpin, a cold-blooded henchman (Lee Marvin), and a gangster’s moll (Gloria Grahame) in this classic noir by Fritz Lang.
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Awards & Festivals
National Film Preservation Board
2011 | Winner: National Film Registry
Edgar Allan Poe Awards
1954 | Winner: Best Motion Picture
Viennale
2012
Familiar as the plot may be, Lang renders it with lacerating fury, geometric precision, and a strong stomach: it’s the genuine tenderness of the domestic scenes that gives the more savage moments their sting.
Eli Goldfarb
August 24, 2016
A less observant admirer of, say, Lang’s haunting and more outwardly visually extravagant M might find The Big Heat formally routine by comparison, direct and concerned mostly with plotting. But this directness is where Lang’s American formalism blooms. Much of The Big Heat is composed of close-ups of the faces of the primary characters, which alternate with rhythmic exactitude.
Chuck Bowen
March 20, 2016
Even when handed the most generic material, Lang could conjure a remarkable atmosphere from Hollywood sets, making their artifice feel like a distant dream. But The Big Heat was also one of the few times he was also handed an outstanding screenplay. And from it, he directed his American masterpiece and one of the greatest of all post-war noirs.
Duncan Gray
December 15, 2015
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