Fritz Lang’s The Big Heat is a quintessential film noir, but it’s a particularly brutal and ugly one.
The Production: 4.5/5
Fritz Lang’s The Big Heat is a quintessential film noir, but it’s a particularly brutal and ugly one, beginning with a suicide, climaxing with a murder, and filled in between with all manner of sadistic, often shocking violence. It paints a pretty nihilistic picture of urban postwar America (unsurprising with all of the tumult then going on with the HUAC hearings and subsequent blacklist and the unpopular Korean War dominating headlines), but just try to look away. This compelling film offers meaty acting parts for a handful of famous faces and offers the director yet another chance to show the grim underbelly of what otherwise would appear as a bright, prosperous America.
When fellow police officer Tom Duncan takes his life, homicide detective Dave Bannion (Glenn Ford) is put on the case. While Duncan’s widow Bertha (Jeanette Nolan) initially appears distraught, she’s actually in possession of her husband’s suicide note which details completely the police and city corruption which is under the thumb of crime boss Mike Lagana (Alexander Scourby). Bannion continually runs into roadblocks in his investigation of the truth, only finding timely information from B-girls (Dorothy Green as Lucy Chapman, Gloria Grahame as Debby Marsh) he despises or societal outcasts (the lame junk yard secretary played by Edith Evanson), and as his poking around leads him closer to Lagana and his hot-headed lieutenant Vince Stone (Lee Marvin), his own family is put in danger and his job security is in jeopardy as the police commissioner (Howard Wendell) is likewise in the pocket of organized crime.
Sydney Boehm’s expert screenplay is based on the serialized novel by William P. McGivern. While the Production Code prevents many of the murders and mutilations from being shown on screen (or in the case of the opening suicide, completely bloodless), director Fritz Lang’s superb mise-en-scène allows the viewer’s imagination to portray such violence vividly keeping his audience tensely ill-at-ease and steadily driving the story forward during its tight eighty-nine minute running time. Bannion’s close and loving home life with wife Katie (Jocelyn Brando; yes, his sister) and young daughter in their clean but modest home is contrasted with the lives of the gangsters he’s fighting; they live in plush homes or swank apartments, but there’s always an undercurrent of explosive viciousness there, and when that threat comes palpably to Bannion’s quarters, his mood and the mood of the film overall changes, becoming ever darker and more malevolent. Boehm and Lang don’t spare the authorities from blame, either, pointing bloody fingers at their negligence or at best indifference as innocent bystanders become embroiled, sometimes fatally, in their tangled allegiances.
Glenn Ford transforms from serious but good-natured detective to scowling avenging angel in a believable fashion in one of his best performances. His polar opposite Lee Marvin as the merciless henchman Vince Stone is one of the actor’s earliest truly notable film roles (he was filming the rival motorcycle gang leader in The Wild One almost concurrently with this movie), and his continually brutal actions toward women are on full display and horrifically memorable. Alexander Scourby plays the soft-spoken crime boss Mike Lagana without undue flash but with sneering efficiency. But it’s the women in this movie you’ll end up really remembering as they’re the ones who unlock the case for Detective Bannion: Gloria Grahame’s flip moll Debby Marsh has a wisecrack for every occasion and flounces in her Jean Louis wardrobe with carefree (and ultimately careless) abandon. Jeanette Nolan’s command and snake-like demeanor gives her “grieving” widow a sinister spark that keeps her as a lynchpin in Bannion’s investigation. Edith Evanson’s lame secretary Selma Parker has only three scenes, but she’s moving in her desire as an ordinary citizen to assist the police. Dorothy Green’s role as informant Lucy Chapman is even briefer, but she still makes an impression (and learning of her fate is just another bit of wickedness we have to digest). Jocelyn Brando as Bannion’s wife is the kind of affable, caring partner anyone would treasure, thus making her fate likewise regrettable. Others who score in small but compelling parts include Peter Whitney as a smarmy bartender, Adam Williams as a flashy hit man who’s not so smart at his job, Willis Bouchey as Dave’s boss whose interest in keeping his pension means he has to sometimes make regrettable decisions, and Carolyn Jones as another victim of Vince Stone’s fiery temper.
Video: 5/5
3D Rating: NA
The film’s original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.37:1 is faithfully rendered in the 2160p/1080p transfers using the HEVC/AVC codecs. A new 4K restoration taken from the original film negative and other elements has resulted in a pristine picture with lots of detail and nicely resolved grain. Dolby Vision has been applied to the UHD disc rendering a captivating grayscale where black levels are enhanced and specular highlights adorn the viewing experience. The movie has been divided into 25 chapters.
Audio: 5/5
The LPCM 1.0 (2.3 Mbps) mono sound mix is precisely what one would expect from a medium-budget film of this era. Dialogue has been well recorded and has been mixed with the interesting if sparse score and the appropriate sound effects to produce a most compelling audio track. There are no instances of age-related hiss, pops, crackle, or flutter.
Special Features: 5/5
Audio Commentary: Contained on both the UHD and Blu-ray discs, film noir specialists Alain Silver and James Ursini offer a nicely researched and expertly delivered analysis of the film never talking over one another and presenting their information in an organized and easily listenable way.
All other bonus materials are on the enclosed Blu-ray disc.
The Women of The Big Heat (28:13, HD): Farran Smith Nehme presents an excellent video essay focusing on the major female characters of the movie, giving a psychological analysis of each one and then critically discussing the actresses who are portraying them.
Two Fritz Lang Audio Interviews: film historian Gideon Bachmann allows Lang to present his filmography and then go into the motivations for making them (16:08). Director Peter Bogdanovich concentrates on the cynicism within the films as Lang asserts his primary focus on man’s fight against fate and destiny (6:54).
Two Director Video Essays (HD): Martin Scorsese (5:49) and Michael Mann (10:38) each elaborate on their reactions to viewing many of Lang’s films and expressing why they find his films so compelling.
Theatrical Trailer (1:44, HD)
Enclosed Pamphlet: contains several black and white stills from the movie, a cast and crew list, information on the video and audio transfers, and a lengthy essay by author Jonathan Lethem combining a critical analysis of the film with an overview of Fritz Lang’s life story and other filmic achievements.
Overall: 4.5/5
Criterion’s UHD/Blu-ray combo release offers the definitive home video version of Fritz Lang’s film noir classic The Big Heat. Bonus features are all interesting and closely connected to the movie, and the video and sound quality of the UHD disc couldn’t be bettered. Highly recommended!
Matt has been reviewing films and television professionally since 1974 and has been a member of Home Theater Forum’s reviewing staff since 2007, his reviews now numbering close to three thousand. During those years, he has also been a junior and senior high school English teacher earning numerous entries into Who’s Who Among America’s Educators and spent many years treading the community theater boards as an actor in everything from Agatha Christie mysteries to Stephen Sondheim musicals.
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