263. The Big Heat (1953)

Directed By Fritz Lang

Synopsis

A policeman starts investigating a suicide of another policeman. But nothing is at it seems and as he delves deeper his wife gets killed in a bomb meant for him. He hands in his badge seeing that all the police are in the pocket of the head Mafia boss and goes vigilante. He follows the trail to the wife of the cop that committed suicide. Meanwhile the girlfriend of the head-goon of the Mafia boss makes a pass on him, leading said goon (Lee Marvin) to disfigure her with some hot coffee. She goes back to the cop and spills the beans, he gets the guy who ordered the bombing of his car, and threatens the widow who, if she dies, will have the suicide confession of her husband sent to the papers. He tells the disfigured girlfriend that he was thinking of killing the widow to make it come out. The girlfriend of the goon does it herself, and then she waits for Lee Marvin and pays him in kind with the hot coffee. Lee Marvin shoots her, the cop comes in and a fight ensues. Lee is taken to jail and the headlines say that Mafia boss has been indicted now that the confession came out. Cop goes back to his job.

Review

If I thought Pickup on South Street had beat the record on violence on screen, this is definitely the film that beats it. It has a relentless violence to it paired with some horror elements (such as the disfigurements) and the story of a vigilante widower.

Lang directs this as well as any film he ever did, the shadows of German expressionism give the whole thing a Gotham City feel, paired with the corrupt officials and the grip that crime has on the city and with a vigilante hero who kills no one, this could be a Batman film.

But then there are smart plot twists, there is no femme fatale here, the man is the one who ruins everyone's lives, heck four women he comes into contact with die. A great film indeed, and even if Lang's career was a bit hit and miss in his years in the US this is most definitely a hit, and I am pleased to have him back.

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

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 among his Great Movies. 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."

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."

Coffee Scene: