Time has worn down the classic status of The Big Heat. The film now looks like just another cop show.
Glenn Ford's the cop on a mission of revenge for the death of his wife at the hands of a nameless crime syndicate. Gloria Grahame is a gangster's "girl friend." Lee Marvin is slimy in the bad guy period of his career and the rest of the cast is pretty good if a little too clean cut.
However the plot of The Big Sleep has been copied in so many films, any originality the film once had has been drilled out of it. It also doesn't help the film that it looks like it was filmed completely on studio sets. Everyone looks very clean, the sleazy night clubs, the police station and even the junk yards.
The Big Heat was an important film for Fritz Lang. It helped revitalize his reputation as one of the cinema's most important directors. But for the most part Lang seems fairly uninvolved with the film, which is surprising. The film has the kind of things he was attracted to, a Mabuse like leader of a mysterious crime syndicate with lots of colorful characters but it seems that Lang couldn't muster up any interest in one of his favorite themes for this film.
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| Fritz Lang directs Ford and Gloria Grahame |
What Fritz Lang does get right are a couple of sadistic scenes inflicted on Gloria Grahame and a little emotion out of the poor man's Spencer Tracy, Glenn Ford. Grahame is the best thing in the film.
The Big Heat is film noir but no classic
89 minutes.
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