The Big Heat (1953)

The Big Heat is a stylish look at corruption and unblinking violence in the modern city. An early exploration of the revenge motif that would become common by the time of Dirty Harry and Death Wish. From the works of Fritz Lang, the innovative expressionist director whose stylized works include Scarlet Street, a woefully underappreciated film that also belongs in every cinephile's collection.

Dave Bannion (Glenn Ford) is an honest police detective in the fictional city of Kenport. The action is set up showing he is a model family man with a wife (Jocelyn Brando) and a 4 year-old girl child. Dave has been to a murder investigation and is trying to relax. A quick scan of the crime scene and Dave knows almost everything we know; a fellow police sergeant had committed suicide in his home.

What Dave does not know is that the deceased had left a confession revealing he had been on the take from the local gangland kingpin (Alexander Scourby). However, before she summoned police, the widow (Jeanette Nolan) hid the letter and called the greasy pimp mob boss and cut a deal to keep the material under wraps as long as the payments kept coming. NOTE: there is gay subtext in the scene showing the mobster receiving the widow's phone call. His bodyguard is there in his private bedroom standing very close dressed in a bathrobe and no Mrs. Mobster in evidence. This unusual intimacy is repeated in another scene in which the two appear similarly alone in an isolated place. With Lang, who was very much into symbolism this is a likely reading of this scene, in my opinion.

To Bannion, it's a closed case but a tip from a trashy B-girl (Carolyn Jones), who claims to have been the dead cop's lover, sends him back to check out the story with the widow who is annoyed by the unwanted attention, especially since she must confirm the embarrassing illicit relationship and admit owning a second lake home that shouldn't be affordable on a cop's salary. A quick phone call and the informant is murdered, her tortured and strangled body dumped by the county roadside.

By the time he returns to the police station, the phone grapevine has preceded him. He is on the carpet in front of his obsequious lieutenant who has been chewed out by the commissioner, who is in bed with the mob himself. Bannion is warned to stop meddling, or else.

Returning home a little crestfallen, he snaps at his wife; apologizes, then receives a threatening phone call. Without regard for consequences, Bannion barges into the sumptuous home of the kingpin and confronts him about the harassment, easily flooring the body guard who tries to eject him and dominating the angry but cowed gangster.

When Bannion returns to the station, the phone grapevine has already done its work and he gets reprimanded. At home he is dejected but prepares to go out with his lovely wife who first goes out to fetch the baby sitter. She switches on the ignition and is promptly written out of the script with a dynamite blast, obviously meant for Dave.

Now Bannion is seething. When the crooked commissioner tries to give him some sympathy after the funeral, Bannion gives him a piece of his mind, earning a suspension. He moves his daughter to a safe house with relatives and moves into a downtown hotel. Then he begins pressing on the sore place in earnest.

Gloria Grahame becomes a key player when Ford rousts Lee Marvin and his minion from their hangout at the nightclub. She follows Ford to his hotel and when she returns to Marvin's hideout, he sloshes a carafe of boiling hot coffee in her face – one of the most horrifying scenes in movie history. NOTE: The coffee throwing scene may have been influenced by noir maestro Anthony Mann's seminal Raw Deal which had a similar fiendish character with a fire fetish.

Once Grahame is released from the hospital she returns to Ford for protection. He had meanwhile been to see the widow again and had doped out her scheme and threatened to kill her and bring the whole combo crashing down. He did not, but shared the idea with Grahame and when he walked out he threw an extra revolver on the bed for her protection. It was as if he had unleashed Shiva the Destroyer. Grahame completed the work that destroyed the mob and corrupt government and got her revenge on Lee Marvin, too.

Ford is reinstated and goes back to being a happy, if strait-laced cop.

Fritz Lang uses architectural elements, clocks, and mirrors to good advantage in his shot set ups and expressionistic high contrast cinematography by Charles Lang. As I mentioned, he was very interested in symbolism and you can see how he framed his gangsters in curved architectural elements (i.e., crooked) while the good guys where put against straight lines. There are many other things but I'd like you to see them yourself.

Columbia has released The Big Combo on DVD. The movie is well preserved and is in black and white in 1.33:1 theatrical format and runs 89 terse minutes. This is a must see for cinephiles who want to see the origins of the rogue cop genre.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening