rodrig58 I confess, I had a big head and neck ache when I started to watch this movie, probably from too many bad movies seen before. But soon my pains passed, the effect of an excellent film. What a true master's hand, Fritz Lang, you feel it from the first scenes. I still have to confess that I didn't know anything about the film, not even that Lang is the director. All I wanted was to see a movie with Lee Marvin, a big favorite of mine. And, I had a big surprise, some really impressive actor's recitals: Glenn Ford's best role in everything I've ever seen him, the exceptional Gloria Graham, perhaps her best role too, the very good Jeanette Nolan, the whole cast it's a big day, once again, you know one of the great conductors like Fritz Lang from the start. Lee Marvin does not have a major role, but he appears pretty much and makes a great role as a villain. Simply excellent!

Edgar Allan Pooh . . . Today's viewers are bound to conclude after checking out things in a typical totally corrupt American city during THE BIG HEAT. Sure, this city's Police Commissioner is in cahoots with every whim and command coming to him from the murderous thieving crime lord character "Mike Lagana," but at least "Commissioner Higgins" is NOT a U.S. President taking orders from the murderous thieving Russian Red Commie KGB Chief. Sure, THE BIG HEAT's crusading do-gooder police sergeant character "Dave Bannion" gets peeved when one of his Police Commissioner's fellow mob henchmen blows up Mrs. Bannion with a car bomb, but at least he's not fighting a master crook who looted $1 TRILLION from the Russian Treasury, and then began to rub out his critics throughout the world with War Crime nerve agents, secure in the knowledge that Fortress America had been defanged and neutered, reduced to the mute fearful silence of the "See no Evil, Hear no Evil, Say no Evil" simian figurines. Therefore, if YOU want to spend 90 minutes with something more positive than Real Life as we know it Today, check out THE BIG HEAT.

SnoopyStyle Det. Sgt. Dave Bannion (Glenn Ford) investigates the suicide of a police colleague Tom Duncan. However the case turns darker and darker as he finds a corrupt system and its connection to a crime boss. Duncan's secret mistress Lucy Chapman is killed, and they start coming after the incorruptible cop.This is a surprisingly modern police drama from legendary director Fritz Lang. The first 30 minutes has some slower moments. Louis CK joked that he hated the part of his indie film where a character dials an entire phone number on a rotary phone. Sometimes, that's what we have here. It has some slow moments. It's something that must be excused for the era of movie making.The subject matter is tough noir and hard boiled. Glenn Ford plays the stand up cop perfectly. He has an air of moral superiority. He is a cross between John McClane and Dirty Harry. There is great violence. The story is tough. Gloria Grahame makes for a great noir dame. And Glenn Ford has great intensity.

utgard14 First-rate film noir with a terrific cast and great director in Fritz Lang. Glenn Ford plays a cop who is asking too many questions. He's warned to stop by gangsters and his corrupt superiors. When he doesn't, they kill his wife! After this, Ford snaps and sets out to bring the bad guys to justice no matter what. Obviously this sort of material has been handled many times in the decades since and in much more violent and graphic fashion than could be allowed in 1953. But I still feel the grit and emotion in this classic hold up well today. The coffee scene still packs a punch.Glenn Ford gives one of his best performances in this film. Some memorable support from an up & coming Lee Marvin and especially Gloria Grahame in perhaps the best acting job of her career. I mean, she'll always be Violet Bick to me, but this is a much more challenging role. This is a bona fide classic everybody should see at least once. A powerful example of film noir. Great direction, acting, writing. An excellent film.