The Big Heat
1953  NR  DRAMA  1h 29min
CAST— Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, Jocelyn Brando, Alexander Scourby, Lee Marvin, Jeanette Nolan
MUSIC— Henry Vars  DIRECTOR— Fritz Lang  BASED ON— The Big Heat (magazine serial), by William P. McGivern

     A tense, old school crime drama where the good guys are righteous and the bad guys are the scum of the Earth. Glenn Ford plays a homicide detective investigating the suicide of a fellow officer who digs a little too deeply into the cop’s affairs. Ford is then told to lay off the case but he pushes ahead, despite warnings from senior officers and the corrupt district attorney. He then suffers the loss of his wife in a bomb blast that was meant for him, and from then it’s on. He relentlessly pursues the killers through heck and high water, though never sinking to their despicable level. Ford hands in a fine performance as does Gloria Grahame as the loose gal pal to the D.A.’s hired thug. Fine film noir. Deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” by the United States Library of Congress National Film Registry.
OUR RATING— ** ½