If it wasn't for a certain chubby English director named Alfred Hitchcock who started to make a name for himself in the 20s and 30s before coming to America, the most famous foreign director to come to Hollywood from Europe might have been German (although born in Austria) director Fritz Lang. In fact, Fritz Lang was more famous than Hitchcock initially with powerhouse films coming out of Germany from Lang like DR. MABUSE THE GAMBLER (1922), METROPOLIS (1927), and M (1931). Hitchcock's early films dealt with espionage and spies. Lang's films centered around the criminal underworld and darker aspects of society's underbelly. Lang who was Jewish would flee Germany just as the Nazis began to gain power in the early 1930s. Hitchcock was probably influenced by Lang's early films and visual style. Hitchcock's THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (1934) feels like a Lang film and even has Lang's M star Peter Lorre in his first English speaking role. But where Hitchcock used his persona to garner publicity for his films and in turn became famous, Lang was a curmudgeon who fought with studios and actors, making it increasingly hard for him to find work later on.
Fritz Lang became well known in the U.S. for his bleak film noirs like THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW (1944) and SCARLET STREET (1945) both starring Edgar G. Robinson. The closest he came to making Hitchcock like films were MINISTRY OF FEAR (1944) with Ray Milland and CLOAK AND DAGGER (1946) starring Gary Cooper. But watch MINISTRY OF FEAR with its German Expressionism and nightmare like quality and it's distinctively Lang and not Hitchcock. In the 1950s Lang would begin to return to crime dramas only this time the urban American kind. THE BIG HEAT (1953) is my favorite. Starring Glenn Ford, THE BIG HEAT has an early performance by tough guy Lee Marvin in a supporting role, the greatest, most sultry film noir femme fatale of all time Gloria Grahame, and the infamous coffee pot scene, shocking even by today's standards.
Directed by Fritz Lang, THE BIG HEAT'S screenplay is by Sydney Boehm from a Saturday Evening Post serial written by William P. McGivern, a former crime reporter in Philadelphia. THE BIG HEAT begins with a bang...literally. Police Sergeant Tom Duncan commits suicide in his study, a gunshot to the head. He leaves behind a confession addressed to the District Attorney which his wife Bertha Duncan (Jeannette Nolan) takes. But instead of calling the police first, Mrs. Duncan calls crime boss Mike Lagana (Alexander Scourby). They agree to talk later. Assigned to the murder case is homicide detective Dave Bannion (Glenn Ford). A good honest cop, Bannion has a pretty, vivacious wife Katie (Jocelyn Brando) and a precocious daughter Joyce (Linda Bennett). Bannion interviews Mrs. Duncan but gets little information from her. While having dinner, Bannion receives a tip. He meets up with barfly Lucy Chapman (Dorothy Green) at a lounge called The Retreat. Lucy reveals she was having an affair with the deceased Tom Duncan. She says he didn't kill himself. He wanted a divorce from his wife.
Bannion returns to question Mrs. Duncan. She admits she knew about her husband's affair. The next day Bannion's notified that Lucy Chapman's tortured and beaten body was found outside the city. Bannion's called into Lt. Ted Wilks (Willis Bouchey) office. Wilks tells Bannion to lay off bothering the widow Mrs. Duncan. Bannion senses he's getting warmer in his investigation. He returns to the bar that Lucy frequented, asks the bartender Tierney (Peter Whitney) a few questions. When Bannion leaves, Tierney calls Lagana. Bannion receives a threatening phone at home that night. He visits Lagana and threatens the crime boss, roughing up Lagana's bodyguard George Rose (Chris Alcaide). Lagana asks his top fixer Vince Stone (Lee Marvin) to take care of Bannion. The next day, Wilks chews out Bannion a second time for visiting Lagana. That night, as Bannion and his wife Katie prepare to catch a movie, Katie goes to start the car and pickup a babysitter. She's killed by a car bomb meant for Bannion.
Police Commissioner Higgins (Howard Wendell) and Wilks assure Bannion they'll find the killer. Bannion doesn't buy it. He accuses the commissioner of working for Lagana. Higgins suspends Bannion for insubordination. Bannion moves out of his house and into a hotel room, too many memories of his wife Katie lingering. Joyce stays with a friend of Bannion's. Lagana visits Vince. Vince had hired another contract killer Larry Gordon (Adam Williams) to handle Bannion. Larry mistakenly blew up Katie instead. Lagana is not happy with Vince. Bannion begins tracking down the car bomber. A lead at a wrecking yard steers Bannion back to The Retreat where Larry likes to hang out. Instead, Bannion encounters the sadistic Vince with his wisecracking moll Debby Marsh (Gloria Grahame). Bannion observes first hand Vince's ugly side when he burns Doris (Carolyn Jones), a cocktail waitress with his cigarette butt. Bannion kicks Vince out of the bar. Debby likes Bannion's style. She tries to buy him a drink. Bannion refuses and leaves for his hotel room. Debby catches up with him outside and invites herself to Bannion's room. Larry pulls up in time to see the two of them leave together.
Bannion and Debby trade insults and jokes at his hotel room but nothing comes of it. Debby returns to Vince's penthouse. Jealous that Debby hung out with Bannion, Vince throws a scalding pot of coffee on Debby's face, scarring her. Lagana puts a contract out on Debby. She know too much. Debby returns to Bannion's hotel room, half her face bandaged up, wanting vengeance on Lagana and Vince. Bannion and Debby become an unlikely team. Bannion punches his way to answers, catching up with Larry, forcing him to talk then throwing him to his associates as a snitch. Vince will kill Larry (offscreen) for squealing. Debby confronts Mrs. Duncan. Debby wants the suicide/confession note. Mrs. Duncan won't give it to her so Debby shoots the widow. Vince returns to his penthouse. Debby waits for her ex with a pot of coffee as Bannion joins her to take down Lagana, Vince, and the crime syndicate.
Gangsters were all the rage in the movies in the early 30s like Mervyn LeRoy's LITTLE CAESAR (1931) and Howard Hawks SCARFACE (1932). The genre faded until after World War II when gangsters and organized crime returned first in real life (that's where Robert Kennedy made his name chasing gangsters as Attorney General) and then the movies. The 1950s saw a rebirth of gangsters in films like Richard Brooks DEADLINE - U.S.A. (1952) with Humphrey Bogart and THE BIG HEAT.
As I mentioned earlier, THE BIG HEAT starts with a bang within its first few frames and never lets up. If THE BIG HEAT had been made today, it's violence would have tagged it with a hard R rating. It feels like a James Ellroy novel. THE BIG HEAT pulsates with violence, but Lang shrewdly keeps most of the violence offscreen. But that doesn't stop the characters from describing it. Lucy Chapman's murder is described vividly. We're told she was tortured with burn marks on her body before she was strangled. Only later does Lang reveal the culprit when we see the cold-blooded Vince extinguish his cigarette on a cocktail waitress's arm when she picked up some dice too quick. Even the infamous coffee pot scene happens offscreen. I swear the first time I saw THE BIG HEAT, I saw Vince throw the hot coffee on Debby's face. That's how shocking the moment was. Lang emphasizes the horror of the act with Debby's anguished howl.
Lang sets up Ford's Dave Bannion perfectly as the perfect All-American cop with a pretty wife and cute daughter then destroys that image within thirty minutes, turning Bannion into a tortured wrecking ball, obsessed with finding his wife's killers after she's accidentally blown up by a car bomb meant for him. Bannion is the prototype of future vengeance seeking cops like Clint Eastwood's DIRTY HARRY (1971) or Bruce Willis's John McLane in DIE HARD (1988). Corruption also fuels Bannion's lust for retribution. Everyone in Kenport in THE BIG HEAT is corrupt except the good cop Bannion. The police force, the police commissioner (we see him playing poker with Lagana's hired killer Vince Stone), bartenders, hookers, and even the widow Mrs. Gordon. All of them greased with dirty money from crime boss Mike Lagana.
For me, THE BIG HEAT is Fritz Lang's last great noir/crime film. He would make two other interesting noir like films in the 50s -- WHILE THE CITY SLEEPS (1956) and BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT (also 1956) both starring Dana Andrews but they both have a televison style quality to them. THE BIG HEAT is bathed in light and dark, shadows and low-key lighting making everyone look more sinister. Credit goes to Director of Photography Charles Lang, Jr who shot many of Billy Wilder's films including SABRINA (1954) and SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959). Lang also had a penchant for selecting supporting actors with distinct characteristics that stand out from the leads. The big boned Peter Whitney (THREE STRANGERS) with his bushy eyebrows as the bartender Tierney or the short, rotund Dan Seymour as Atkins the wrecking yard foreman or Edith Evanson as the spinster like secretary with the cane and thick glasses who identifies Larry as the bomber for Bannion. The car bomber Larry (Adam Williams) with his blonde hair and sniveling manner reminded me of a Lang favorite Dan Duryea who appeared in Lang's SCARLET STREET and MINISTRY OF FEAR.
One of the best parts of THE BIG HEAT are the unlikely team of cop Dave Bannion and sarcastic hood girlfriend Debby Marsh who take down Lagana and his empire. Bannion and Debby meet half way through the film, courtesy of Debby's psychopath boyfriend Vince. Director Lang teases us that the recently widowed Bannion and the sexy, put upon girlfriend of Vince might hook up. Debby invites herself to Bannion's hotel room and he lets her in. She even makes herself cozy on his bed. But Debby's really turned on that Bannion wasn't afraid of Vince and pushed him around like a stooge. The loss of Bannion's beloved wife and the loss of Debby's good looks unite both of them in a crusade to right the wrongs that have turned both of them into damaged goods.
Before I saw THE BIG HEAT, I only knew Glenn Ford as an older actor, having only seen him play a Rear Admiral in Jack Smight's World War II drama MIDWAY (1976). But Ford was quite a leading man in his early years. He began a nice streak of leading man roles in the 1940s and 50s appearing in Charles Vidor's GILDA (1946) starring Rita Hayworth; Richard Brooks THE BLACKBOARD JUNGLE (1955) as a new teacher in an inner city high school, and as an outlaw leader in 3:10 TO YUMA (1957). Ford's perfect in THE BIG HEAT transforming from good guy to enforcer, busting balls and heads as he finds his wife's killers and cleans up a corrupt city.
Sexy noir siren Gloria Graham was just coming off winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in Vincente Minnelli's THE BAD AND BEAUTIFUL when she made THE BIG HEAT. Grahame steals THE BIG HEAT in many ways. She has all the best lines and brings humor and pathos to her character of Debby Marsh. When Lee Marvin's Vince asks if she's wearing a new perfume, Graham's Debby retorts, "Something new. It attracts mosquitoes and repels men." Graham's half bandaged face after Vince throws hot coffee on her gives her a Phantom of the Opera like quality.
The 1950s was Grahame's decade after first attracting attention in Frank Capra's IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946) with James Stewart and her first film noir turn in CROSSFIRE (1947) with Robert Mitchum. Grahame would co-star with Humphrey Bogart in Nicholas Ray's IN A LONELY PLACE (1950), win an Academy Award as an unhappy wife to writer Dick Powell in THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL (1952), and appear in the big budget THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH (1952) directed by Cecil B. DeMille. Both Grahame and Glenn Ford would work with Fritz Lang the following year in HUMAN DESIRE (1954) co-starring Broderick Crawford where they would get the chance to play lovers.
Lee Marvin made his career playing anti-heroes in films like Robert Aldrich's THE DIRTY DOZEN (1966) and John Boorman's POINT BLANK (1967) but he began his career as a supporting actor with a humorous turn as Meatball in THE CAINE MUTINY (1954) and memorable bad guys in John Ford's THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE (1962) and as the sadistic psychopath Vince Stone in THE BIG HEAT. Even though Marvin's Vince is a terrible person, Marvin makes him charming and a bit sad. When Bannion emasculates Vince in front of his friends at The Retreat, I felt sympathy for him. But it doesn't last long. Vince turns his embarrassment into rage, disfiguring Debby in a fit of anger. But Debby's a handful and she'll get her revenge on Vince, returning the hot coffee to the face favor to her ex.
Jocelyn Brando has a memorable, brief role as Bannion's wife Katie. She's not your typical suburban wife. She'll share a glass of beer or take a puff of Bannion's cigarette while making dinner for her husband. She's like one of the guys and Bannion loves her for that. Jocelyn Brando was the older sister of Marlon Brando (who knew!). Glenn Ford even co-starred in THE TEAHOUSE OF THE AUGUST MOON (1956) with Marlon. Although she didn't have as well known a career as her little brother, Jocelyn would appear in a few more films like Jacques Tourneur's NIGHTFALL (1956) and work steadily in television for several decades.
THE BIG HEAT is a crackerjack crime drama, raw and visceral that has everything you want in a gritty gangster film: a handsome cop seeking vengeance; a villain to root against; a beautiful, sassy femme fatale, and a crime cartel that will go to all extremes to remain on top. Directed by the expert hands of film noir master Fritz Lang, THE BIG HEAT is as shocking and powerful today as it was in 1953.
