Once the villains muck things up by planting a bomb in detective Bannion’s car, killing his wife, they might as well give themselves up. Bannion (Glenn Ford) becomes a one-man wrecking crew who tears through their whole organization one person at a time. That is essentially The Big Heat distilled down to the basics. It’s a simple story about an officer against organized crime with a lot of police corruption thrown into the mix. It’s not the most original concept but the way it is handled more than makes up for it.
The Big Heat originated as a Saturday Evening Post serial turned into a novel by William P. McGivern. It tells the story of hard-nosed Bannion who refuses to lay off his pursuit of mob leader Lagana (Alexander Scourby), even after his own chief orders him to back off. This investigation is kicked off by the suicide of a fellow officer, Tom Duncan. Tom’s wife finds a letter left behind addressed to the DA but rather than deliver it, she locks it away as insurance against Lagana and blackmails money from him. Meanwhile, Bannion, refusing to drop the case, is targeted by the gang and his wife ends up dead. Rather than be deterred by this, Bannion goes on a rampage, turning over his badge and getting his own kind of justice.
Glenn Ford is at his finest here as the stiff, no-nonsense cop who cannot be corrupted. The only time we see that hard façade drop is when he is with his wife and daughter so when the wife is taken out of the picture so abruptly we know something is going to hit the fan. Bannion isn’t blindly out for revenge, though; he’s far too smart for that. But he is cold and methodical and uses violence often to gain the upper hand. He also puts those around him in harm’s way, such as Debby (Gloria Grahame), a woman in an abusive relationship with Vince Stone (Lee Marvin), one of Lagana’s men. After spending some time with her, finding out what he can from the woman, she is cornered by Vince who throws hot coffee in her face, leaving one side of it heavily scarred. It’s brutal, one of the most shocking things in this film.
The weakest element of this film is Lagana, himself. He’s a villain surrounded by much more memorable characters. Alexander Scourby isn’t given much of a character to play here. Lee Marvin, who was still just getting started as an actor, exhibited more menace and character. He’s quick-tempered and not afraid to brutalize women. Mercifully he finally gets some poetic justice in the end. Glenn Ford, however, anchors this film. His scenes with his wife and their young daughter humanize him early on so that we can understand and sympathize with him when he loses a bit of that humanity and practically turns robotic. This is a brutal film at times and having those softer moments really helps to balance it and cement it as a true classic of the genre. 1953 - 90 minutes
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