The Big Heat
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Canada
Movie Reviews of The Big Heat
Movie Review: Her Face Was Burned But Still Beautiful
Summary: 3 Stars
What more can I say about how beautiful and sexy Gloria Grahame is on the silver screen. I thought she was unbelievable in another noir classic, In A Lonely Place. Certainly she had a juicier leading lady part in the Bogart archetypal, but in The Big Heat she steals the show with classic 50's hard gal lines like when Lee Marvin admires her perfume. She say's: "It attracts mosquitoes and repels men."
What is it with post-WW2 adult attire? People look like they are overdressed for every event. The men are decked out in an ugly porkpie hat and overcoats in all weather. It's ninety degrees but Glenn Ford has a full suit and sweater on plus a heavy man's dress overcoat. Wow, that must have been tough under hot lights. The women all resemble Beaver Cleaver's mother in wide skirts and heavy, heavy fur coats. This unreality of clothing and non-weather, the obvious closed Hollywood set, makes for a stagy Fritz Lang effort. It looks campy to the modern eye including the Lee Marvin punk gangster swaggers. There's nothing like a lurking, campy Lee Marvin.
This one rushes to a film noir climax. It's not as raw as Detour, the definitive noir primitive, but it builds nicely.
Movie Review: Fair.
Summary: 2 Stars
I don't know what all the fuss is about this one. Something about this is just not convincing. Glenn Ford is, frankly, not a stellar actor--and some of the other players, including the gal who plays his wife are unbelivably awful. Lee Marvin does the psycho thing well but he's barely in the movie. The DVD includes the trailer for the far better Lady From Shanghai. I'd also recommend He Walked By Night or The Naked City or anything with Robert Mitchum.
Movie Review: Over-rated. Over-the-top. Cliched.
Summary: 1 Stars
I can't believe anyone would rate this movie highly. The plot is predictable from the start. The writing is cliched to the max. At times I found myself saying, "they'd never do that, or say that." Fritz Lang's overuse of melodrama was irritating. The performances by the actors were uneven. In my mind, the Maltese Falcon, The Third Man, and Touch of Evil are the standards against which any other noir film should be measured. More recently Memento and Croupier are symbols of great film making in this genre. The story here falls way short of those benchmarks. (I'll spare you a rehash. Read the other reviews.) Glen Ford and Lee Marvin offer some good moments, but when they are bad, they stink the joint out. Same with the rest of the cast.
Unless you enjoy bad films because they are really bad, don't waste your money. Go buy the Touch of Evil, or the others I mentioned, if you want noir that grabs you and pulls you in.