There are the complicated, labyrinthine noirs and then are the simple, brutal noirs. This great one from Fritz Lang is a potent shot of the latter. Once all of the pieces are in place on the board—and everyone who needs to die in order to get the story rolling is dead—this becomes a revenge plot that walks a fairly straight line, albeit over a rich bed of subtext. As in most great noir, The Big Heat is so corrosive that it burns straight through the screen and begins to scorch the very structures and institutions of modern America. The only things that look good through the pessimistic lens of noir are beautiful women, cigarette smoke and shadows against the wall. Everything else, be it capitalism or love or the ethics of elected officials and law enforcement, is pure poison. In this film, you get an unflattering portrait of the classic American lone wolf hero, dangerously stubborn, the kind of guy who gets you killed in the name of trying to save you. When police detective Glenn Ford goes rogue to take on the city crime syndicate, few remain unscathed, even those who are on his side. He can’t bring himself to kill anyone himself, but other people do his dirty work and pay a steep price for it. Just talking to the guy seems to bring you bad luck.
The women get it a little worse, culminating in the famous scene in which Lee Marvin throws hot coffee in Gloria Grahame’s face, but they’re also the most interesting characters. There is no femme fatale here. Grahame (great, as usual) is a gangster’s moll who eventually becomes a woman who has nothing to lose, not even her looks anymore, and from there starts getting things done quickly in a way that self-righteous Ford can’t. She’s the film’s secret hero, tainted, but so is everyone else here. Then there’s Jeanette Nolan, a terrific, venomous presence as the less-than-saddened widow of the cop whose suicide (first scene, first shot) gets the whole thing started.
Meanwhile, director Lang is at his 1950s finest. His direction is all clean lines and efficient compositions that result in a beautiful snap over a tight 89 minutes. No time is wasted in this story of lives wasted.