A Dash of Film Noir: The Big Heat

Hey you mugs welcome back to Day 2 of A Dash of Film Noir Week and I thought this one was a doozy but definitely a keeper.  It’s got it all baby, with a torrid affair, mob involvement and cops turning a blind eye hoping to sweep it under the rug but our hero says, “Nothing doin.”  So stop bumping yer gums, call in the buzzer and no chiseling allowed.  This is The Big Heat.

A flatfoot with a heart of gold.

Mike Lagana: Prisons are bulging with spoilers who wonder how they got there.

Sergeant Dave Bannion (Glenn Ford of Gilda, 3:10 to Yuma, Cowboy, It Started with a Kiss, Cry for Happy and Superman) is a fair and honest guy with a badge.  A straight palooka you could say.  Ahem…sorry that is far too fun to get immersed in.   Bannion is called in on a homicide but seems more to the point suicide of his fellow officer Tom Duncan.  What appears to be an open-and-shut case due to his bad health, Bannion is contacted by the late officer’s mistress Lucy Chapman (Dorothy Green of It’s a Wonderful Life, In a Lonely Place, Oklahoma!, Ride Beyond Vengeance and The Todd Killings) who claims that Duncan’s happy marriage was not so and he had a second home to go to which was out of his pay grade.

Bannion visits the widow Duncan and asks about the second home and how Tom could afford such a thing.  Widow Duncan scolds Bannion and demands he leave.  No sooner does he get back to squad his Lieutenant reams his butt claim he is under pressure from the higher ups who want to close the case.

Baby doll with the bedroom eyes.

Our hero tries to explain to his wife how the system he has worked so diligently is failing and most of the cops are in crime boss Mike Lagana’s back pocket but by God he is gonna uphold justice if not the law. Lucy Chapman is found at her apartment dead after being slapped around and burned with cigarette burns.  Bannion bursts in on the case even though it is not his or even in his jurisdiction.   Heading home from that fruitless endeavor Bannion gets threatening calls to his house and stomps over to Mike Lagana’s house and tears him a new one verbally.  Lagana warns Bannion he has gone too far and he is not accustomed to be harassed in his own home.  

 Bannion ignores the further warnings to stay off the case and the mob dynamites his car killing his wife along with it.  Feeling as though there is little justice being handled in his wife’s homicide; Bannion chucks his badge and goes on his own to handle Lagana and his lickspittle Vince Stone (Lee Marvin of, Attack, Pillars of the Sky, The M Squad, Dirty Dozen, Donovan’s Reef and The Killers) and show them a thing or two about a thing or two.

I have a few comments about this film now.  Film in 35mm Spherical and of course recorded in mono the pace setting of this film is so fluid and no lag inbetween.  Our hardnosed cop fits the bill and I absolutely love Lee Marvin as a cold blooded gunsel.   At an hour and 30 minutes folks this is worth the viewing.

Dammit honey, you knew you couldn't drive a stick!