TCM Pick O’ The Day: Saturday, January 24th
by John Nolte
6:45am PST – Big Heat, The (1953) – A police detective whose wife was killed by the mob teams with a scarred gangster’s moll to bring down a powerful gangster. Cast: Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, Jocelyn Brando, Alexander Scourby Dir: Fritz Lang BW-90 mins, TV-14
There’s nothing quite like a Glenn Ford slow burn. Watching Ford’s nice guy characters take it and take it some more until they give it back with compound interest is one of the delights of Ford’s under-appreciated work. My favorite of these is “The Violent Men,” a 1955 Western that pits mild-mannered, square-shouldered Ford against land grabbers Edward G. Robinson and Barbara Stanwyck. It’s “Death Wish” on a horse.
Today’s pick is another engrossing Ford slow-burner, this one a noir classic directed by The Mighty Fritz Lang and co-starring the delicious Gloria Grahame as a horribly scarred, boozy moll. The film’s real delight, however, is Lee Marvin in his breakthrough role as a complicated enforcer dealing with something he didn’t quite expect from Ford’s crusading cop.
Look for references to Ford’s “Gilda,” Carolyn Jones in a small roll, a scene that might have influenced a similar one in “The Godfather,” hardboiled dialogue, a blistering pace and a revenge theme (Lang’s specialty) fully realized to a satisfying and memorable finish.
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11 Comments
Even though he’s the bad guy, Lee Marvin is sex on sticks in this.
Lee Marvin as the perfect SOB. Gloria Grahame, a year after her Oscar, as the sympathetically trapped bad girl, and Fritz Lang, full of dark stories, directing.
This really is a delicious film noir piece.
“The Violent Men” was on the other night, great flick. Full of juicy Jacksonian attitude on Ford’s part.
“I’ll fight for the privilege of being left alone.”
Not the sort of thing that gets green-lighted these days…
I’m sorry, this movie is bad — temple-achingly bad in only the way bad 50s movies can be. It has none of the style, shadow and seedy grace of a true noir film. A clumsy pretender.
One of Glenn Ford’s best roles, out of many. His like has not been seen for a while.
No performance beats Ford in “Gilda”…and his slow burn was at Rita, imagine that.
One woman’s opinion.
MB Snow
I just did a review of this a while back. Great movie.
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