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Don't listen to the negative reviews

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

The world this movie presents is like a five year old's understanding of the world. Bad guys have paintings of their mothers on the wall. The married couple come across like they're in a margarine commercial. Seasoned cops hear a rumor and twist it into something completely unrelated. Lee Marvin is not believable as a nervous coward when confronted by Glenn Ford. There's a good scene with veteran actor Peter Whitney as the bartender.

. . . Today's viewers are bound to conclude after checking out things in a typical totally corrupt American city during THE BIG HEAT. Sure, this city's Police Commissioner is in cahoots with every whim and command coming to him from the murderous thieving crime lord character "Mike Lagana," but at least "Commissioner Higgins" is NOT a U.S. President taking orders from the murderous thieving Russian Red Commie KGB Chief. Sure, THE BIG HEAT's crusading do-gooder police sergeant character "Dave Bannion" gets peeved when one of his Police Commissioner's fellow mob henchmen blows up Mrs. Bannion with a car bomb, but at least he's not fighting a master crook who looted $1 TRILLION from the Russian Treasury, and then began to rub out his critics throughout the world with War Crime nerve agents, secure in the knowledge that Fortress America had been defanged and neutered, reduced to the mute fearful silence of the "See no Evil, Hear no Evil, Say no Evil" simian figurines. Therefore, if YOU want to spend 90 minutes with something more positive than Real Life as we know it Today, check out THE BIG HEAT.

Glen Ford is one of those charismatic actors from a previous era. In this film he does a nice job playing a tough talking cop. Some might say he is reckless....as a matter of fact, his behavior ends up getting his wife killed. This, of course, lights the ultimate fire to go after a gang boss who has a set of thugs working for him. In the mix are some women who are hooked up with this guy and who also pay dearly. This is one of those man against the world efforts that is quite slick, action packed, and a good deal of fun.

During his investigation of the death of a fellow cop a police sergeant is warned off by his mob-corrupted superiors, and his defiance ends in tragedy for his family. Revenge is in the cards, but a gangster's moll plays her ace.Gangster story stuffed with devious characters. Some great actors, especially the women, but I didn't buy the lead male - too upright and uncompromised for a noir, and the punch ups didn't feel real. As Marlowe would say, No iron in his bones. Also his lines lacked the zing of Chandler.The actress playing the lead's wife has good presence (Brando's boozy older sister), but the main claim to fame is from Grahame who executes the perfectly doomed blonde, giving the movie a sense of innocence lost in a brutal world. The coffee scald scene is so cruel it becomes the engine for the revenge story, rather than the hero's loss.The pace is good, photography too although not moody enough. A nice close up on the scalded face, with division of light and dark. Standard orchestration of the music, and a bit obvious in the lead up during the famous car bomb scene - you just know the mood is going to switch dramatically.Overall - good entertainment, but the outcome is too moral for classic noir.