Dave-El's Weekend Movie Post: The Big Heat

So here's how these movie themed posts usually work.

• Step One: Watch movie 
• Step Two: Assemble notes about that movie, a combination of my own observations and opinions coupled with some background information I culled from TCM.com or Wikipedia.
• Step Three: Write and publish post. 

Sometimes I let a little too much time pass between Steps 2 and 3.  Which leads us to today's movie post. 

Somewhere between steps two and three, I have forgotten I had seen this movie.

The movie in question is called The Big Heat, a 1953 crime noir film starring Glenn Ford and directed by a film noir master, Fritz Lang. 

If not for my notes on file, I would have no clue I watched this movie.  

Well, I've going to do a Dave-El's Weekend Movie Post about it anyway. 

What happens next? Your guess is as good as mine.  

Sergeant Dave Bannion is a detective for the Kenport Police Department.  He's a good egg with a wife Katie and a child at home. He's been called upon the investigate the death of one of their own.  

Officer Tom Duncan has taken his own life; his wife Bertha attributes this to his stress and depression over his failing health.

Bannion thinks too many things are not making sense. The Duncan's house is WAY too nice for a policeman's salary.

Muddying up the waters even more is Lucy Chapman, Tom's mistress.  Seems Tom was not in poor health at all and agreed to divorce his wife.

What does Lucy get for her trouble by talking to Bannion? Murdered, that's what she gets and tortured with cigarette burns first too, just for fun.

Bannion suspects Tom and Lucy were caught up in some serious shit with mob boss Mike Lagana and his local crime syndicate keeping the city in an iron grip of terror and control.  

Bannion is determined not to give up on his investigation.

But the detective is being pressured to drop the Duncan investigation. His bosses are satisfied with the story that Tom Duncan killed himself.  

Bannion is also ordered to not stick his nose in the Lucy Chapman murder as it's outside Bannion's jurisdiction.  

And as if the pressure from his own department was not enough, Bannion is getting threats from the crime syndicate. 

Bannion ignores those threats but there is a price to pay. 

Bannion's wife Katie is killed by a car bomb! 

Well, damn! That hurts! 

(And I think I'm starting to remember this movie now! Thanks, past me, for leaving such good notes!) 

Even with the death of his wife, the pressure from all sides continues for Bannion to drop this whole thing. 

Bannion accuses Police Commissioner Higgins of being in league with the mob.  This gets Bannion a suspension and the loss of his police badge. 

Good! This frees up Bannion to do whatever the hell he needs to do to find out who killed Katie, Tom and Lucy and if it's mob boss Mike Lagana, well, that son of a bitch is gonna pay!!!

Dave Bannion becomes Batman!

<checks notes>

<Hmmm! No, he does NOT become Batman. Er, sorry about that.>  

 Bannion begins working a lead at a nightclub where he chats up Debby Marsh who is the girlfriend of Vince Stone who is second command to mob boss Mike Lagana.  

Suspecting Debby was talking to the cops, Vince Stone throws hot coffee on her. 

With half her face horribly burned and disfigured, OK, NOW Debby Marsh is talking to the cops. Or to David Bannion anyway.

One of Stone's lackeys planted the bomb in Bannion's car.

Tom Duncan's wife Bertha was blackmailing Stone and Lagana.

Long story (as much as I can recall and my notes tell me) made short, dominoes start to fall.  

• Stone kills the minion who planted the car bomb.
• Debby Marsh kills Bertha Duncan. 
• Debby throws hot coffee on Vince Stone and burns his face.
• Vince shoots Debby dead. 
• Stone, Lagana and Commissioner Higgins are arrested. 
• And Bannion is reinstated as a detective with the police force.

And all is as it was. 

Er, except David Bannion's wife is still dead. 

So...

That's a bummer.  

I don't want my memory lapse to undermine the quality of The Big Heat.  As I went through this post, I recalled this film was a taut and gripping thriller with some powerful acting performances and I saw why it is regarded as an outstanding example of film noir. 

I feel bad that this movie slipped by mind until I started reviewing my notes. But cut me some slack: this is not my actual job to remember all of these movies. 

And I have seen a lot of movies.  

Others have deemed this movie worth remembering when The Big Heat was  selected for inclusion in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 2011.