Line #5 Film/TheBigHeat


1	[[quoteright:340:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_big_heat.jpg]]
2
3	''The Big Heat'' is a 1953 FilmNoir thriller, starring Creator/GlennFord, Creator/GloriaGrahame, and Creator/LeeMarvin in one of his first big roles.
4
5	Ford is police detective Dave Bannion, who investigates the suicide of another cop, Tom Duncan. Duncan's death is in fact a suicide, but his mistress, barfly Lucy Chapman, refuses to accept this and demands that Bannion investigate. Shortly thereafter Chapman is murdered -- it turns out that Duncan was a crooked cop in deep with the local organized crime outfit, which is afraid of drawing attention from the cops. Bannion insists on investigating the Chapman murder, even when facing resistance from the police commissioner, who is in the mob's pocket. The mob retaliates by trying to kill Bannion, but they kill his wife by mistake. This turns Bannion into a OneManArmy bent on vengeance.
6
7	''The Big Heat'' is considered a late-career highlight for its director, Creator/FritzLang. It has a place both on the UsefulNotes/NationalFilmRegistry and Creator/RogerEbert's Great Movies List.
8
9	No relation to the [[Film/TheBigHeat1988 cop movie]].
10
11	----
12	!!This film provides examples of:
13	* BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork: [[spoiler:Debby kills Mrs. Duncan and brings down the titular big heat on the mob -- sparing Bannion the need to do it.]]
14	* BloodlessCarnage: The car explosion leaves no marks on Bannion's wife and there are no bullet wound or blood visible when Debby or Mrs. Duncan are shot in the back.
15	* BrainlessBeauty: Initially, Debby's ditzy exterior makes her appear to be this. She sobers up quickly after the coffee incident.
16	* CensorshipBySpelling: Bannion to his wife: "According to the book, you should lead her [the daughter] to B-E-D..."
17	* CigaretteBurns: This seems to be Stone's preferred method of hurting people - Lucy Chapman's body was covered in burns, and Bannion watches him hurt another girl by stubbing out his cigar on her hand.
18	* ComfortingComforter: Bannion tucks in his little girl. Guess who's the next target for the mob?
19	* DarkMistress: Debby either doesn't realize or doesn't care that her boyfriend Vince is a violent psychopath. Until he turns on her, that is.
20	* DeadMansSwitch: Mrs. Duncan's arranged to have her husband's suicide note sent to the press in the event of her death. [[spoiler:When she does get killed, the published document brings down Lagana and his empire.]]
21	* DeathByDisfigurement: In the film's most famous scene, violent mob thug Vince Stone throws hot coffee in the face of his beautiful moll, Debby. Debby is left with one side of her face horribly scarred. [[spoiler:She dies in the climactic shootout, but not before throwing hot coffee into Vince's face (and helping Bannion get him.)]]
22	* DirtyCop: The police department is ridden with corruption; the commissioner is one of Lagana's flunkies.
23	* DisposableWoman: Gosh, isn't Mrs. Bannion sweet and nice and pretty? Too bad she has to get blown up [[ExternalCombustion by a car bomb]] just to [[CrusadingWidow give her husband extra motivation to get the bad guys]].
24	* DoubleMeaningTitle:
25	** The heat of the police putting pressure on the criminals.
26	** The heat of the coffee (and its effects).
27	** The heat of what happened to Bannion's car (and its effects)
28	** Perhaps even the heat a relatively cool, easygoing guy like Bannion felt when pushed to his limits (the heat of the moment, the heat of passion).
29	* TheDragon: Vince Stone is this to crime boss Mike Lagana. Stone is a brutal psychopath, in contrast to his more business-oriented boss.
30	* DrivenToSuicide: The first shot of the movie is Detective Tom Duncan shooting himself. His mistress later explains that he was driven by guilt due to his involvement with the mob.
31	* EmptyCopThreat: Bannion tries to squeeze the bartender at The Retreat by threatening to take him downtown over the Chapman murder, but the bartender sneers that Bannion won't do that since Bannion's been told to stay away from the Chapman case.
32	* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: Lagana keeps a portrait of his mother in his office and talks respectfully about her, though given that he says that she never got over her surprise that he became successful suggests that their relationship was rocky.
33	* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Bannion meets Lagana on the day the gangster is hosting a party for his teenage daughter. He says he's promised to stay out of her way the whole night.
34	* ExternalCombustion: The baddies try to kill Bannion this way but the plan gets thwarted when the wife gets into the car instead.
35	* FauxAffablyEvil: Mike Lagana.
36	* FinalSpeech: [[spoiler:Debby]] gets to have a talk with Bannion before passing on.
37	* HereWeGoAgain: The film ends with Bannion being called out on another case.
38	* HeroSecretService: After Bannion's wife is killed, a number of his ex-army friends guard his daughter.
39	* ImpendingDoomPOV: When Vince comes home, the camera movies towards him from the dark implying that we watch him enter from Debby's point of view.
40	* InTheBack: How [[spoiler:Debby]] gets killed by Vince.
41	* ItsPersonal: Bannion's attitude after his wife gets killed.
42	* JackBauerInterrogationTechnique: Bannion applies physical pressure on Larry to make him talk.
43	* LeaveNoWitnesses: Either Gordon or Stone had the mechanic who planted the bomb in Bannion's car killed to make sure Bannion couldn't connect it back to them or Lagana.
44	* MistreatmentInducedBetrayal: Debby decides to help Bannion after Vince disfigured her.
45	* TheMistress: Lucy Chapman, who, it turns out, loved Duncan a lot more than his wife did, and was encouraging him to get out of the crime business.
46	* NarrativeProfanityFilter: After Larry threatens Katie over the phone, Bannion asks her what Larry said, and she responds, "I'll leave the four-letter words to your imagination.
47	* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Duncan's suicide really was suicide, and the cops didn't have anything else on the mob. If Lagana had simply left things alone rather than ordering the murder of Lucy Chapman, nothing bad would have happened to him. Lagana actually points this out to Larry Gordon, the man who disposed of her in such a clumsy fashion. He also points out how idiotic it was to let Bannion's wife be the one to die in the car bomb, as it only made things personal for the detective.
48	* NotSoDifferentRemark: When Bannion mentions that he wished he had killed Bertha Duncan when he had the chance, Debby notes that this would make him just as bad as Stone.
49	* ObsessiveCompulsiveBarkeeping: The barkeeper at the Retreat is cleaning glasses when Bannion comes to question him.
50	* PrettyInMink: A disfigured Debby, meeting Mrs. Duncan and observing that they are both wearing mink coats, says that they are "sisters under the same mink" who have benefited from association with gangsters. She then kills Mrs. Duncan in order to expose Lagana to the authorities.
51	* StartsWithASuicide: The first shot of the film is Tom Duncan putting a bullet in his head. The plot unspools from there.
52	* StupidCrooks: Lagana chews out Larry Gordon for leaving Lucy's body to be found by the road and for accidentally killing [[spoiler: Katie Bannion, rather than her husband.]]
53	* ThereAreNoTherapists: Bannion is left with no professional psychological support after the incident with his wife.
54	* TakenOffTheCase: Bannion is taken off the Lucy Chapman murder case because the police department he works for is hopelessly corrupt, with the commissioner himself in the pocket of the mobsters that killed Chapman. Bannion's lieutenant says the reason is that the Chapman case is a county matter, but Bannion brushes that away as a flimsy excuse.
55	* ThouShaltNotKill: Bannion doesn't kill anybody in the movie.
56	** He leaves Larry to be killed off by his partners [[DeathByIrony just like the latter used to off his victims]].
57	** He refrains from strangling Mrs. Duncan and lets [[spoiler:[[BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork Debby do the dirty work]]]].
58	** Having Stones at gunpoint he doesn't pull the trigger even though the latter just shot Debby.
59	* TitleDrop: When Bannion realizes that killing Mrs. Duncan will bring down Lagana. See TheUnfettered below.
60	-->'''Bannion''': With you dead, the big heat follows. The big heat for Lagana, for Stone and for all the rest of the lice.
61	* TokenGoodCop: Bannion is a homicide detective who is willing to defy the mob in a city where most cops are taking their money or are too afraid to stand up to them (TheDon even has the commissioner assign police security to patrol his outside grounds). Most of Bannion's help in the second act comes from civilians and it is only at the end of the movie that a police Lieutenant works up enough courage and integrity to help him.
62	* TooHappyToLive: [[spoiler:Bannion's wife]].
63	* TurnInYourBadge: The corrupt police commissioner demands Bannion do this after realizing he won't be able to dissuade Bannion from investigating his wife's murder. Bannion gladly does so, but won't turn in the gun, because it belongs to him and not the department.
64	* TheUnfettered: Bannion is on the verge of becoming this. When he finds out that Mrs. Duncan is safeguarding her own life with her husband's incriminating letter, which she is keeping in a safe deposit box, he nearly murders her to cause the letter to be released. The cops arrive in time to stop him.

Context Film / TheBigHeat