Big Heat

Year: 1953

Grade: B+

Country: USA

Director: Lang

Review

first time watching this classic. it goes up there with sweet smell of success as one of the more raw noirs ever made. this is of course before filmmaking lacked subtlety and restrictions like the production code. this one goes places you don’t expect – the protagonist’s wife is the victim of a carbombing meant to shut him up, another woman gets her face melted with hot coffee (courtesy of lee marvin), etc. wish i could recall more, but my memory is alarmingly bad. suffice it to say, though, that this is a great one.