The Big Heat

Glenn Ford is investigating the suicide of another policeman, discovering the corruption of the police force. Lee Marvin, in one of his earliest films, plays a gangster henchman, Gloria Grahame his girlfriend. Directed by Fritz Lang

I like how married couples are portrayed in movies from the 40s and 50s. They always talk to each other in this chirpy tone. And people sure wore hats in those days. When did that stop? The film itself is a bit disappointing, I had expected something better from Lang. There isn't the desperation that you find in the best film noirs. And it's a bit too black and white. The hero is heroic and the bad guy throws scalding coffee in the face of his girlfriend. Some shades of gray would have been nice. Ford is too much of a prettyboy. Even the death of his wife, for which he is partly to blame, doesn't seem to affect him too much. He doesn't have the haunted quality someone like Bogart could have given the part. Visually, the film isn't that noir and rather seems too brightly lit.