The Big Heat

In the opening shot, the camera focuses on a snub-nosed revolver. An unseen man picks it up and commits suicide while sitting at his office desk. A woman descends the stairs and sees a letter addressed to the district attorney lying on his desk, beneath the dead man’s police badge. She opens and reads the letter, then places it on the desk as she makes a phone call. She contacts Mr. Lagana, telling the servant she is Tom Duncan’s widow (Jeanette Nolan).

Lagana (Alexander Scourby), who is sleeping, awakens and is surprised by the “widow” comment. He sits up in bed and answers Bertha’s call. The brief conversation includes agreeing to meet soon and Lagana’s suggestion to call the police immediately. Lagana tells his servant to phone Vince (Lee Marvin). The phone is answered by Vince Stone’s girl, Debby March (Gloria Grahame), who says she’s happy for him to call since it will make Vince jump. As Debby stands directly in his face, Vince orders her to leave and shut the door. Vince is quickly informed about the suicide.

Police are on the scene as reporters quickly snap photos of the victim. When a cop kills himself, we want a full report,” Sgt. Dave Bannion (Glenn Ford) says, having been dragged out of bed. Dave requests the initial findings for his report, and he is told that it is definitely suicide. Dave says he’s going upstairs to talk to Mrs. Duncan, who wipes tears from her eyes. Mrs. Duncan explains that when a cop kills himself, the department gets worried. Bannion notes that it depends on the circumstances, but she insists there were none. Crying, Mrs. Duncan says her husband was “clean and wholesome.” When asked about his reason for suicide, she recalls he recently complained of pain in his left side. He never saw a doctor, and she thinks he ended his life because of his health issue. While reading the newspaper, Bannion notices an article stating that the policeman who died was in charge of the Record Bureau and was “in ill health.”

Dave Bannion’s wife, Katie (Jocelyn Brando), asks him to stop reading and help her with dinner. They’re having steaks for dinner, and Katie tells him he’ll need to give up steaks soon to afford grammar-school-through-college for their young daughter, Joyce—unless Dave becomes Police Commissioner in the meantime. The couple sits down for their lavish meal. As they begin to converse and eat, the phone rings. Marty from work tells Dave that there’s reason to believe Tom Duncan did not kill himself, and he shares a woman’s address and name, Lucy Chapman (Dorothy Green), adding that he will see her.

Bannion agrees to meet her at a bar. Since the open bar is very loud, they decide to move to a booth. Lucy immediately blurts out that the newspaper story is wrong, and Tom would never kill himself. Duncan told Lucy he was getting a divorce two nights ago. Lucy met Tom a year ago, and apparently, sparks ignited between them. Tom has been coming to the club every night since his wife travels a lot. Bannion abruptly leaves when he feels Lucy is trying to shake him down.

In the following sequence, Bannion again questions Mrs. Duncan, sharing what Lucy said. Mrs. Duncan appears very nervous and suspicious. She admits she knows about the affair between her late husband and Lucy. However, she says Tom was sick and didn’t want a divorce. “In the years we were married, there were four Lucy Chapmans, four that I found out about. Tom was vain. He had to prove to himself that he was still attractive to women. Maybe he boasted to that woman that he was in good health.” Bannion warns Mrs. Duncan that Lucy might try to blackmail her and advises her to be careful. Before leaving, he asks about the house at Lakeside. Mrs. Duncan becomes agitated, talking about it, clearly indicating it was the place where affairs took place. She refuses to say anything about the house, trying to protect Tom’s reputation.

Later, sitting at his office desk, he reads a memo stating that an unknown woman was found dead off County Parkway, “Thrown from the car after a beating and torture,” with her clothes labeled Lakeside Fashion Shop. Bannion is summoned to see Lieutenant Wilks (Willis Bouchey). He tells Bannion he’s heard from “upstairs” about harassing Mrs. Duncan — someone complained. The lieutenant nicely advises Bannion to stop bothering Mrs. Chapman, but Dave says he might have to see her again. Bannion is concerned about Lucy Chapman’s death, saying he saw her only once and she’s been murdered. But the Lieutenant finally says he’s no longer asking. He’s now telling.

Bannion next sees the bartender at the bar where he met Lucy. The bartender gives the cop double talk, and the cop says, “You talk so much and say little,” then leaves. The bartender then makes a pay phone call to his boss, who reports that Bannion just left but says he’ll be back again. Bannion surprisingly returns to the bar and asks who he just called. Bannion wants to take the smug bartender downtown, but he quotes what the Lieutenant just told him and smiles at the cop. Dave says, “Not today. When we do, I’ll have enough evidence to close this joint up.”

Returning home in the dark, Bannion talks to his daughter, who’s wearing her night clothes. His wife, Katie, enters the child’s bedroom to kiss her daughter and husband. Katie says she’s invited another couple to dinner, and he has to hurry to get ready and make some cocktails. His wife can easily tell that Dave is down in the dumps. He’s tired and obviously annoyed. Katie soon receives a threatening phone call and is upset. Bannion takes the phone since Katie says, "The call’s for you." The unknown caller rudely states that Bannion is annoying some big people and should stop his investigation if he wants to stay alive. “I don’t know who called, but I know where to go to find out.”

Dave Bannion is stopped by another policeman outside the extravagant mansion of mob boss Mike Lagana, music blaring. When he shows his badge, he is left alone. He is here to see Lagana. Bannion rings the doorbell, and a butler answers. Dave quickly rushes inside to find several couples dancing wildly. Lagana intercepts Dave and guides him to a quieter room, with Dave identifying himself. Bannion focuses on a painting of Lagana’s mother, the obvious mobster singing her praises. Dave solemnly states, “I came across a murder. A girl named Lucy Chapman was killed last night or early this morning. She was tortured and strangled.” Lagana asks who runs his department, and Bannion mentions Lieutenant Wilks. Lagana appears very disturbed that Bannion tracks dirt into his home instead of using his office for this. Bannion says, “I violated your spotless home!” Bannion continues, “No place for a stinking cop! It’s only a place for a hoodlum who built this house from 20 years of corruption and murder … you can’t plant enough flowers around here to hide the smell.” Lagana presses a button to call his bodyguard to “escort” Bannion out. Dave recognizes the man, George, who puts his hand on Dave's shoulder to force him to leave, and he punches the hoodlum to the ground. Then Dave walks out on his own.

Lieutenant Wilks scolds Bannion harshly in his office for invading Lagana’s house and punching his bodyguard, saying he’s getting “The squeeze” from upstairs. Bannion mentions Lagana’s men terrified his wife and threatened him at home, but Wilks dismisses his theories as irrelevant to his job. The Lieutenant spits more bile Dave’s way, tells him to stop, and then dismisses him in a huff.

Dave is shown finishing the dishes while Katie gets ready to go out. She tells Dave he can finish when he gets home. Then they talk about “the tower of Jello,” Lieutenant Wilks. Katie tries to calm Dave down by saying Wilks is a few years from retirement and is worried about his pension. But she advises him not to compromise and to keep his chin up. They hug and kiss. Dave begs her to stay home with him. Joyce Bannion, sleepy and just getting out of bed, enters. The couple decides to stay in, with Katie offering to fetch the babysitter and Dave putting Joyce to bed and telling her a story. While he narrates The Three Little Kittens, we hear Katie open the car door, start the engine, and then see a fiery explosion through the bedroom window that shakes the house. Outside, Dave sees his car blown apart and on fire. He tries to open the driver’s side door, but it’s stuck from the explosion. He finally breaks the glass, reaches in to open the door, and drags out Katie, who is dead.

Commissioner Higgins (Howard Wendell), along with Wilks, tells Bannion that his daughter, who is staying with her in-laws, will be under round-the-clock surveillance. Higgins asks how the little girl is doing, and Bannion replies that he thinks her mother went on a trip. Higgins smiles and asks whether the department can do anything, such as a loan. Dave, looking incredibly serious, demands, "Find the men who planted dynamite in my car." Bannion accuses Wilks and Higgins of paying him lip service while they wait to receive their orders from Mike Lagana. Bannion continues to press his point about the corrupt officers being on the take, and Higgins asks for his badge and gun, but Dave defiantly hands in his badge permanently. He does not give up his gun, telling his superiors that it is his, bought and paid for. He vows not to use it until he finds the men responsible for his wife’s murder and leaves angrily.

Moving out of his house, a man from the department says Wilks feels terrible about everything and offers to help personally, but he dismisses the cop, saying he’s had enough of the department. and leaves in a cab. He takes a long, sorrowful look at his former home.

Debby Marsh is singing, dancing, and mixing cocktails at Lagana’s house as Vince and his friend Larry enter. Vince is glowingly romantic with Debby. She tells Vince she was shopping all day. Vince snuzzles her and loves her perfume. Debby says, “Something new. It attracts mosquitoes and repels men.” The door buzzes, and Debby says, "It’s your highness." While Debby helps in the kitchen, Lagana tells Vince she shouldn’t drink so much, and Vince threatens to throw her out on her ear. Lagana criticizes the hit on Mrs. Bannion, which was meant for her husband. Now there’s a lot of heat on the organization. Lagana calls him a dummy. “I can’t afford people who make mistakes, am I clear?” Lagana has a meeting with Mrs. Duncan, and he raised her salary to $500 a week, which Lagana will gladly pay as long as she keeps her husband’s suicide note in her safety deposit box. Vince suggests assassinating Bannion, but Lagana says when people are stirred up, they start doing things, and besides, it’s too close to the election.

After receiving a tip from a disabled woman working at an auto shop, Bannion begins to suspect a man named Larry. Bannion has a friend agree to call a phone number exactly at 9:30 and ask for Larry. Bannion goes to the Retreat Bar a little before 9:30 and sees the bartender take a call for Larry at the right time; he asks Larry who, then hangs up. Vince Stone, sitting with Debby, is playing a dice game at the bar with a blonde woman he thinks plays too quickly and covers the dice too fast. The second time this happens after warning her, Vince angrily grabs her arm, and she screams in pain. Bannion confronts Vince and says, “You like whipping girls over, don’t you?” While talking to Vince, the blonde girl starts crying, and Vince quickly gives her a couple of dollars and says, "No hard feelings.”

As Bannion kicks out Vince and his friend from the bar, Debby wants to buy Bannion a drink. Bannion says he’d choke on it, and in disgust, exits the bar. Debby follows him out. She hunts him down outside in the dark. “Do you get your kicks by insulting people?” Debby accuses Bannion. He comments, " Aren’t you Vince Stone’s girl?” With that, the duo separates. But once more, Debby runs back and insists on talking this out with a drink. Just then, one of Lagna’s boys is entering The Retreat Bar and notices the couple looking rather friendly together. He runs to his car and drives away. Bannion takes Debby home to talk. As she scans the apartment, she comments, “Hey, I like this, early nothing!” Debby says she used to get worked over, but not since being with Vince Stone. She tells him sometimes he can be a good guy, but other times he can be a kink; you have to take the bad with the good. But Bannion stares at her, “Is the good, good enough?” Debby takes a drink and answers him, “Clothes, travel, expensive excitement … what’s wrong with that?” Still looking deadly serious, Bannion counters, “Nothing if you don’t care where his money comes from.” Debby says she has been rich and poor, and rich is better. “You think I was an heiress or something before I met Vince?” Debby states. She asks for a refill of her drink.

Bannion asks about Larry, who works at The Retreat. Debby claims to know lots of Larrys but can’t place the one Bannion wants. “This one was a friend of Vince Stone’s. The cop asks why Debby came up to his apartment. “Why don’t we call it research or something?”

Bannion asks, "What are you to Vince Stone?" and she comments that Dave isn’t very romantic, trying to change the subject. "You’re as romantic as a pair of handcuffs. Didn’t you ever tell a girl something pretty … like she has hair like the west wind, eyes like deep pools, skin like velvet." Dave drifts away, obviously thinking about his late wife, and says, "I’ll put you in a cab.” Debby, looking concerned, asks if she said something wrong. Dave pauses and replies, no. She asks, “You really want me to go?” and Dave mutters, “I wouldn’t touch anything of Vince Stone’s with a ten-foot pole.” Debby, disappointed, counters with, "That’s a rotten thing to say,” as she leaves.

Returning home, Debby finds her husband and friends playing poker. When Vince calmly asks where she’s been, he immediately suspects she’s lying. She claims that, while she is refreshing her lips, Bannion hates her. Then Vince reveals that Debby was with Bannion, but she doesn’t seem worried. Vince then twists her arm, causing her to scream and alert the other poker players. Vince calls her a pig, looking around. He picks up a boiling pitcher of coffee and throws it in her face, causing Debby to scream. Vince tells one of the poker players, Inspector Higgins, to take her to the doctor’s. He then immediately contacts Lagana about the incident, who says Debby is now their problem and that he wants her to disappear.

Bannion is awakened from his sleep by Debby Marsh, who says she’s been hurt. She enters with bandages covering half her face, looking embarrassed. “Vince threw hot coffee in my face. I’m going to be scared. The whole side of my face has a big scar.” She runs to sit in a chair, crying uncontrollably. Bannion asks her where Stone is. She says Higgins, the police Commissioner, took her to a doctor, not Vince. She begs to stay because her life is clearly in danger. Dave asks who was at the game, and Debby mentions a city councilman, a lawyer, and Larry Gordon. Bannion immediately focuses on Larry Gordon. Dave calls to reserve another room on this floor for a friend and asks that it not be registered. Debby says the man you asked about was imported from Chicago by Vince. Dave suggests having another doctor check Debby over, and she comments, “I guess the scar isn’t so bad, it’s only on one side. I can always go through life sideways!” Debby then tells Bannion where Larry’s apartment is.

Larry Gordon is in his apartment, loading his gun into his robe pocket as the door buzzes. The crippled woman who helped Bannion earlier knocks on Larry’s door to see if he’s home, and Bannion waits on the other side. The doorbell buzzes again, and Larry slowly answers, Bannion slugging the killer in the face, causing Larry to fall to the ground. Bannion orders him to get up, half-dragging him to his desk. Slowly, Larry reaches behind for his pistol, while Bannion lifts his coat pocket to show he is armed. Dave exerts physical pressure to admit that Vince hired him to kill Bannion. Dave asks about Debby. Is she involved? Bannion pulls out his revolver and tells Gordon that he is a squealer, and I’ll let all the criminal world know. Then the cop exits the apartment.

In the next scene, Vince is talking to Laganga, telling him he shot several shells into Gordon and dumped him in the river. When asked about Debby, Vince says she doesn’t worry him, but Bannion does. “Don’t make me the fall guy, Mike, I’m no Larry Gordon!” Lagana answers him, “The reformers would be delighted to hear us accusing each other. We both made mistakes, but the point is to correct them.” Vince immediately wants Bannion at the bottom of the river with Larry. But Mike is leery of that plan, saying that anything Bannion knows, if written down, would become public and everybody would know. Mike says, "We don’t kill him. Take something Bannion values more than himself, and we keep him quiet.”

At that moment, Mrs. Duncan calls Mike to say Bannion is at her front door. What should she do? Mike tells her he’ll handle it and advises her to stall him for now. Mrs. Duncan finally lets the vengeful cop into her house. “Furniture the same … nothing’s been changed … you haven’t started living high yet, have you? Your husband was on Lagana’s payroll; now you are. You must have written down all the facts and figures to hold Lagana still for blackmail. What did you do with it?” Mrs. Duncan smirks and claims she doesn’t know anything. Bannion accuses Duncan of reporting to Lagana about Lucy Chapman, who was having an affair with her husband, and of always helping Lagana maintain her comfortable lifestyle. Dave jerks her out of her chair and accuses her of blackmailing Lagana, saying that if anything bad happens, her husband’s suicide note becomes public. Dave pushes her against the fireplace, placing his hands on her shoulders. Bannion says, “But I’m not Lagana. What you did, the big heat follows—the big heat for Lagana, for Stone, for all the rest of their lives.

Suddenly, two policemen enter, asking what’s the matter. Mrs. Duncan says there’s no trouble, but ex-Sergeant Bannion will be leaving with you. Without incident, he departs, finally arriving at Debby’s small apartment, where she sits in the dark, avoiding life. Bannion requests more light, as he has brought her dinner. She inquires about Dave’s late wife, and Dave steps back. Debby says you don’t want to talk about her, at least with me. Then she asks if he found Larry. Dave says he hit a brick wall there, but he does have news about Mrs. Duncan. Her husband left her a million-dollar trust fund, leaving her with everything he knew about the syndicate. So Lagana pays her to keep quiet. Dave admits he almost killed her an hour ago, but Debby says you couldn’t, because then he would be just like Vince Stone.

An in-law phones to say the surveillance cops never showed up and that they aren’t coming back. Dave loads his gun in a panic and rushes to where his daughter Joyce is staying. As Bannion runs inside her apartment building, a supposed gangster steps up behind him with a gun. He forces Dave to go upstairs, the gun still at his back. But Dave quickly turns the tables on the thug. But promptly, Dave’s brother-in-law steps out of the apartment, saying the "hoodlum" is a friend guarding the apartment for him. An army of friends and relatives is present, watching over the apartment. As Dave leaves the building, two cop friends who aren’t in on the take show up to guard the apartment on their own time.

Debby is the latest person to ring Mrs. Duncan’s doorbell. She identifies herself and asks to see Duncan for a moment. Debby claims she and Mrs. Duncan feel very alike. Both women are wearing mink coats. “We’re sisters under the mink,” Debby says. Duncan picks up the phone and calls Vince Stone, telling him Debby isn’t well. Debbie insists she’s never felt better and then fires several rounds into Mrs. Duncan, killing her as she throws down the gun. Now, her husband’s suicide note will be made public. Next, Vince Stone returns to his apartment, only to have hot coffee thrown in his face, causing him to scream in pain and fall to his knees. Stepping out of the shadows, Debby tells Vince it will burn for a long time. She rips off her bandage, revealing a scarred half of her face. “In the morning, your face will look just like mine ... you’ll walk through side streets and alleys so people won’t stare." But Debby says it won’t last long because she’s blown the lid wide open. As she confidently heads to the door, Vince pulls his gun and shoots her twice. Bannion bursts in, guns blazing. Debby, still conscious, calls out to Dave as bullets tear through walls and furniture. Despite everything, the situation calms down as Dave tries to help Debby, who admits to killing Mrs. Duncan.

The gun battle rages on with gunshots ringing back and forth. At last, Vince runs out of bullets and tries to climb a ladder, but Bannion catches up to him. The coffee-burned Vince is lying on the ground, and Bannion points his pistol at him. Vince tells him to shoot. However, Bannion grows calmer and forces Vince to stand, pushing him into the living room, where his two cop friends enter, intervene, and take control. The ammo doctor steps in to help Debby, but it's too late. Near death, she asks Dave about his wife, and this time, he reveals everything about her. As Debby describes Katie more vividly, she turns her head and dies. Then a newspaper headline appears on the screen: “Lagana, Higgins indicted!” Dave returns to the police department, and everyone is happy. As he receives a call about his first case, Dave leaves the station, and everyone is excited for him. The closing credits roll.

"The Big Heat" is celebrated as a key film noir, known for introducing a greater level of violence to the genre. It features suicides, disfigurement by hot coffee twice, and a scene where a car with a woman inside is dynamited. The fistfights are very brutal, and the criminal activity is cold.

Dave Bannion is closely related to Clint Eastwood’s portrayal of "Dirty Harry,” although in a much softer way. Dave is a cop who isn’t corrupt and is generally seen as a police sergeant who sometimes crosses the line, ignoring certain aspects of the law. When his wife, Katie, is brutally murdered, Dave goes rogue, even quitting the force to do what must be done. When it comes to the law, no one knows who to trust, but Bannion can spot the rats instinctively.

Gloria Grahame is the most complicated character in the movie. To me, she is a multi-layered character, being Vince Stone's girlfriend. She appears from her first scenes to be a party girl and a floozy. But we gradually learn that she only compromises herself to live the so-called high life. She’s known for her shopping skills and other superficial talents. She happily says you have to take the good with the bad, with Vince sometimes showering her with wealth and at different times roughing her up. Coming from poverty, she sees her sacrifices as worth the overall good life she’s willing to make.

But at other times, her hidden intelligence emerges, mostly through her friendly relationship with Dave. She seems to know what to say and is sensitive to his feelings. She wants the cop to open up about his late wife, but the emotions are still too raw and recent to share. She is very grateful to him for offering her an apartment, but remains hesitant to discuss her criminal friends. However, her almost suicidal act of killing Mrs. Duncan is shocking, opening the door for her husband’s suicide note to be released and taking down the mob because of it. Beauty means too much in Debby’s world for her to live a fulfilled life as a facially scarred person. She recognizes her actions will lead to her death; there’s simply no way out for her. Still, she knows she is doing something important in her life that will have far-reaching positive effects for humanity.

The Big Heat features a strong cast, including Lee Marvin, in a remarkable early role. The depiction of the mob as a giant, tentacled monster reaching out to destroy good institutions by bringing them down from within illustrates the power of evil. But in Debby’s redemption, we see hope for society: people willing to sacrifice everything are a beacon of light in a dark, dark world.

VINCE STONE (LEE MARVIN) IS SCOLDED BY DEBBY MARSH, WHO IN TURN WAS SCARRED BY VINCE STONE.

DEBBY MARSH HAS HER FACE BANDAGED AFTER A POT OF BOILING COFFEE IS THROWN IN HER FACE