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The pinnacle of German director Fritz Lang's long-underrated American work, The Big Heat is as intense and bleak a film as has ever come out of the Hollywood system. The brutal tale begins with a police officer's apparent suicide. Sergeant Bannion (Glenn Ford) is assigned to investigate, and the depth of corruption he uncovers is staggering. Mob bosses socialize with cops and high-ranking politicians; everyone, it seems, is on the take. Incorruptible, Bannion pushes on, but when he gets too close to the answer, his family must pay the ultimate price. Lang's control over his drama is impeccable, and the film moves toward its grim climax with a relentless, clockwork efficiency. The Big Heat also features a superb supporting cast. Lee Marvin shines in his chilling portrayal of a malevolent psychopath who, at one point, splashes a pot of scalding coffee over his girlfriend's face. And the luminous Gloria Grahame brings a touching vulnerability to her role as a reformed gangster's moll. Donald Gray
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In the film noir Five Against the House, five college students laughingly devise a perfect plan for robbing a casino in Reno. At first they do it just to pass the time, but one of them is deeply in debt and becoming increasingly distraught about it. He successfully cajoles his peers into carrying through with their plans. Director Phil Karlson strikes a balance between Brian Kieth -- as the troubled Korean War veteran Brick -- and Guy Madison, cast as the carefree and success-bound Al. Kim Novak also costars in one her earliest screen appearences. Sandra Brennan
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The Lineup, opens with a steamship docking in San Francisco. While one of the passengers, Philip Dressler (Raymond Bailey), waits for a cab after clearing customs, a baggage handler suddenly grabs one of his cases and throws it into a taxi, which takes off. In the ensuing getaway, a police officer is killed, but not before he gets off a shot that takes the fleeing cab driver's life. What Lieutenant Ben Guthrie (Warner Anderson) and Inspector Al Quine (Emile G. Meyer) can't figure out is why two men are suddenly dead within a matter of seconds, all for a seemingly inexplicable baggage snatch. The truth begins to come out when an examination reveals that a small ornamental statue in Dressler's case is loaded with half a million dollars in pure heroin. Then the bodies start turning up -- beginning with a baggage handler at the docks. Guthrie and Quine uncover a plan by a drug syndicate to use innocent, unsuspecting tourists visiting the Far East as unknowing drug couriers -- and now that the original method of retrieval at the docks has unraveled, thanks to the wheelman being an addict who got himself killed, another method is improvised.
Enter a pair of hitmen from out of town, Dancer (Eli Wallach), a soft-spoken psychopath with a perfect memory and not a trace of conscience, and his philosophical mentor and "handler," Julian (Robert Keith). Taken around San Francisco by their mob-employed driver, Sandy McLain (Richard Jaeckel), a juicehead who's not quite as good a wheelman as he thinks he is, the hitmen start collecting the latest shipment of heroin from three new arrivals: a ship's crew member who knows too much for his own good, a wealthy husband and wife, and a woman and her young daughter. They calmly go about their business, Dancer and his silenced pistol taking care of any "problems" while Julian runs interference and discusses issues of grammar and speech with him, and adds to his collection of "last words" from Dancer's victims -- until the last shipment turns up missing. It seems the little girl (Cheryl Callaway) found the bag of white powder hidden on the doll her mother bought her, and used it to powder the doll's face....Now Dancer and Julian have to disrupt the planned drop to "The Man" (Vaughan Taylor) to explain the short count, and to do that they have to keep the little girl and her mother (Mary Laroche) alive, at least long enough to tell their story. Meanwhile, Guthrie and Quine keep getting closer, following the trail of bodies and putting together a description of the two killers. But can they find them before the kidnapped mother and daughter join the other victims? Bruce Eder
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Claude (Vince Edwards) is an educated, respectable young man with a goal in life -- to buy a house that he has his eye on. But to do that on the money he makes in his office job could take 25 years, so he chooses to embark on a new profession, as an assassin willing to Murder by Contract. A cold-blooded, thoroughly professional killer, he does his work quickly and efficiently and establishes himself as a top trouble-shooter for the particular mob that employs him, even disposing of his immediate superior when he becomes a liability to the higher-ups. But then he takes a new contract to dispose of the key witness in a federal trial; he flies out to Glendale, CA, and meets the two local hoods, George (Herschel Bernardi) and Marc (Phillip Pine), who are supposed to show him the hit, and it takes their getting used to his methodical way of working, which includes days of seeing the sights and recreation just to see if they're being followed. All goes well until Claude discovers that the target he is to kill is a woman. As he explains, women are too unpredictable in their behavior, and this particular woman, Billie Williams (Caprice Toriel), a nightclub singer and pianist, is particularly erratic. Claude is almost ready to abandon the hit, but he doesn't want to walk out on a contract, especially as that could get him killed. He tries one basic method of assassination that's very clever but also too dependent on events he can't predict, and it fails; then he rigs a hit with George and Marc's help that seems letter-perfect and foolproof, until he discovers that it failed because of the intervention of someone -- another woman -- that no one could have predicted. Finally, he's forced to get Marc and George out of the way before they kill him, and he goes for the target once more. It's then that we discover the one serious chink in Claude's seemingly impervious, steely psychic armor. Bruce Eder
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The "regeneration" of blacklisted director Edward Dmytryk was expedited when he was hired by producer Stanley Kramer to helm the location-filmed melodrama The Sniper. In the interests of political expediency, Dmytrk was required to direct Adolphe Menjou, one of the most virulent Red-baiters of the HUAC hearings. Shorn of his trademarked mustache, and with his famous expensive wardrobe replaced by a humdrum business suit, Menjou turns in one of his best performances as a world-weary San Francisco detective assigned to track down a mad sniper. From the beginning, the audience knows that the criminal is psycho Eddie Miller (Arthur Franz), who is possessed of the notion that he must kill every beautiful brunette woman who crosses his path. Some audience sympathy is elicited by Miller's pathetic attempts to rid himself of his obsession, but this never gets in the way of the film's suspense. The excellent supporting cast includes Richard Kiley as a police psychiatrist, Marie Windsor as Miller's first victim, and Mabel Paige as the sniper's snoopy landlady. An unbilled Wally Cox shows up briefly. Hal Erickson
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Fritz Lang directed this gritty drama of gangland murder and police corruption, which was considered quite violent in its day. Dave Bannion (Glenn Ford) is a scrupulously honest police detective who learns that one of his fellow officers has committed suicide. Bannion is told by the officer's wife, Bertha (Jeanette Nolan), that he was severely depressed after being told he was diagnosed with a terminal illness. But the cop's mistress, a barmaid named Lucy (Dorothy Green), has another tale to tell. She claims that he left behind a suicide note detailing a complex trail of corruption in the department, leading to mob boss Mike Lagana (Alexander Scourby), and now Bertha plans to use the note to blackmail Lagana. When Lucy is found dead beside an abandoned road, with her body showing obvious signs of torture, Bannion is convinced that her story was true, and he goes after Lagana. When he threatens to expose Lagana's dealings, the gangster orders Bannion killed. But the car bomb meant to finish Bannion off instead kills his wife Katie (Jocelyn Brando). The police take Bannion off the case, but, convinced his peers are trying to cover their tracks, Bannion follows the case alone, determined to get revenge. Lee Marvin and Gloria Grahame shine in key supporting roles. Mark Deming
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