If you eliminated all the film noir releases with “big” in the title, you’d be left with maybe 23 movies. For one of the more famous in this trend, we go to 1953’s The Big Heat.

When police officer Tom Duncan dies, it appears to be an open-and-shut case of suicide. However, when Sgt. Dave Bannion (Glenn Ford) investigates, he learns about complications.

Duncan’s girlfriend Lucy Chapman (Dorothy Green) gives Bannion information that points toward police corruption. As he goes down a violent rabbit hole, Bannion winds up in a confrontation with powerful elements both criminal and among his own colleagues.

From acclaimed director Fritz Lang, Heat sets up a cynical world right off the bat. For instance, we meet a “grieving widow” who fakes it for an audience.

Lang maintains this tone from start to finish. That allows Heat a darkness and toughness that adds to its impact.

For those of us who grew up with 1978’s Superman, it remains difficult to see Ford as anything other than a gentle, wholesome father figure. Nonetheless, he handles the hard-bitten side of his role well.

The supporting actors offer solid work too. Lee Marvin provides a suitably psychotic turn as a mobster, and Gloria Grahame delivers a nice twist on the typical gangster’s moll.

Lang ensures that the plot moves at a good pace and also maintains the cynical darkness I mentioned earlier. Lang never really lets up on the audience, as even the seemingly sedate scenes with Bannion’s family bring twists eventually.

Heat enjoys a tight little story and Lang keeps his eyes on the prize as he focuses on Bannion’s investigation and the movie’s sleazy little world. This ends up as a terrific noir entry.

Footnote: a band at a club plays “Put the Blame On Mame”, a funny little nod toward Ford’s earlier film Gilda.

The Big Heat appears in an aspect ratio of 1.37:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The movie boasted a solid presentation.

Sharpness worked well throughout the movie. Any instances of softness remained minor, so the image stayed well-defined most of the time.

No issues with jagged edges or moiré effects occurred, and I saw no edge haloes. Print flaws also failed to become an issue, and grain felt natural.

Blacks appeared deep and dense, while shadows looked smooth and clear. The film consistently looked very good.

Though not as good, the movie’s LPCM monaural soundtrack appeared perfectly acceptable for its age. Speech generally came across as accurately rendered and lacked notable edginess or other issues.

Music and effects worked in similar ways, as they showed decent accuracy and lacked much distortion. Nothing here excelled, but the audio seemed more than satisfactory for the material and vintage.

As we shift to extras, we open with an audio commentary from film historians Alain Silver and James Ursini. They sit together for a running, screen-specific look at the source novel and its adaptation, story/characters, genre domains and censorship concerns, cast and crew, themes/interpretation and some production elements.

Overall, we get a pretty good chat here. Silver and Ursini touch on a solid array of subjects and make this an informative discussion.

We also find archival audio interviews with director Fritz Lang. From separate sessions conducted by film historian Gideon Bachmann and filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich, these span a total of 23 minutes, two seconds.

At 16 minutes, eight seconds, the Bachmann tape runs much longer than the six-minute, 54-second Bogdanovich chat. With Bachmann, Lang touches on aspects of his career in general, whereas with Bogdanovich, Lang digs into meatier thoughts about his work.

That makes the Bogdanovich chat the more valuable of the two despite its shorter length. Still, the Bachmann recording merits a listen as well.

A Video Essay from film critic Farran Smith Nehme goes for 28 minutes, 13 seconds and offers her view of the women featured in the movie. Nehme delves into these domains in a tight and informative manner.

We also locate Interviews with Filmmakers Martin Scorsese and Michael Mann that occupy a total of 16 minutes, 47 seconds. Scorsese talks for five minutes, 49 seconds, while Mann goes for 10 minutes, 58 seconds.

Both essentially offer an appreciation for Heat, albeit one that offers the sorts of insights we expect from veteran filmmakers. The two discussions add useful notes.

In addition to the film’s trailer, the set concludes with a booklet that includes photos, credits and an essay from author Jonathan Lethem. This finishes the release on a positive note.

From legendary director Fritz Lang, The Big Heat gives us a film noir classic. The movie seems unflinching and crisp. The Blu-ray comes with very good picture and appropriate audio as well as a decent mix of bonus materials. We get a dynamic thriller here.