Review of The Big Heat (1953) by Kenneth M — 03 Jan 2008

Quite why Hollywood doesn't concentrate on turning out dozens of powerful, compact, brilliant thrillers like this, instead of vast, pointless, grandiose CG-filled meringues I don't know. Obviously, this was made with big stars and a big director, but today it surely stands as a lesson for low-budget film-makers who want to focus on plot, dialogue, characterisation and all the other things that modern studios consider largely unimportant.