Heißes Eisen (1953)

Heißes Eisen: Directed by Fritz Lang. With Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, Jocelyn Brando, Alexander Scourby. Tough cop Dave Bannion takes on a politically powerful crime syndicate.

“An honest, family man cop with a wife and daughter is put onto the investigation of another copu0026#39;s suicide. He closes the case as suicide due to ill health. However when a women tells him another story and is promptly killed, Bannion just investigates further to find that powerful criminals and powerful politicians share the same table at dinner. When his family is split in an attack meant for him he loses his job and becomes bitter – he starts to become more like his enemies as he pursues them.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis is a hardboiled thriller that would still stand up today as a tough film – violence and attitudes that make it feel more modern than it is. The story follows the descent of family man Bannion into violence and bitterness when he not only loses what is important to him, but when he finds that corruption at high levels has fed down into rank and file officers causing him to stand out when he tries to catch a criminal.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe brutality of this film shouldnu0026#39;t be underestimated – Fritz Lang is no softy! Here we have women beaten and killed, we have sex crimes, we have a women disfigured by scalding coffee in her face. Of course all these things are unseen but this was the 50u0026#39;s! However it is still powerful and adds to the intensity of the film. The story may well have been done many times now – but imagine seeing something like this back then!u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe cast are great. Ford descends into bitterness really well and seems at ease as both thug and family man. The female cast are good in different ways but the one that catches the eye is a young Lee Marvin. I suspect Marvin got fame because his coffee attack stuck in peopleu0026#39;s minds – even today he is best know as a tough guy in the movies.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOverall this is well worth hunting out – it is still being copied by many video thrillers and it just goes to show that you donu0026#39;t have to show gory or graphic violence on screen to be powerful, gritty or shocking.”