Bad day at black rock
A mysterious one armed man (spencer tracy) arrives at the sleepy town of Bad Rock. Almost immediately he's greeted with hostility by the locals, especially Reno smith (Robert Ryan) & his thugs Hector david (lee Marvin) & Coley Trimble (ernest Borgnine). The tension escalates when its reveaaled he's looking for a man named Komoko. It becomes apparent to the one armed man the locals are hiding a dark secret and that he may not be allowed to leave Black rock alive.
A mixture of film noir & western, Bad day at black rock is a masterclass of supense and generating tension. Its economic running time ( a little over 80 minutes) means things never get dull and Tracy's attempts to get assistance from the weak willed sherriff plays a little like high noon. I'm sure a lot of people here have seen it already but if you haven't then I'd happily reccomend it.
The Big Heat
Investigate the apparent suicide of a police officer, Detective Dave Bannion (Glenn ford) digs a little too deep and uncovers a web of corruption that seems to have infected the whole city. At the webs centre is local kingpin kingpin Mike Lagana and his brutal henchman Vince Stone (Lee Marvin again).
Bannion is warned off and when he ignores it his wife is killed with a car bomb. Tipping over the edge the hard boiled cop is driven by hate to take Lagana down at any cost.
Big heat is about as hard boiled as they come. Directed by Fritz Lang, its a tough, lean and mean thriller with some surpising brutality for a film of its age. So much so its still a 15 cert today, a lot of it stems from Marvin's character stone who has no compunctions about beating or even disfiguring women who anger him. Marvins performance is so spot on here that he threatens to steal every scene he's in. The infamous hot coffee scene is still as shocking as when it was made. Glenn Ford is a little stiff but plays it mostly well. The burning anger and frustation is evident in his eyes and watching him go almost completely over the edge is thrilling stuff.
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