June 8 movie: The Big Heat. They must have been doing Fritz Lang day on TCM because I recorded & watched three of his movies in rapid succession. This was maybe the most famous of the three & probably also the most well-made. Really intense drama about a cop (Glenn Ford) seeking revenge against the gangsters who killed his wife. It's interesting because Ford is a "good guy" who's completely unsympathetic. He's relentless and courageous, and also self-righteous, needlessly violent, careless of the feelings and even the lives of others, in fact not caring about anything except his vendetta.
Sometimes when the main character is so, ah, complicated, I end up thinking "what, am I supposed to sympathize with that asshole?" and turning it off in disgust. I couldn't take my eyes off The Big Heat. Which had at least as much to do with Lee Marvin, the main gangster, and Gloria Grahame, his girlfriend. Marvin and Grahame have a white-hot intensity. Both turn in extraordinary performances. There's a scene of violence between them (spoiler: he throws a pot of boiling coffee in her face) that was so extreme I could have sworn it happened on camera, even though it didn't.
I highly recommend this movie if you like crime dramas, antiheroes, and good acting.
Coffee pot: Is that the scene with Marvin's character saying, "I love her. I don't even like you."?