The Big Heat (1953) is director Fritz Lang’s landmark bleak, film noir crime classic and violent melodrama. Lang’s characteristic expressionistic lighting, use of sets and decor, and costuming sharply reflected the personality traits of the film’s major characters. The sparse screenplay of a potent story laced with revenge, murder, and hate was written by former crime reporter Sidney Boehm and based on a Saturday Evening Post serial and the hard-hitting, brutal 1952 novel by William P. McGivern.