Generally considered to be Lang's best postwar film, The Big Heat stars Glenn Ford as a police detective who engages in a personal crusade against organized crime and police corruption after his wife is killed by a car bomb. Ford gives a fine performance of inward obsession, and Gloria Grahame intelligently develops the two sides of the bad girl who takes Ford's part and then pays for it with hot coffee (tossed by Lee Marvin) disfiguring one half of her face. Few films of the fifties or any period are more ruthless and uncompromising in their observation of violence in American society. Yet, as in other Lang classics such as M, this violence is portrayed only through suggestion, achieving a powerful impact. “In this way,” Lang has said, “I force the audience to become a collaborator of mine; by suggesting something, I achieve...a greater involvement than by showing it...I show the result of violence.”