The Big Heat is a 1953 film noir directed by Fritz Lang, starring Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame and Lee Marvin. It is about a cop who takes on the crime syndicate that controls his city, after the murder of his wife. The film was written by former crime reporter Sydney Boehm, based on a serial by William P. McGivern, which appeared in the Saturday Evening Post and was published as a novel in 1953. The film was selected for inclusion in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 2011.