We undertook to restore The Big Heat and Human Desire, the only two films Fritz Lang made for Columbia Pictures, several years ago and recently completed both. The problems with the original negative for The Big Heat were much more complicated when compared to the problems with Human Desire. The Big Heat required more extensive restoration. In addition to the sections of the original negative exhibiting abrasions, chemical stains and imbedded dirt in the emulsion, there were two other areas of main concern: numerous torn frames and long sections of physical decomposition. Extensive hand-cleaning helped to remove much of the damage from the original material, but for the torn and decomposed sections, the determined source for replacement was a Fine Grain Master Positive made in 1956. Because most of the damage, and all of the decomposition, occurred to the original negative after the fine grain was manufactured, this element provided good results for creating duplicate negative replacements. A new duplicate negative was made in 1999 from the 1956 fine grain. Used as a B-roll negative for printing in complement with the original negative, over twenty sections of the damaged original were successfully replaced with the new duplicate.

Grover Crisp, Sony Columbia