Big Combo [DVD] [1954] [US Import] [NTSC]

The Rough Guide to Film Noir rates this as one of the top-10 movies and I can only agree. But unfortunately the transfer is rather bad, sometimes as if taken by a worn out videotape, the soundtrack with weird noises. I've seen worse transfers (e.g. some of the Hitchcock releases) but still it's not good.

The Big Combo is directed by Joseph H. Lewis, written by Philip Yordan and photographed by cinematographer and noir icon John Alton. David Raksin scores the music and it stars Cornel Wilde, Richard Conte, Jean Wallace, Brian Donlevy, Lee Van Cleef & Earl Holliman. The story sees Wilde as Police Lt. Leonard Diamond who is on a personal mission to bring down sadistic gangster Mr. Brown (Conte). Something that's doubly perilous since he's infatuated with Brown's girlfriend, Susan Lowell (Wallace), who is trapped by the hold that Brown has on her.

Violent, dark and sexy, The Big Combo is a riveting experience from start to finish. In truth, Yordan's writing is pretty standard stuff here, but Lewis, Raksin and Alton really raise the bar in film noir atmospherics. From the nifty beginning where a blonde lady flees a darkened boxing match-pursued by two heavies-to the foggy airport conclusion, Lewis' movie revels in shifty shadows, shifty sexual motives and even shiftier characters. Upon its release the film caused something of a stir on account of its tricksy thematics, and that's not hard to believe since the film still comes off as potent even today. It's a film where what you don't see has the greater effect, and where suggestion is everything; for better or worse. One sexy scene involving Conte {stepping in when Jack Palance bailed} and Wallace so incensed Wilde, who was then married to Wallace, he tried to have it taken out the picture! Yes this is a ripper of a movie to be sure.

Set entirely at night time, in and amongst dimly lit back alleys, rain-sodden pathways and moody plush apartments, the piece gives Alton the chance to shoot his chiaroscuro magic. I can't state enough just how great his work is here, sexual urges are cloaked in a fatalistic sheen, nocturnal shenanigans briefly lit by the blink of some neon ray. Masterful. Away from the smart technical aspects (the cast are strong, the set pieces brisk too), the piece works great as a gangster movie, this in spite of there only being a small handful of crooks in the story. That the two henchmen {superbly underplayed by Cleef & Holliman} are evidently gay, just adds more sexual deviance into the sleazy norish stew. Gangsters, cops & society gals, all of them have a sense of doom hanging over them, to which they have the same things in common; that of blending violence with sex. Raw direction, moodily photographed and jazzily scored, The Big Combo is a big movie in the noir pantheon. 9/10

This 1955 film is interesting in so much as it depicts the "new" violence. There are some ugly scenes of torture which the censor didn't like at the time. Starring Cornel Wild and a very young Lee Van Cleef.
Worth a look if you're into this genre.